Sherri O'Connor
Style Idols: The Lady Tigra
Issue #35
The rapper’s sweet style and skillz bring back old-school cool
By Shannon Flaherty
Published: March 1st, 2008 | 2:57pm
The Lady Tigra was seminal in the heyday of late ’80s hip-hop as one-half of the teenage duo L’Trimm, bringing Miami bass to the masses with fellow rapper Bunny D. Named after a then-popular brand of designer jeans called Trim, the group released the single "Cars With the Boom,” which landed a spot on the Top 40 charts in 1988. Before L’Trimm’s career fizzled, the group opened for Biz Markie, EPMD, and De La Soul.
The Lady Tigra ignited her solo career in 2006 with the release of her Please Mr. Boom Box, which includes a duet with MC Lyte on the song “They Stole My Radio.” After spending the last year writing new rhymes and recording, the Lady Tigra will release her second album, in 2008. Her songs have created a good amount of Web buzz, and there’s no doubt she’s confident about her style, as evidenced on the song “Guess What?!”:
“When I stand in front of the mirror and I look into my eyes, I see elegance, microphone-rippin’ intelligence. But I handle it with gusto. I welcome the heat. My reflection makes me wanna compete with me cuz I’m the flyest.”
Though a powerful force in song, in person the Lady Tigra is sweet and soft-spoken. Less rough around the edges than some female rappers, the Lady Tigra is dainty in dress and an old-school fan of keeping it girly. Tigra says that she and Bunny were among the first female hip-hop artists to wear dresses and makeup. “When everyone was wearing biker shorts, gold chains, and bomber jackets, we wore Betsey Johnson skirts, bejeweled bustiers, and little Dior shoes,” she says. “I still have a pair of ruffle shorts that I wore in the ‘Cars with the Boom’ video.”
Tigra says she loves to dress up. “But it doesn’t make me any less hard or skilled as an MC,” she adds, joking that her look is like an exaggeration of how the women in her family dress. “I like to layer accessories and kind of create this extreme caricature of my mom, my aunt, and my grandmother’s styles. Every piece has a story and some personal history.”
Catch The Lady Tigra out and her accessories could include purple nail polish, jingling jewelry, her hoopty black Cadillac or some lace-up vintage boots. It’s no wonder the Los Angeles Times put her on the cover of their style section in September 2007. But, above all, the bass on the bottom line is that The Lady Tigra’s number one accessory is her microphone.
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