North London’s Ms. Dynamite is equal parts Lauryn Hill, Mary J. Blige and Nelly Furtado. But she isn’t interested in being labeled.

On her new album, “A Little Deeper,” Ms. Dynamite’s (real name, Niomi McLean-Daley) influences are too numerous to name. She demonstrates her reggae background on one track, switches to dancehall beats and then makes witty banter on another.

The range of the disk is so impressive, it brings to mind 1998’s seminal “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.” While “A Little Deeper” lacks the overall consistency of Hill’s album, Ms. Dynamite has assembled an excellent collection of love-hate songs that is as honest as it is catchy.

The album opens with a breathless rhyme detailing the urban subculture’s obsession with drugs, Ms. Dynamite proudly announcing “My music gets me as high as I need.”

From the impressive opening track, the album progresses in divergent, but successful directions, including the catchy “Dy-na-mi-tee,” a hit that Lauryn Hill would be proud to sing. On the honey dipped R&B track “Anyway U Want it,” Ms. Dynamite expertly trades verses with Keon Bryce.

The angry “Put Him Out,” implores a friend to “Make the choice, u gotta stop this ‘cos / Girlfriend the boy worthless.” Constructing a portrait of an unhappy house with a cheating man, Ms. Dynamite demonstrates the same type of feminine power that Mary J. Blige rode to success. Throughout the disc women are encouraged to find their own voice, a message that is conspicuously lacking in the male-dominated world of hip-hop. It is this thread that keeps the album together, intertwining different types of music in a uniform goal.

To be fair, while the first half of the disk flies by with infinite promise, the second half is less successful. The reggae-tinged “Seed Will Grow” falls somewhat short, despite a guest appearance by Kymani Marley. The title track is similarly weak, as it fails to build any energy, resulting in a rather thin song.

Album construction is somewhat shaky, an inevitable byproduct of the different styles of music evident on the disk. As Ms. Dynamite matures as an artist, hopefully she will find a way to create cohesion while still maintaining her signature style.

The single exceptional cut on the second half of the disc is the excellent spoken word track “Watch Over Them,” in which Ms. Dynamite calls out drug abusers: “Gun in his pocket and crack in his possession / Damn hypocrite don’t be disillusioned / Yeah life is tough but that’s not no solution.”

Not yet 21, Ms. Dynamite demonstrates a remarkable maturity that is lacking in youth music in the States (e.g. Pink, Avril Lavigne). Throughout the album, violence, hatred and the thug mentality are challenged. Ms. Dynamite shows how to make a street-smart record without resorting to gang-banging glorification.

In this way, Ms. Dynamite stands apart from the majority hip-hop crowd, and seems to connect with artists like Blige – whose angry lyrics often celebrate feminine sexuality.