It’s been ten years since Rah Digga (real name Rashiya Fisher) dropped her debut album Dirty Harriet in 2000. Now she’s back in 2010 with the release of Classic, and ready to re-establish her reputation as one of the timeless lyricists in the game.

With the help of Producer Nottz (who also helped with production on Dirty Harriet) Classic is a well-balanced mix of raw lyricism and soulful beats, which sets to prove that making a classic album means steering clear or trends and sticking to core elements of hip hop music.

In her interview with XXL, ‘Rah Digga: How to Make a Classic Album’, Digga explains what makes a classic hip hop album and why she feels her latest piece of work falls into this category (there are so many great quotes I had to list them all.)

“Can it be played? Is it a timeless piece of work? Is it something that can be played, you know, next year, five years, ten years from now? I think when people pour their heart and soul into an album and it becomes about their feelings and what they’re going through, and not about what the label is dictating is the trend, or, who should be on it, who’s popular at the moment, who you should collaborate with.”

“I think when it is a more personal album, as opposed to something that the label is just kind of manufacturing for you, then I think that’s what makes the difference between artists making these classic albums.”

“I think this album is something that people are going to be able to pop it five years, ten years from now and be like ‘Wow! This is really a timeless album.’ It doesn’t sound like anything trendy at this moment, it’s just one of those core hip hop sounding albums.”

“One of the things I wanted to do with this album in 2010 was to show people…I took that leap of faith and said ‘Hey, I’m not going to saturate it with cameos.’ It’s been 10 years since people heard a Rah Digga album, they don’t want to hear a bunch of people they been listening to all this time. There’s no fancy R n’ B hooks, there’s no star studded line up of other artists, it’s just me and my DJ and Nottz. Shout out to Nottz, he brought the boom I brought the bap, and that’s that in a nut shell. It’s just hard, it just really embodies everything from golden age hip hop with a two thousand and ten spank yo ass on the mic vibe.”

With a tight and focused ten track selection lasting around the forty minute mark, Classic stays on course to blow the back of your head off with authoritative tracks like ‘Who’s Gonna Check Me Boo,’ ‘This Ain’t No Lil’ Kid Rap Here’ and ‘Classic,’ while at the same time soothing your Rah inflicted head wounds with more chilled out joints such as ‘Solidified’ and ‘You Got It.’

Rah Digga clearly sends out the message “Ya’ll screamin hip hop’s dead, but ya’ll endorse that. I’m sayin hip hop lives and I enforce that.” Digga’s sophmore album Classic is now available for download at itunes and amazon.com.