Above the Law |
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Mon. March 02.1998 11:12 AM EST |
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Above The Law Not Above Playing Own InstrumentsTrio incorporates real keyboards and horns on new LP. by Addicted To Noise's Colin Devenish |
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"We want to educate youngsters, and show them that life ain't all like what people portray it to be. There's a lot of repercussions," says Cold 187um. |
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Long before Cold 187um found fame spitting out rhymes as an MC for the
hip-hop trio Above The
Law, he played trumpet in his junior high school band and rapped in the
hallways of Pomona High
School. It's where he first developed his
"[Crewmate] K-oss gave me the name because I used to battle other MCs at school and he used to come up to me and say, 'You're killing um,' and 187 is the penal code for murder, so the name just grew from there," said 29-year-old Cold 187um, a.k.a. Gregory Hutchison, of his sinister nickname. Although he's not playing much trumpet these days, Cold 187um and his partners in rap out of Pomona, Calif., fellow MC K.M.G. and DJ Total K-oss, have not lost touch with their humble musical beginnings. Above The Law continues to use live instruments in their music, most recently on their sixth LP, Legends, the threesome's second LP on Tommy Boy (due in stores Tuesday). Above The Law's latest offering finds them moving away from the street-hustler sound of their first four albums (released on the late Eazy-E's Ruthless Records label), a sound that earned them critical acclaim. The move is most clearly demonstrated in songs such as "Promise Me" (RealAudio excerpt). The piece begins with the sound of bullets flying, before giving way to a mother's voice cautioning her son to be careful in the outside world. As the woman's voice fades, a lilting piano melody starts in, occasionally punctuated by a rattling guitar riff that Hutchison and K.M.G. lay their smooth raps over. "They seem to be wholly originals, and they create their own melodies," said Thembisa Mshaka, rap editor of the Gavin Report, a highly respected weekly magazine that provides information to radio programmers. "It's nice to know there's still a place for that in a world where the loop reigns supreme." ""Promise Me" talks about when you're young and you're hustling, your parents know what's really going on and they want you to get out and do better," Hutchison said. "We want to educate youngsters, and show them that life ain't all like what people portray it to be. There's a lot of repercussions." Legends begins with "Intro 'Floetry' " (RealAudio excerpt), featuring Hutchison's baritone intoning a series of events that might befall a young rapper as he begins to find success. "When you go/ Oh yes you yourself do go platinum/ But 75 percent of the work you do/ Was created by somebody who wants 100 percent of the publishing/ Nothing's in your name/ You're not really a player in the game." Hutchison said the song is meant to serve as a warning to up-and-coming rappers about the pratfalls of relying heavily on sampling to carry their music. "That's meant for a lot of artists who started off where we started off. We perceived ourselves as running the ship. We learned from sampling. We saw the success, we didn't see the check," said the rapper, who plays keyboards on the album. In addition to his rhyming role in Above The Law, Hutchison said he is working as a producer with some artists at Dr. Dre's Aftermath label and toiling as an executive for his own Black Owned Entertainment label. [Mon., March 2, 1998, 9 a.m. PST] |
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