*** YO YO, “Black Pearl”, <i> EastWest America</i>

No other West Coast female rapper rivals Yo Yo. She has a lightning quick, confrontational style that’s influenced by one of her mentors, Ice Cube--executive producer of this album. Hearing her pontificate on black-on-black crime, teen pregnancy and the necessity of carrying a gat (gun) is like taking a guided tour through South-Central. There’s an alternately playful and stern urgency to her message. Listen with half an ear and you’ll miss something vital--and then think twice about challenging anything she says, because one of her smirking catch phrases is “get off my bra strap!”

Yo Yo (nee Yolanda Whitaker) uses music to preach self-esteem and empowerment, but she still throws the N-word around at the slightest provocation, particularly on bristling tracks like “Home Girl Don’t Play Dat” and “Woman to Woman.” That an African-American can continue to so loosely use one of the most poisonous terms for black people is hardly the height of self-respect.

It’s hard to write off Yo Yo, though, because much of what she says is so pertinent. It means a lot when a young female rapper addresses the problem of babies having babies, or when, on the title track, she takes Phil Spector’s ‘60s-era nod to black womanhood and puts a funky ‘90s inner-city spin to it. Making a point is something Yo Yo is good at, but not when it means pushing the type of dis-or-be-dissed rhetoric of rap that doesn’t propel anybody down the road to self-esteem.

Albums are rated on a scale of one asterisk (poor) to four (excellent).