Rah Diggah: Singer & Songwriter
February 2000
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Rah Diggah (R): 1991 ... Rah Diggah teams up with female Cuchia and we form Twice The Flava. I would consider us the female EPMD of that time.
VV: Was it just a local thing in your own town?
R: Yeah, it was pretty much local. We actually were introduced to each other through the Ruler Lord Ramsey who was part of the Flava Unit and she had another partner and I was a solo artist. We tried to ... we became a group of three but like ... That wasn't happening. We were called the Around the Way Girls, The Three Girls so ... (a) career span real short. So ultimately we dropped the third person and it just became me and this female and we became Twice The Flava.
VV: What was the next step after that?
R: The next step after that was Twice The Flava meeting the Outsidaz, which is Young Z, Pace Won, Loonz, Slang, rest in peace Slang, As Is. It wasn't as many Outsidaz back then as it is now, a lot of them just started rapping over the years. We met them around the way. Actually me and my partner met Young Z first, and we were on a bus and he had his little Walkman on and he was sitting there writing a rhyme and we were laughing at him like, yo he kinda looks like Pete Rock. Then he took off his headphones and was like, yo what-what ... What you talking 'bout?
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R: Yeah, and it was bug 'cuz we were like, yeah we rhyme too. Later on he told me that he didn't really think we seriously rhymed. But we just so happened to bump into him later on that day and he had DU with him ... So it must be fate now and we got the cypher going ... you know how the cypher goes, we took a trip to the liquor store and ya DA DA played him my demo and it was like yo!
VV: Was that the turning point where things got serious and it became more...?
R: Nah, it was serious from the gate. It was always serious, if anything I just got the opportunity to meet other people who were just as serious about it as myself so it gave me even more fire to just blaze.
VV: Did you work on anyone's records at that point?
R: Well, my first actual venture as far as putting something out was with the Lyricist Lounge compilation in ' 94. Me and Chia had a joint called Massive Dope and it got a lot of response. That actually became my most infamous verse of that time. It was that verse that I used to run around freestyle everywhere. That was the verse that I think made a lot of MC's, especially males, look at me more serious like Yo!, did you hear the rhyme she said about ... she rhymed thousand and ShaoLin and like ... hahaha
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R: Not really. No, because at that point we were a group: both of us had our strengths and weaknesses and together we complimented each other. I personally feel like she reminded me of an Eve. She was the girly-rowdy on a girly level and I was rowdy on a dude level. I had the rough gruff voice and she's shouting, ladies, and it was like we complimented each other. We separated in '95 and that's when I started making songs for Dolo. Come '96 I teamed up with the Fugees on Cowboys. That was actually something that just kinda landed in my lap because the call actually came to Young Z 'cuz he was touring with the Fugees. It just so happened that me and Pace and Z were all riding together.. 'cuz you know back in the dayz there was only hoopty in the posse like you can't take the car and go nowhere without everybody... so we all eventually ended up at the Fugees studio and the next thing I know me and Lauryn was in our corner writing, and Wyclef and Pace was in their corner and Praz and Z were in their corner. Then the joint was on the album. I didn't even know it was going on the album. And Forte wasn't even there recording it with us. It wasn't until after the album was out that I heard it and I was like okay ... This is beautiful! But the Fugees then weren't the Fugees now so back then it was just, oh let's do a joint with the next local MC's around the way ... but who knew 24 million records later.
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VV: Didn't
you have your own deal or own record at one point before?
R: I was a signed artist on Elektra, I signed in ' 96, and I was
actually on Elektra through a production deal ... Thank you Q-Tip. And
things started getting rocky so I was basically in limbo because any administrative
dealings were up to Q-Tip. So now that he's not the middle man anymore
and I didn't have any relationships with any people directly at Elektra,
it was like me over here and them over there. So finally my manager, A.
Blitz, shouts out to Brooklyn Entertainment, he was friends with Busta
and he used to visit Busta in the studio and let him hear some of my solo
songs.
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So Busta called my
house one day to tell me, and I was pregnant at the time ... I was pregnant
when I I did Cowboys, when I signed to Elektra, when I performed at the
Lyricist Lounge ... and I didn't believe it was Busta. I was asleep and
I was pregnant and I'm not trying to hear nobody on my phone talking 'bout
they are Busta Rhymes so I hung up on them like I don't care whose Rhymes
you bust.. So my manager called me back ten minutes later: mad as hell,
talking 'bout, man what you doing? I just spent all this time up here
playing joints and you gonna hang up on him?!
So I think that kinda clicked with him. I didn't jump on groupie status
and that kinda helped him establish a little love for me, like I can obviously
tell by her joints that she's serious about MC'n and she keeps it real.
So he let me get on a When Disaster Strikes album We Can Take It Outside,
a Flipmode joint, and I wasn't officially a Flipmodian at that point and
that was like a blessing to me. That was my third chance of being put
out there on somebody's wax. I just ran with the ball, it was like I got
the opportunity to be on Flipmode and I gotta shout to Busta because being
an artist himself, it's hard being an artist and it's hard having to focus
on other artists as well and I can honestly say I've never felt more comfortable
about leaving my project in the hands of another MC because I know that
he allows me as many opportunities as he gets and he's not selfish or
stingy with the shine.
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R: Right now I am proudly finished with a solo LP titled Dirty Harriet. It was a long time coming with several attempts. I've been working on this album since before the Flipmode Imperial album, but if you're a thoroughbred MC ... You're always gonna record. Nothing from back then is on the album now but I'm just one of those people that never stops work. Lord Have Mercy was actually scheduled to come out before me but Busta Rhymes had given me a beat tape and I went into my pre-production studio and I made a song out of it and brought it back to the studio and I was like look ... I don't need a recording budget to work, I just work like that. And everybody was so gassed with the song that they just opened up my budget immediately and from that point on I've been working. I got the opportunity to work with great producers and as long as I can remember rhyming, I wanted a beat from Primo so it was like this was it, my chance to shine: my dream come true.
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R: Just a quick note to any MC's, particularly female MCs coming up in the game: I want y'all to know that this is definitely an easy industry to get caught up in and before you come into the game you have to have a deep understanding of yourself. Just recognize what you want to represent and how you want to present yourself to the world because there are outside influences that will detour you and lead you astray if you're not strong in your spot. And for those of you that are strictly thugged out thouroughbred MC's doing it ... don't be intimidated by all the glamour and the glitz, it's something that has to get done but you'll love it. You don't have to worry about changing your style or flippin' your script or about being accepted. It's just a matter of presenting yourself, loving yourself , and knowing that you can come out and be a thouroughbred female MC marketing straight lyrics without exploiting yourself so ...
Interviewer: Lee Evans
Camera: Lee Evans
Photos & Transcription: Lee Evans
Editor: Catherine Lee
© 1999, 2000 Evans Media Group, Inc.