This time, Artest is fighting for fans

Tuesday morning things seemed pretty dicey for the NBA’s Ron Artest, as chatter about “the poster boy for bad behavior” and talk of federal lawsuits, possible criminal charges and suspension appeals fluttered about the airwaves. Drama, people. Then there was the little matter of the $5 million in lost wages, the kind of thing that happens when you hand out beatdowns to fans, and end up being told to sit your heinie down for the rest of the season and repent.

So if you think Artest, he of the anger management classes, would be having a bad day ... you would be wrong. In fact, it was an exceedingly good day. Reached Tuesday, the soft-spoken Indiana Pacer forward didn’t sound like a man who Friday night launched “the worst brawl in NBA history.”

Never mind the NBA suspension, never mind a career put on hold, never mind doing the requisite mea culpa. (He’d already done that earlier on “Today” when he told Matt Lauer that he wished the whole thing had never happened but that, goshdarnit, he had been “frustrated.”)

Artest had other things on his mind. Namely: “Giving the fans good music.”

Music is his path, he says, as in, “I’m just trying to stay on the path that I was going. That’s the only thing that I can do.”

The path, he says, is one he’s been on since he was 13 or so, and Tuesday, after four years of trying to get his record label, TruWarier, off the ground, and four years of trying to get some respect for his music, finally his path had been cleared. Tuesday, you see, is the day that new CD releases hit the market, and on Tuesday Artest entered the marketplace for the first time as a music mogul-in-making, proudly pushing “Chapter III,” the latest effort of Allure, the R&B; girl group that he’s taken under his wing.

“I just wanted to follow in the footsteps of these other labels,” he said, naming a few of the big boys: “Roc-A-Fella. Bad Boy.... I like giving the fans good music.... It’s great. It’s like a dream come true.”

Artest appears in Allure’s first video, “Uh Oh (Leaving With Me),” giving guest artist Elephant Man a pound. He also guest-raps on one of the songs. But most of his involvement was signing checks, working out a distribution deal with Lightyear Entertainment/WEA International, lining up producing talent like the Edmonds Group (Kenny “Babyface” Edmonds’ production group) and coaching the trio, who had bounced around before signing with TruWarier.

So enough with the questions about this NBA mess. “It’s about the music right now,” said Alia Davis, one of the members of Allure. “We’re concentrating on the positive.”