New Jersey female emcee Rah Digga is back after a decade long absence from the hip-hop world with a killer new album, appropriately titled Classic (Raw Koncept Media Group/Traffic). Early on in her rap career (mid 1990s) the artist born Rashia Fisher was part of the NJ based crew called The Outsiders. Even earlier (during the Das EFX era), she was known as Rah Diggity before settling on the rap name Rah Digga. Up until now, she had not been heard from since her acclaimed debut album, Dirty Harriet, dropped in 2000. 

Formerly the First Lady of the Flipmode Squad, and known by many for her collaborations with that collective's main man, Busta Rhymes (she first appeared on his second solo record, 1997's When Disaster Strikes), Rah Digga's career actually dates back some years before that connection.

For her long delayed sophomore album, which was released in mid September, she enlisted the production skills of Nottz, who had produced five tracks on Dirty Harriet. On Classic he handles all the production duties and in so doing brings out the very best in the Brick City (Newark , NJ) emcee on tracks such as the lead single "This Ain't No Lil Kid Rap." The video for this song is below and you can also listen to a remix version of the song featuring Redman right here.

I recently caught up with Rah Digga to ask her about her career, including why the long gap between her two albums and why she is making a comeback at this time. "Well, for me, I never really stopped recording but I was recording more at my leisure. And as the dawn of the ten year anniversary of Dirty Harriet started approaching I just started reaching out to different producers that I had worked with on the first album," she said. She ended up working with Nottz, with whom she says she has "a great chemistry" and notes, "Our chemistry is so crazy that once we got in the studio I basically just stayed there. And so the whole album was recorded in just two weeks."

While making the documentary My Mic Sounds Nice: A Truth About Women in Hip Hop, which premieres on BET tonight at 10pm, what surprised director Ava DuVernay most was "the vulnerability of the women," citing one in particular, the Lady of Rage. "You think of emcees as invincible on the mic and my view of Lady of Rage is always in "Afro Puffs" [video below] and she's got her leather jacket, and she's grabbing the mic, and she's killing it, and Snoop's to the right and Dre's to the left," said the LA based director, who herself started out as an emcee. "But then when you sit down with her [Lady of Rage] she's just, she's a woman. She's a sweet, kind of vulnerable artist who talks about her journey in a really transparent, beautiful way. And I found that again and again and again, whether it was Salt n Pepa or [MC] Lyte or YoYo or Rah Digga, that they are emcees but they are also women. So it was really just sitting down woman to woman and having some really great conversations and I think I was surprised by that. I was more prepared for the emcee side but I saw more of the sister side."

As a filmmaker, DuVernay came to critical acclaim with her 2008 feature debut, the documentary about the Good Life cafe in LA where coincidentally she began her own hip-hop career on the mic. Titled This is the Life, the excellent documentary won a slew of awards at various film festivals, was released theatrically, played on Showtime, and was one of the featured films in last year's Amoeba Music Monday Movies series at Space 15Twenty near the LA Amoeba store. The success of This is the Life led to many things for DuVernay, including her two-hour concert documentary on New Orleans' Essence Music Festival that aired on TV One over the weekend, and tonight's BET documentary, which includes interviews with such artists as Missy Elliott, MC Lyte, Trina, The Poetess, Roxanne Shante, Salt n Pepa, Eve, YoYo, Lady of Rage, Jean Grae, and Rah Digga.

Heads up on the Kiki & Herb show coming soon (or rather returning) to San Francisco, scheduled to open Friday July 13th at the A.C.T. on Geary with tix starting at only $12 and going up to $45. My advice is get 'em now while you can -- especially at the cheaper end prices -- before reviews get out on this side-splittingly hilarious duo's show that makes its way back to the Bay from New York City where the cabaret comedy duo with a punk attitude got nominated for a Tony after their successful Broadway show. The talented duo started out in San Francisco in the early nineties before taking their cabaret drag act East a few years later.

I recently caught their most current show at Joe's Pub in New York where they did about a month of Sunday nights. Before going, I honestly had no idea what they would be like. I just knew that the show, in which Kiki (Justin Bond) and Herb (Kenny Mellman), was some sort of irreverent drunken drag comedy musical live show -- but frankly, that description sells it short -- way short. What it was, is one of the most entertaining, quick-witted, satirical-comedic, music-based stage performances I have ever witnessed. It was one of those perfectly crafted performances that is so smoothly delivered that it comes off as totally improvised, which it is not, and the ninety minutes or so of the show zipped by like it was only 20 minutes. Brilliant! Check this review of their Broadway show from the New York TImes.

AFFORDABLE SF ARTIST EXPO: It might seem hard to recall a time when artists exchanged ideas and information (images, sounds, videos, etc.) not via laptops, Blackberrys, or iPhones, but in person. It was really not that long ago. In fact, when the Expo for the Artist & Musician started back in the year 2000, there was no MySpace or YouTube and while most individuals had Email addresses and/or websites, the digital age wasn't in the progressive state it is in today. Regardless, then or now, nothing beats that personal touch -- especially when it comes to artists literally reaching out and meeting other artists and sharing ideas in a common physical space. And that is exactly what the affordable, recommended annual Expo for the Artist & Musician does. It is only $25 to secure a table at the event, which happens on Saturday, September 15th (11AM - 6PM) at SomArts 934 Brennan. Click right here for more info.