Pop Music Reviews : Sensitive Rap From Heroes of Hiphoprisy

In the middle of the sing-along that closed Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy’s show at the Whisky on Wednesday, Michael Franti reversed the audience’s assignments, making the men do the “we are family” refrain while the women got to shout “fight the power.”

“Sisters have had more experience fighting the power,” the tall rapper explained, applying a final flourish of political awareness to an hourlong set of dynamically designed, socially sensitive rap from one of the genre’s key new players.

On its recent debut album, the San Francisco group applies a rare articulateness to such issues as censorship and choice, governmental oppression, homophobia, the Gulf War, Pete Wilson (via the Dead Kennedys’ “California Uber Alles”), the narcotic influence of television, et al.

The same themes and qualities were there at the Whisky, but in his conversation and deep, rounded rap delivery, Franti conveyed an even stronger sense of warmth and intelligence.

And this was a rap show conceived as a show . Drummer Simone White and jazz-flavored guitarist Charlie Hunter drove and expanded the music, and Franti’s partner Rono Tse cavorted around the stage like a genie with springs in his feet, stopping occasionally to bang on a huge sheet of metal or send sparks showering into the air from a couple of tire rims.