There are two types of comeback albums. The first is an attempt at reinvention, of bringing the attention of a new (and most likely younger) audience to an older artist, à la
Gwen Stefani,
Nelly Furtado, or even
the Black Eyed Peas. The second, instead, tries to change nothing, and instead works to prove that the artist's original style is what should have been, and what should still be listened to. It is the latter method that
Rah Digga takes with
Classic, released a decade after her debut,
Dirty Harriet, following the same boasting, witty rhymes that made her such a storied member of
Busta Rhymes'
Flipmode Squad, and even going so far as reenlisting
Nottz for full production duties. It's not a bad approach:
Rah is as clever as she's always been, rhyming about "trending topics" on Twitter ("Viral"), "Gucci fleece sweaters" ("Who Gonna Check Me Boo"), making people "drop to their knees/Friday at the mosque" ("You Got It"), and moving from "the projects to the runways" ("Feel Good"). She's fun, a little bit aggressive, and smart, so despite the fact she's never been much of an introspective MC (and doesn't change that here), the album still bounces and flows and moves well enough that when it's over, you want to put it on again. Still, her adherence to this style can get a bit tedious when her rhymes themselves fall short. "This Ain't No Lil' Kid Rap" is saved only by
Nottz's dark and go-goey beat (the producer, it must be noted, is excellent all around, not only on the aforementioned track, but also "Viral," which incorporates the pinging of IMs and texts and a vaguely "breaking news alert" keyboard line, and "You Got It," which plays a bit with
Eric B. & Rakim's "I Know You Got Soul" without sounding anything like it), while "Solidified" is just boring, with nearly unforgivable lines like "you a midget trying to alley-oop past Shaq." It sounds even worse coming after the very excellent "Classic," which uses a simple, effective boom-bap beat and has
Rah spitting her best rhyme of the album: "Classic, I'm so not the average/Hoodrat from Nazareth, vote for the maverick/Top gun, not one of them see D-I/G-G-A, all them CGI/Chopped in Photoshop, they not in my caliber." It is lines like these, though, that redeem the ones that fall short, that make you remember why people liked Rashia Fisher so much, and that make
Classic a welcome return for a talented MC. ~ Marisa Brown