New School Goes Old School

It’s not unusual to see Los Angeles hip-hop groups ignite waves of energy on the dance floor at the House of Blues, but there is something different about Jurassic 5’s set.

The mood isn’t dominated by testosterone-charged machismo. You might call Jurassic 5’s performance refreshingly playful, even whimsical--characteristics atypical of most Los Angeles hip-hop groups since N.W.A. helped popularize gangsta rap a decade ago.

While the group members stalk the stage with measured exuberance, the sounds of Archie Bunker’s husky Queens accent and wife Edith’s nasal voice burst through the speakers. Those samples are part of Jurassic 5’s reworking of the theme song from TV’s “All in the Family.”

Instead of throwing arms in the air in shows of solidarity as rappers talk about the thug life or decry police brutality, the audience bounces to a rap that includes lines celebrating rap’s good-time beginnings:

“Party people in the place to be / Show a little bit of unity / Taking you back through history / Those were the days / Remember when hip-hop hit your block. . . .”

The group’s entire 45-minute set is reminiscent of the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, when New York groups such as the Cold Crush Brothers and Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five gave birth to rap.

The House of Blues performance hearkens back to a time when rappers converted New York parks into outdoor clubs, delighting audiences with synchronized lyrics in multiple harmonies and boasting about how deftly each could tongue-lash the competition.

“Our name is from the movie [“Jurassic Park”], like bringing the DNA from the past and bringing it to the present,” says Courtenay “Zaakir” Henderson, 27, one of Jurassic 5’s four MCs. “That’s how we get down. Just bringing the old school and bringing it to the present because a lot of people in hip-hop have missed out on that. . . . A lot of kids think that [music] is prehistoric.”

Jurassic 5--MCs Zaakir, Chali 2na, Akil and Marc 7even and deejays Numark and Cut Chemist--aren’t alone in celebrating traditional hip-hop values.

Black Eyed Peas, Dilated Peoples and Defari are among the other notables in a new wave of artists emerging from L.A.’s underground rap scene--artists who are gaining the attention of music critics and major labels with their appealing blend of feel-good lyrics, obscure samples and live instrumentation.

The groups’ sounds are a major break from what has become known as West Coast rap in the ‘90s--the in-your-face rants largely defined by N.W.A.’s incendiary 1988 classic “Straight Outta Compton” album. Since then, Los Angeles has been known as the gangsta rap capital of the world, the home of the troubled Death Row empire that generated nationwide hits by such artists as Snoop Doggy Dogg and the late Tupac Shakur.

Gangsta rap has proven such a potent commercial weapon that it is at the heart of a rap music industry that accounted for more than $1 billion in sales during 1997, according to the Recording Industry Assn. of America.

The emergence of Jurassic 5 (whose nine-song disc on Rumble/Pickininny Records has sold nearly 30,000 units since its September 1997 release) and the other rap groups doesn’t mean that Los Angeles rap isn’t still dominated by inner-city wordsmiths who reporton the reality and fantasy worlds of drug dealing, money chasing, hustling women and weed smoking.

But Zaakir believes rap fans are getting tired of “the same ol’, same ol.’ ”

“If you just giving them beans, then they’re going to take beans, but if you come with some rice, they’ll be like, ‘Oh damn, beans and rice?’ ” he says in an interview before going on stage at the House of Blues.

And some record executives are willing to take a chance on this new school of hip-hop artists.

As the multi-platinum success stories of artists such as the Fugees, Wyclef Jean and Busta Rhymes demonstrate, consumers have embraced rap music that celebrates down-home, folksy mixes, eclectic sampling and adventurous archetype-flouting.

Enter Black Eyed Peas. The multiethnic trio, tabbed as a hot new band to watch in the May issue of Vibe magazine, was signed in July by Interscope Records after developing a loyal club following in Los Angeles with its raucous, groove-laden shows. The group’s debut album, “Behind the Front,” will be released Tuesday.

“When you hear something that is unique, your instinct is to gravitate to it,” Jimmy Iovine, co-head of Interscope Records says of the Peas. “The band is great, they have a great feel and [I could see they were] bent on doing something that is different. I have high hopes.”

Inglewood High School history teacher Duane “Defari” Johnson recently signed an album deal with the Warner Bros.-distributed Tommy Boy Records. And a slew of indie rap acts, including ABB Records’ Dilated Peoples and Good Vibe Records’ Medusa, are hoping to show the world that Los Angeles hip-hop artists are producing a smorgasbord of sounds with an emphasis on lyrics.

“I’ve always been a fan of the underground,” says Chris Atlas, artists-and-repertoire and rap promotions executive at Tommy Boy’s new Black Label. “The underground is always doing the groundbreaking hip-hop. More people are coming to hip-hop to have fun. . . . They’re tired of . . . the gangsta stuff. . . .”

“There has always been a dichotomy between the gangsta sound and the MC stuff in L.A.,” says Allen Gordon, executive editor at Rap Pages, a monthly magazine that covers hip-hop music and culture from a West Coast perspective.

“With the success of Erykah Badu, and with the anticipation of records coming from Maxwell and D’Angelo, there might be room for a Black Eyed Peas,” he adds. “I think the Peas have potential to be as big as A Tribe Called Quest, as far as sales go.”

There’s enough of a buzz around Black Eyed Peas to put the group on this summer’s Smokin’ Grooves tour, which will be at the Universal Amphitheatre Aug. 13-14. They’ll share the bill with Public Enemy, Cypress Hill, Wyclef Jean and the Refugee All-Stars featuring Canibus, Busta Rhymes and Gang Starr.

Will “Will.I.Am” Adams, the 23-year-old lead rapper and producer of Black Eyed Peas, says their quirky brand of hip-hop--which fuses elements of soul, jazz, rock and Latin rhythms--is not “some Smurf stuff,” but just something more musical than a lot of the bottom-heavy hard-core rap out today.

“It’s time to get away from the talk about cars and big houses and bring it back to things that everyone can relate to,” Adams says. “We make authentic music, so whether it was made three years ago or five years from now, people will recognize it was good music.”

Allan “Apl.de.Ap” Pineda, who, along with Jaime “Taboo Nawasha” Gomez complete the Black Eyed Peas trio of rappers, says the group hopes to reinvigorate hip-hop with the same kind of energy that early-’90s “Native Tongue” groups De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest and the Jungle Brothers brought to the scene.

“It’s time to bring that sense of joy and fun back,” he says, “and still bring out the creativity at the same time.”