Lady of Rage

Real Name: Robin Evette Allen D.O.B.: (Unknown by author)

The Lady of Rage is a west coast rapper best known for her contribution to Death Row Records. Signed as the first female MC, she has been noted on several collaborations with fellow Inmates including Snoop Dogg on his début, Doggystyle blockbuster album. Dr. Dre discovered her in Farmville, Virginia, and she soon appeared on “They Come in All Colors” (The L.A. Posse, 1991) and then had a hit single with “Afro Puffs”. Her debut solo album, Necessary Roughness, was released in June of 1997. Incidentally she has also been a hairdresser to members of Tha Dogg Pound before video shoots and live performances.

Young Robin was raised by her grandmother, Clara in Farmville, Virginia under strict conditions. Come nightfall she was to be inside the house, was not allowed to wear make-up or see boys socially. Perfect settings for a breakout personality we would witness in her future. For now life was quite estranged and repressed for Robin. By the age of six it became apparent she was carrying strong traits of mental instability. A bizarre example came one summer afternoon in the basement of her grandmother’s home. Robin prepared soft drinks for her gathered friends, asking if they would like candy in their drinks. A resounding yes had her pouring rat poison in each drink, with the most in hers. One friend screeched and spilled out the drink exclaiming it was not candy, but rather rat poison. Robin’s friends fled the basement screaming. When parents came to confront her about her actions, Robin was already admitted into hospital for stomach pumping. Doctors were shocked at this behaviour… One year later she was filling in spare time writing poetry. Other instances came watching Shazam/Secrets of Isis and believing she was flying with her feet reaching five to six feet off the floor, soon after she moved to Houston, Texas to live under her mother’s supervision.

At the age of twelve she tried to commit suicide with Tylenol and a second time with more pills much to her mother’s disbelief. A third attempt came back in Virginia with Ortho weed killer until a friend slapped her out of it. Later in her teenage years her grandfather instilled the discipline back into her much like Clara’s. By 1985 she entered the Job Corps in San Marcus and got a job in butchery where she stayed for two years. Soon after this she fell into a crowd of misguided aspiring musicians where upon she entered a regional talent show. She jumped onstage and proceeded to perform her very first impromptu rap. She saw a light into her future and continued this interest further befriending another female rapper. Soon after her return to her grandfather’s residence she decided the pair should move out to New York City to pursue a recording contract. Rage remarked they could hitchhike their way to New York considering the danger she decided she would sit in the backseat with a pistol for safety. Her friend declined this plan leaving Rage in Houston. Her mission to New York was undeterred as she took a job in Arkansas at McDonalds saving up money for her trip, this time solo.

Rage’s first day in the Big Apple she came across Beverly Goodman, mother of Chic performer Nile Rodgers. Beverly heard her rap and offered her a spot on a public service announcement promoting AIDS awareness. By 1991 she appeared before the west coast production outfit, LA Posse rhyming out two tracks for the group on their album, They Come in All Colors. Unfortunately things took a dive for Rage when performances came to a stagnant pause and finances soon followed. She was homeless, living for nine months in the Chung King recording studios in downtown Manhattan, home to the early Def Jam production of Run DMC and LL Cool J’s work. Rage would bathe herself using boiled water from a coffeepot in the bathroom. She resorted to begging, borrowing, sleeping through meals and tried earnestly to keep her clothes neat and clean. This made her question her dreams of becoming a high-paid rapper. One day Big Daddy Kane entered the studio and asked for her address, she replied, “That couch you’re sitting in.”

Lady of Rage finally had her second break when she met Select records rapper, Chubb Rock who seemed impressed with her talent had promised to produce her album right after he completed his project with label mate Roxanne and finished her tour. However he let Rage live in his apartment while he was away. Upon his return she was straight back to Chung King’s couch. Here Rage received the true blessing in a phone call from a young, brash record executive from the west coast, Suge Knight who had been in company of the LA Posse. They had just played Dr. Dre her contribution on two tracks who also asked for a contact number for her. They gave over the Chung King studio phone number, knowing she would be there to receive the call. Dre phoned and invited her out to California to appear on his début solo album. Suspicious of the person on the other end of the call, Dre sent over an air ticket with her name on it. Before Rage left the east coast, she told Dre she had to repay a phone bill to her grandmother, Suge promptly sent out a cheque to cover it. She kept in contact with Chubb Rock who advised her to be careful as he was sceptical of her putting her career on the back of Dre’s supposed planned solo success. Rage remained weary for her own professional well-being whilst in the company of Death Row Records. Landing in Cali’ Rage was confronted with swarming people, strange faces, but no-one there to welcome her or lead her to the Death Row studios. She had made friends with a small-time rap click on the flight over, Leader of the New School who offered for her to stay with them in their hotel. After a day or so in their suite, Rage contacted Suge Knight who came by and picked her up outside the hotel and took her to see Dre. Her first impression of the hulking man whose reputation often preceded him was of an imperious but cool boss. She met Dre in the studio and the pair had always got on well with each other even through tense moments of distrust. Rage would blow up at Dre when he asked to contact other rap groups to sign even though it was apparent to her he had no time to offer for her album project. Suge intervened and told her she is part of the family and together they would all wait, and together they would get paid. Rage’s relationship with Dre was of a brother-sister love. Initially she was told she would be the label’s first solo undertaking, before the introduction of the ultra-cool megastar Snoop Dogg and his Dogg Pound and R&B Jewell who all stepped over Rage to the front of the label’s attention. Her persistence was wearing thin but she breathed on pure optimism for her own payday. Chubb was in Los Angeles four months after her signing and asked if she had started her album yet. After hearing no he urged to follow him back to New York to join his label and get the album she had been salivating for. She refused clinging onto her benefactors’ word.

