POP MUSIC

KIDDING AROUND: Record companies are gearing more albums to tots and the sub-teen set now. The reason apparently is that hit albums by kiddie hip-hoppers like Kris Kross and Another Bad Creation exposed a largely untapped market. Epic Records is putting out an all-star rap package on Oct. 20 called “Rap Rhymes.” The lineup includes Kid ‘N Play, Kid Frost and Mellow Man Ace rapping nursery rhymes. Wait till you hear Tone-Loc’s gravel-voiced version of “Old Mother Hubbard.”

Disney Records, meanwhile, has signed rock immortal Little Richard to do an album of children’s songs--rock style. On “Shake It All Out,” due in October, Richard will be doing songs like “On Top of Spaghetti” and “Hokey Pokey”--his way. The “Tutti Frutti” man has a surprisingly high profile among the kiddies, thanks to his work in the movie “Down and Out in Beverly Hills” and a version of “Itsy Bitsy Spider” on last year’s “For the Children” album that Disney released to benefit the Pediatric AIDS Foundation.

The “For the Children” project is also about to have a sequel. A live album will be recorded at a Universal Amphitheatre concert on Sept. 26 featuring such stars as Paula Abdul, Michael Bolton, Kris Kross, Celine Dion and Randy Newman. The show, put together by film executive Dawn Steel, will also be videotaped by director Jonathan Kaplan (whose latest, “Unlawful Entry,” is definitely not for the youngsters) with an opening sequence in which Abdul plays the Pied Piper leading youngsters from a playground into the show. The Disney Channel will air it in February.

But not all the kids’ projects are star vehicles. Tots do like to hear other tots sing--or so Warner Bros. hopes. That’s why the label is putting out “A Children’s Chanukah,” featuring the children’s choir from a Jewish community center in Nashville performing traditional Hanukkah songs--plus “Rock of Ages.”