Vegas MC urges listeners to think

When she was a kid, her mom used to tell her that her voice wouldn't just be that of her own, that it would double as a voice for other women as well.

But then again, moms always say nice things, just so long as you don't track any dirt in on the carpet, right?

"It was like, 'Whatever, Mom,' " Vegas MC Lady L.U.S.T. recalls with a smile as she reflects on the memory. "She used to tell me, 'Watch what you say in your music.' Now, I understand what she meant."

Lust first began to see the impact her words could have on others after she released "Girlfriend," a song where she talked about being openly gay.

"As it spread, people would actually say, 'Thank you for doing that song and being open about who you are, you make me feel comfortable that I can be open,' " says Lust, her long braids extending down past her shoulders as she reclines on a couch at the Aloha Kitchen on a recent Wednesday evening. "That's when I started to realize that I'm actually affecting people in a certain way. So I was like, 'Let me pay attention to what I'm saying and convey a message.' "

That message isn't a dogmatic one, though.

"I'm just giving you me," she thunders over the beat from the Wu-Tang Clan's "Triumph" on "The Avitar," a cut from her latest mixtape "God, Fear & Money," which is an equally fierce and searching disc where topics range from love to organized religion.

It's a candid, unflinching record, but there's no sermonizing here.

"I definitely want to provoke thought," says Lust, a native of Oakland, Calif., who's been living in Vegas for seven years now. "I'm not telling you how to think, but I want you to think, just about who you are, challenge yourself. Hopefully my music will help the listener to do those things."

Lust's latest follows her more introspective debut, last year's "The Ms. Ciely Complex," named after Whoopi Goldberg's character in the film adaptation of "The Color People," who struggles with body image issues.

With songs like "God is a Woman" and "Proposition," which is about California's proposed Proposition 8 legislation regarding gay marriage, it was a bold beginning for Lust, where she confronted those who confronted her sexuality.

"When I first started doing music, I didn't talk about it because the people around me felt like that was not something I should do because it would prohibit my career from going further," she says of her sexual identity. "But once I was not around that circle of people, I was able to be myself. I was like, 'Hey, this is who I am and I'm not going to continue to hide who I am for anybody. This is the way I'm going to present myself to the world. You can take it or leave it.' "

Contact reporter Jason Bracelin at jbracelin@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0476.