When Lady Tigra was 18 years old, she and best friend Bunny D formed the charismatic Miami Bass duo L'Trimm. Their spunky energy and a Top 40 hit "Cars That Go Boom" forever endeared them to fans of fun club music and vibrating subwoofers. Now, 20 years later, Tigra sounds perfectly in synch with the female disciples of Eighties-reminiscent beat music. While acts such as M.I.A. and Santogold ride an upsurge of bouncy rhythm music that's not resigned to hip-hop's cadence or often serious tone, the door is wide open for Lady Tigra to re-enter the scene.
She seizes this moment with a wide breadth of styles. The title track skitters on a shuffling beat, ultimately revealing itself a plea for music's redemptive power. Her Haitian-French heritage comes through in shout-spoken French lyrics in "Cauchemars," and The Lady doth protest any female competition in claws-bared standoffs such as "Switchblade Kitty." And lots of dance floors will surely be grabbing onto bubbly classic-sounding cuts like "Bass on the Bottom."
Tigra, however, speaks from a deeper plane than the surface braggadocio of hip-hop. In "They Stole My Radio," she and a true queen of the genre, MC Lyte, lament the disappearance of real, personal radio. It's another of Lady Tigra's special skills: a mature, somber look at the music world around her.
