Pop Music Reviews : An Anti-Violent Rap Message Straight Out of Compton

In 1987, rapper KRS-One recorded the ultimate hard-core rap record, an album called “Criminal Minded” that included a love song to his 9mm pistol. When his deejay, Scott La Rock, was gunned down later that year, KRS-One became identified with the “positive rap” movement instead, and he began to condemn the culture of black-on-black violence much as he celebrated it before. KRS-One’s Boogie Down Productions headlined the outdoor Coolin’ in Compton Anti-Violence Rap Festival on Saturday afternoon at Compton College. Compton’s mayor presented the former South Bronx hoodlum with the key to the city.

BDP’s set was kind of underwhelming, an hourlong parade of hits in which the over-amplified vocals all but buried the beat. KRS-One is an appealingly goofy performer, though, and the groovy love vibes were tremendous, with tiny children wandering around clutching balloons and autographed 8x10s of Mixmaster Spade, people eating barbecue on the grass and swaying to the pan-’70s beats of openers Tribe Called Quest, a crew of De La Soul-affiliated rappers.

Scads of lesser-known local rappers got up to the mike for five-minute sets that were slicker than any of the name acts. Especially Loli Pop, who came across as somebody’s haranguing mom, and an astounding human beatbox who called himself America’s Most Wanted. And there wasn’t even a scintilla of rap violence in the audience.