Lady May - May Day (2002)

Rhonda Natasha Robinson was born on 6 March 1974, and is better known by her stage name Lady May. She grew up listening to Elton John, Duran Duran and Michael Jackson, but by the age of 15, she stopped attending high school and became a hip hop dancer in music videos for artists such as LL Cool J and Jodeci. Feeling unsatisfied with this as a career, she began rapping in the late 1990's under her stage name Mae West, and her rapping skills would eventually gain notice from fellow producer/rapper, Deric "D-Dot" Angelettie, who later renamed her Lady May, and introduced her to Crazy Cat Productions. In 2001 she landed a contract deal with Arista Records, and she released her debut single in 2002, with 'Round Up' featuring R&B singer and former label-mate Blu Cantrell. Her following single was planned to be 'Dick & Doe', and a music video for the song was shot, but in the midst of the pushbacks for her album 'May Day' (first scheduled for a release in May 2002, then to 16 July 2002, then to August 2002), the single and video, as well as the album, were all shelved after the poor reception to 'Round Up'. She was also featured on former label-mate Rob Jackson's 2002 single 'Boom Boom Boom', which was slated to appear on his debut album, 'For the People', but that was eventually shelved as well. In 2003, she was featured on Willa Ford's 'A Toast To Men', and in 2007 she contributed to Jennifer Lopez's 2007 album 'Brave', where she was credited as a songwriter on several tracks. A version of 'May Day' was ultimately released online last year, but it contained a few more interludes that were not present on the original promotional copies that circulated physically, and so here is that 2003 promo so that you can hear this excellent album as it was intended to be heard. 

Track listing

01 We Got it Locked (feat. Memphis Bleek)
02 Right Right
03 Hard 2 Get 2 
04 Dear Richard 
05 My Blues
06 U Ain't Neva Lie
07 Glamorous Girls
08 8 Million Stories
09 Stick N Move
10 Didn't Mean To Turn You On (feat. Cheri Dennis)
11 Round Up (feat. Blu Cantrell)
12 Dick And Doe
13 Unborn
14 What Up (feat. P. Diddy)