It’s About Time for Some Pure Rhyme

Hip-hop’s thematic emphasis on materialistic spoils has all but banished rap’s more original and wide-ranging lyricists. That might change with Rah Digga’s debut album (due in stores Tuesday), an 18-song collection that reasserts the appeal and value of pure verbal acrobatics.

The husky-voiced, New Jersey-based artist, who recorded with the Fugees in 1996 and is a member of the Busta Rhymes-helmed Flipmode Squad, makes most of her points with her humorous punch lines. Where Lil’ Kim, Foxy Brown and like-minded female rappers raise eyebrows with racy sexual themes, Digga grabs your attention with her wit and humor. On her underground hit “Tight,� she declares that her rhyme skills are “hotter than the region of Ghana,� and on the bare-bones “What They Call Me,� she proclaims, “I be next to rep like Al Gore.�

Digga injects only smidgens of social commentary and inspirational verse into her work, but she doesn’t need to be a crusader to accomplish her mission as an entertainer. The beats backing Digga are dramatic and cinematic, adding force to her hard-hitting rhymes. But the album’s lengthy interludes--a trademark of Busta Rhymes-assisted projects--are unnecessary and interrupt the record’s flow.

*

Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two (fair), three (good) and four (excellent).