Singer Is All Rapped Up in Her Positive Message : Music: Though she sticks to jazz these days, Dee Dee McNeil still gets her statement of love and peace across in her songs.

When singer-songwriter Dee Dee McNeil first moved to Los Angeles from Detroit in 1970, she had “this concept,” she recalls, “that if you put music and poetry together and got people to dance to it, you could get your message out.

“That’s how rap really started,” she continued, on the phone from her home in north San Diego County. “It was revolutionary expression from the black community. Our whole thing at the time was being black and proud. We were becoming aware of who we were.”

So McNeil--who’d written a handful of hits for Motown artists in Detroit, including “What Is a Man?” for the Four Tops--came up with “Rappin’ Black In a White World,” which became the title cut of the Watts Prophets’ first album. “Rappin”’ also marked a turning point in McNeil’s own life: It was the first song she recorded as a singer.

These days, McNeil is strictly a jazz singer (she’ll perform tonight at Maxwell’s in Huntington Beach and Saturday at Cafe Lido in Newport Beach). But she’s still getting the message out. “I’ve always been politically active,” she said. “Now my concept is peace and love. I think that in later years, I’ve learned how to tone it down. I think that instead of making people angry, you can get more accomplished coming from a more positive place.”

Though she credits her work with the Watts Prophets and similar projects with laying the groundwork for today’s rappers, she’s not entirely happy with the way the form has developed. “Now you have kids selling ego and sex instead of making real statements. Luckily, there are still groups who do have worthwhile messages. I like Heavy D and Queen Latifah. I respect Hammer, but I prefer the more street-oriented performers, like Public Enemy.”

In December, McNeil took her message to Belgrade, Yugoslavia, where she headlined a three-day music festival just as the country’s civil war was heating up.

“It was very sad. I met Serbs and Muslims and Croats and of course they all looked alike, just like people. And all of them were really saddened by the war. As usual, the problems were political. The people on top were running things and sending the orders to the armies. It was the little people who were being murdered and were suffering.”

The singer said she pretty much stuck to her standard show in Yugoslavia. “I opened with an original called ‘Colored Dreams’ that I wrote with (Brazilian singer-songwriter) Alfredo Cardim. It talks about the beauty of all people, working together. I always talk about our ability to change the world with love when I work. It’s not like I’m doing a sermon or anything. I just put it in song, something for people to get subliminally.

“For instance, I do a medley of ‘Stormy Weather’ and ‘What a Difference a Day Makes’ and sometimes ‘That’s Life,’ combining them all together. Then at the end, I’ll stick in a line about making the world a better place with love. I always include something that hopefully jolts people into thought, no matter how much alcohol they’ve drunk that night. If I can get them to think about more than just the music, then I’ve done something to change the world.”

Another issue McNeil addresses through song is society’s treatment of its older members. “When I do the tune ‘Old Folks,’ I always include a monologue at the end about the moral issue of respecting our elders. There’s such a wide difference between the young people of today and the senior citizens. And ‘Old Folks’ has such a strong lyric as well as a beautiful melody that it’s particularly suited.”

She’s also concerned about society’s younger members. During the last five years she’s developed a program in conjunction with the Jazz Heritage Foundation that’s aimed at teaching preschoolers the basics of jazz. “We know they’re not going to learn anything about it listening to AM radio,” she said.

“I try to bring in an all-star lineup of musicians who’ve made it internationally. (Pianist) Dwight Dickerson and (trumpeter) Clora Bryant were with me in June at the Wilmington Public Library. And we talk about their accomplishments and do activities with rhythm, melody and harmony and improvisation. It’s the most amazing concept. When the kids leave, they can tell you what the elements of jazz are.”

McNeil herself learned those elements as a child while listening to recordings her parents had around the house of Dinah Washington, Billie Holiday and Dakota Staton. Her writing career took off literally overnight.

“There was a group in Detroit called the Precisions who were all good friends of mine. They had written four songs and had four titles and were going into the studio the next day and needed lyrics. A lot of people knew I was a poet and hung out with musicians, so their producer came by and brought me the four tracks. I stayed up all night and wrote these four songs. And one of them, ‘Why Girl?,’ became a local hit in 1967.”

That success led to an exclusive writing contract for Motown where she penned “Discover Me” for Diana Ross and the Supremes and “Somebody Stole My Sunshine” for Gladys Knight and the Pips. But by 1970 she was ready to move on.

“I felt like I had grown as much as I could in my hometown. A lot of times, you have to leave home to get recognized. So I stuck my two kids in the back seat and drove cross-country to L.A.”

Today McNeil sings regularly in various Los Angeles, Orange County and San Diego clubs. She recently appeared on Tom Reed’s “For Members Only” television program (along with saxophonist Teddy Edwards) in a segment entitled “Unheralded Musical Legends of L.A.” She’s busy preparing to tape a version of her Jazz and Youth program for a local cable outlet.

She’s also looking for a company to pick up a recording she’s made of originals and standards (as well as some of her poetry) with such notables as keyboardist Lou Matthews (Nancy Wilson’s musical director), saxophonist Red Holloway and drummer Tootie Heath.

Then there’s her writing. Though “music is foremost,” she continues to work on poetry, is writing short stories and even is compiling a history of black classical music for young readers. “I never understood that some people did just one thing,” she explained. “It’s always been natural for me to do three or four things at once.”

* Dee Dee McNeil sings Thursday at 8 p.m. at Maxwell’s by the Sea, 317 Pacific Coast Highway, Huntington Beach ($4 cover, $7 minimum, (714) 536-2555) and Saturday at 9 and 11 p.m. at Cafe Lido, 501 30th St., Newport Beach (no cover, (714) 675-2968).