Search - Various Artists :: New MCs (Fat Beats & Brastraps: Women of Hip-Hop)

Compiler Zenobia Simmons selected her favorite new female rappers from the mid 1990s and ended up with an inconsistent but occasionally dazzling selection of underground hits, curious guest shots, middling poetry, and spectacular verbal pyrotechnics. Bo$$'s jugular-ripping "Deeper" and Mia X's "Payback II" are savage bad-girl spiels, mobbin' as steady as anyone else you can name. But where the disc shines is in its digging up of little-known tracks--particularly from the San Francisco area and out-of-the-way scenes--such as the Project Blowed jam "Heavyweights Round 2" and a salvaged treat from Sha-Key's barely known album. And T-Love and Shorty No Mas, both Simmons favorites who turn up here, deserve a lot more exposure than they've had. --Douglas Wolk