Necessary Roughness (album)

Necessary Roughness is the only studio album by American hip-hop artist the Lady of Rage. The album was released on June 24, 1997. Necessary Roughness was largely produced by Daz Dillinger, with contributions from Easy Mo Bee and DJ Premier. The album peaked at No. 32 on the Billboard 200 on July 12, 1997. Necessary Roughness was the last Death Row album to be distributed by Interscope Records.

Critical reception
The Los Angeles Times wrote that "Rage delivers her lyrics with gale force and knocks out her tracks with rabbit-punch viciousness."

Leftover track

 * "The Set Up" (featuring Heather B. & Nikki D) (produced by DJ Premier)
 * The song was confirmed as a diss song to rival Foxy Brown who previously made derogatory comments about Rage and Heather B. in a particular interview. The track however was subsequently deleted from the album's track listing. This would also be the second time Nikki D made a cameo in a Foxy Brown diss record, the first being Queen Latifah's controversial, "Name Callin' (Part 1)".