Labb experiment: She mixes rap, rock in a swaggering fusion

SOMERVILLE -- E. J. Labb is on her knees. She's dressed in military-green cargo pants, and a bra strap peeks out from her baggy white T-shirt. Holding the microphone close to her lips, she hovers over a spiral-bound notebook in front of her. Over a steady beat, she rattles off rap lyrics from handwritten pages and rhythmically flings her fingers toward the floor.

It's only a rehearsal, but her stage presence -- both sexy and tough -- comes through.

On Tuesday, Labb (a.k.a. Erica J. Labb) will bring her rhymes and tomboyish swagger to the Paradise Lounge, supported by a three-woman band; Rachel Fuhrer plays drums and Heidi Lasker and Whitney Retallic provide soulful backup vocals.

Hip-hop permeates Labb's sound, but it's still difficult to label what she does. "I don't consider myself a rapper, but I rap," she says. "It's a fusion of a lot of different influences."

Her musical roots begin with her family. As kids, Labb and her two younger siblings would lock themselves in the basement of their Wayland home and listen to Michael Jackson, Lionel Ritchie, and the Rolling Stones. Today, her younger brother Dana fronts a rock band called Labb.

"He got me started in all this," she says. "He knew I liked to write and perform, so he invited me to perform with his band."

A few years ago she rapped to that group's songs, and later she teamed with Jimmy Robertson Landry, a musician who runs the local Boston production company Audiostrike, to make her own demo.

"The style of her music is a mix, which is a cool thing. It encompasses hip-hop and rap. It encompasses rock, pop, and good melodies," says Landry. "And there's not a lot of girl rappers out there."

Labb first performed some gigs last year with her brother and Landry playing guitar and keyboards. When they became tied up with their own projects, she says, "I began looking for a new group to perform with. Now it's all women."

She found three 20-something female musicians to play with and lay down the music, recruiting Fuhrer, the former drummer from Chelsea on Fire, along with DJ and singer Lasker and vocalist Retallic.

But music remains a family affair: Her mother, father, brother, and sister attend her shows, as well as her aunts, uncles, and cousins.

"It's an amazing feeling when you are performing in front of an audience. I feel lucky that people come out to the shows and then come back with more of their friends," Labb says. "I'm gonna keep writing and performing as long as people come out to see me.

"And thankfully, I do enjoy my day job," adds Labb, who works as an administrator at a nursing home in Boston and is looking for a record deal.

Among hip-hop influences, Labb cites Young MC, Rob Base, LL Cool J, Run DMC, and Eminem. (Labb's song "Nomad" is reminiscent of the Beastie Boys' "Check Your Head" album from the early 1990s.) Onstage, her performance is all about energy.

People say, "oh she's a white female rapper," says Labb. "My sister, when she tells her friends, they're shocked."

But, she continues, "when people see it, they get it."

Emily Sweeney can be reached at esweeney@globe.com.