MC Lyte has heard all the rumors.
The iconic rapper was a guest on The Breakfast Club recently and in a lengthy conversation, touched on her career, the evolution of hip-hop, and finding love again after divorce. During the chat, the regal star, who has been active in the industry since the mid-80s, was asked how she feels about the way times have changed and opinions about her personal life have become fodder for blogs. That includes conversations about her divorce from John Wyche, which was finalized in 2023. The two married in 2017 and she filed for divorce in 2020. She stated that she’s grateful for social media because now, when people say things, she can respond (which she did in defense of Wyche), while there was no platform that could be used in the past to address the stories about her.
When the whole divorce thing happened, I just saw all of this stuff that says, ‘He was trying to get this.’ Or, ‘She got to keep — It’s not she got to keep, he was never trying to do that,” she said. “We had a prenup. He’s got his own stuff that I’m sure he was happy that I didn’t want any part of, and so we made an agreement very early on that we’d have a prenup and that would be it. I just didn’t like the turn they were taking, but it’s not like I didn’t expect it. Anything to get a click, people will say. I was just happy that I was able to set the record straight.”
One thing she hasn’t taken to social media to refute or confirm are the assumptions people make about her sexuality. There have been rumors for a long time concerning that topic, and the 53-year-old said that she experimented in the past, but that’s not her life in the present.
“People will say that you like something before you know what you like,” she said. “My biggest thing with the younger generation is, don’t be so prepared to put yourself in a box. You’re learning. Life is what it is; coming out of your teens into your 20s, you’re seeing things. I had to learn much later on in life that everything you think doesn’t need to happen. It can be a thought and stay there. Everything that you see other people do doesn’t have to be the life for you.”
She added about the comments, “So did it bother me? Perhaps in the beginning, but then it just became, ‘Oh ok, that’s how you want to feel? That’s great.’ And that’s not saying that those types of things didn’t happen in my life, but that’s not all of who I am.”
She also noted that people assumed she couldn’t have been into guys because of her style and how she carried herself as an MC, but she is more traditional than they realize.
“When you’re young, especially in this business, it’s like, ok, you think it, let’s make that happen. The sad part about it is many people get stuck there. Stuck with what it is that other people want them to be or are comfortable with them being. ‘You can’t possibly look like that and want to do that.’ Or you can’t possibly look like that and want to be with a man or find men attractive.’ First off, I’m way more traditional than anybody would assume,” she said. “So me getting married is because I believe in the sanctity of marriage or partnership. And it not working was devastating for me.”
But the good news is, as we previously shared, MC Lyte has a boyfriend, and she couldn’t be happier. She’s presently seeing tech industry professional Aaron Johnson, hard-launching their relationship in early 2023.
“They say you call in who it is you are. I’m a much better person, so who I have called in is a reflection of that, and I love him,” she said. “And so, are we in a hurry to get married? No. He’s been married and divorced, I’ve been married and divorced. Being married isn’t exactly the thing we’re jumping to be in once you’ve experienced it, but it is something we’re working towards.”
And while she’s known for loving a roughneck, as her 1993 hit “Ruffneck” told us, Johnson allows her to live her softest life.
“He’s so totally different from a roughneck,” Lyte told Charlamagne and DJ Envy. “When my family met him it’s like, ‘Oh my God!’ And he’s really a ray of sunshine and so different from any type that I’ve been with. So I had to learn that that’s ok. I love everything that’s happening on the inside, and he feels the same way about me.”
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