By 1992 Dr. Dre had unleashed his first solo record which became Death Row’s opening act for the stars under the label, including Rage who appeared on five of the last six tracks of Dre’s multi-platinum hotcake ‘The Chronic’. This was soon followed up two years after Rage’s first contact with Death Row with Snoop Dogg’s debut which allowed Rage to perform on two cuts. The album was a major commercial success surpassing Dre’s debut record. The Death Row family was eating well off these first two solo ventures, yet the Lady of Rage was still trodden further down the list of priority for album productions. Her optimism persisted. One year later for the soundtrack to Tupac’s movie ‘Above the Rim’ she released her first single ‘Afro Puffs’ referring to her hairstyle in which she had bunched her afro into two distinct mickey-mouse hat-like puffs atop her head. A look she became synonymous with within the Death Row family. The single was co-written by Dogg Pound’s Daz, produced by Dre himself and released September 6th, 1994 and within a year she performed this at the 1995 Source Awards alongside her family members who each entered the stage from behind single prison cells to perform their hits. This still remained her only flowering within the label, with no album prospect in sight.

Finally in 1997, a year that saw Death Row at its lowest point with every major star having left the Row due to a growing hostile environment within the so-called family. The 13-track‘Necessary Roughness’ was co-produced by Rage, Kurupt and Kenny Parker and released June 24th, 1997 on Death Row Records. On July 12th, 1997 it peaked at #32 on the Billboard 200. However the album sold only 300,000 copies.

By 1998 Rage had left Death Row Records due to the almost-closing of the label with everybody jumping ship and CEO Suge Knight being incarcerated for parole breach. She had turned her career onto acting, starring in films, ‘Ride’ alongside Snoop Dogg and other rappers, and Ice Cube’s ‘Next Friday’ as Baby D. She also appeared in an episode of ‘The Kenan & Kel Show’. She engrossed her acting career on ‘The Steve Harvey Show’ as Coretta Cox as the high school bully at Booker T. High from 1996 to 2002. By 2000 she had re-established her recording career joining Snoop’s own Doggystyle Records and appeared on Snoop’s ‘Set it Off’ track on his ‘Tha Last Meal’ album. She outdid both Snoop and former NWA member MC Ren on the track with her raging lyrical thunder. She all but disappeared appearing on tracks with Snoop Dogg for his future albums partaking in the Dogg Pound renaissance again working in a Snoop album alongside Tha DPG Clicc. In 2002 she appeared on Snoop’s label collabo Presents…Doggy Style All Stars Volume 1 with her own solo track, ‘Unfucwitable’. Rage re-entered the game in 2005 when she started her own record label called Boss Lady Entertainment and dropping a mix tape ‘VA to LA’.

The Lady of Rage is regarded as being much more talented and lyrically-assaulting than any other female rapper. Rage also chooses not to adopt a sexually-oriented persona of a female, with the necessary roughness to stand against any male MC in the game earning her much respect by her peers. Still standing as Death Row’s only female rapper, her toughness comes by way of growing up with the bigger brothers of Death Row and honing her rep with theirs.

Discography:

1997 Neccessary Roughness

2005 From VA to LA (mixtape)

2007 Verbal Abuse (unreleased)

Filmography:

1997 The Steve Harvey Show (TV) (from 1997 – 2000) (as Coretta Cox)

1998 Ride (as Peaches)

2000 Next Friday (as Baby D)

2001 Thug Life (as herself)

2005 Confessions of a Thug) (as herself)

2007 Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop (as Birdie Scott)