Rappers Above the Law

“Now I got a murder rap” is the boastful refrain of the hit song by rap newcomers Above the Law, but this outlaw-ethos exploitation crew from South-Central L.A. couldn’t get arrested on Saturday at Anaheim’s Celebrity Theatre.

It takes a big, interactive crowd for a rap concert to reach critical mass. The Celebrity’s all-rookie bill of Above the Law, fellow Angelenos Low Profile and New York’s Gang Starr played to a 2,500-seat house that was four-fifths empty and far from rocking.

Above the Law’s main man, 187um (in police code, a 187 is a killing), was energetic enough, but this short, stocky figure didn’t come close to achieving the menace or swagger of the hip-hop Stagger Lee he purports to be. Above the Law may claim to be the voice of underclass experience, but its artless raps failed to evoke lived experience of any sort. ATL’s 25-minute set (which included a chaotic but lively guest tag-team rhyme workout with better-established cronies N.W.A) was skimpy for a headliner, even by rap’s wham-bam-outta-here standards.