MC Lyte has one of the rap game's most storied careers. The Brooklyn rhymer has been a standard-bearer for decades: she set the mold for high-profile women in Hip-Hop. Since the late 1980s, the woman born Lana Moorer has created a standard. Standing on the shoulders of women like Angie Stone, Sha Rock and Roxanne Shante, MC Lyte's debut album Lyte As A Rock was nonetheless a first for a female rapper and in the era of Yo! MTV Raps, Lyte would emerge at the forefront of a new wave that included Queen Latifah, Monie Love and Yo-Yo.

She's never looked back; and she's worked with everyone from Janet Jackson to Common to Sinead O'Connor. She's done everything from boom bap to new jack swing. But we had to whittle that tremendous catalog down, so here are the 25 dopest songs from MC Lyte.