HIGH DECIBELS

A lot of hip-hop acts have sampled or done their own versions of hard-rock songs, but now a bunch of hard-rockers is turning the tables and doing versions of key rap songs for an upcoming album. Titled “Loud Rocks,” the project is the brainchild of Loud Records President Steve Rifkin and will feature such rockers as System of a Down, Incubus, Sugar Ray, 311 and Shootyz Groove doing songs originally by the Wu-Tang Clan, Mobb Deep, Big Pun, the Alkoholics and others on the Loud roster. And capping it off, Rifkin is assembling an all-star teaming, with Limp Bizkit’s Fred Durst and Korn’s Jonathan Davis expected to lead the way, trading verses of Wu-Tang’s “Protect Ya Neck,” which was Loud’s first hit.

The idea came to Rifkin two years ago when he was on vacation in Florida and wore a Loud T-shirt to a mall--only to be mobbed by suburban kids “coming up and wanting to talk about Wu-Tang and Mobb and Pun. Then right after the tour with Rage Against the Machine and Wu-Tang together, I thought if I took 12 of my biggest songs and had rock groups redo them it would be great.”

The album is nearing completion, with plans to release it in the spring. Rifkin is immodest about its prospects.

“This is my biggest project of the year,” he says. “I’m looking to sell 5 million albums.”