Rap Tour Hopes to Dispel Chronic Security Worries

The most talked-about concert tour of the summer?

It’s probably the alternative-rock “Lollapalooza ’93.”

But for many in the concert business, the most closely watched trek will be “The Chronic Tour,” the hard-core rap package headlined by Dr. Dre.

The whole future of major rap tours, which have been saddled with headlines about violence for years, could ride on this tour, which also features Run-DMC, the Geto Boys, Snoop Dog, Onyx and Boss. It begins in Toledo, Ohio, on July 8 and is tentatively planned to continue into October, with a possible Aug. 20 date at the new Anaheim Arena as the only Los Angeles-area show.

“For rap, this is the biggest show in years,” says Jon Schecter, editor of the Source, the New York-based rap magazine. “It’s certainly going to be looked on as the model for future shows.”

The people behind the tour are taking a somewhat cautious approach, waiting to see how the first month goes before officially planning the rest of it.

“We just don’t know what kind of reception it will have in terms of any problems,” says Sheila Eldridge, Dr. Dre’s publicist. “The goal here is to make it work, because if it doesn’t fly, it could mean the death of the rap tour. The question is how do you take the kind of street rap they do and minimize the violence around it to make it successful?”

In the L.A. area, it’s been tough to book rap shows ever since rival gangs disrupted a Long Beach Arena show headlined by Run-DMC in 1986, an incident followed by violent outbursts at area shows by Public Enemy and 2 Live Crew. Then a 1990 shooting outside an Ice Cube concert at the Celebrity Theatre in Anaheim brought the issue to Orange County.

However, several incident-free tours, including a 1992 package of Run-DMC and Naughty by Nature, have inspired some to give “The Chronic Tour” a try, including the new Anaheim facility and New York’s Radio City Music Hall.

But the fallout of past rap experiences remains strong. The show would be a real test of community sentiment in Anaheim, where there were calls for a ban of rap concerts after the Celebrity Theatre incident.

Dick Klotzman, who is producing the “Chronic” tour through Baltimore-based United Entertainment, says that many past problems were due to shows not starting on time and dragging on too long, and to poor production quality.

“There’s been a trend toward negativity about rap shows, but there’s been good reasons for it,” he says. “But if you start on time and have no lag between the acts and the headliners are telling people that we’re here to have a good time . . . , then it will work.”