ENTERTAINMENT
BRIEFS
- Pe i n Gulf
rece ion, and CI ren e
m nd Anita Hill,
j t ew of th ' I' bl
even .
- Thi ye r, dioScope
covered orne
entert inment'
torie celeb
nnive ry.
- Per p t m t
nific nt m ic torie
t e me a-million cont c
igned by J net Jac on and
her big brother ich el.
While riding the I t ve of
"Rhythm Nation" J net pock­
eted $50 million when he
left A M to tie th not with
Virgin.
Soon Iter, Mich el
eclip ed h r, announcing hi
$1 billion doll r de I with
Sony Entertainment. Now of
course he' "Dangerous".
- N. W.A. lived up to the
title of their 'Wiggaz4Life"
album. In January, Dr. Dre
beat up "Pump It Up" ho t
Dee Barne .
N. W .A. clo ed the year
out by uing each other. Eazy
E ued Dr. Dre and The Doc.
He claimed he w coerced
. and menaced into giving up
rights to their recording out­
put.
Meanwhile the "Nig­
gaz4Life" album managed to
go platinum and hit number
one on the charts before it
no e-dived off into oblivion.
- One of last year's musi­
cal trends was the return of
the girl groups. This year the
guys were on it.
The Rude Boys, Another
Bad Creation, Hi-Five,
Jodeci, Yours Truly, and of
cour e Color Me Badd and
Boyz II Men topped the
charts.
- In '91 women rappers
like Monie Love, Queen
Latifah, and MC Lyte made
more progres . Yo-Yo got a
foot in the door, while BWP
had it hut on theirs. Seems
BWP (Bitches With
Problems) were just a little
too nasty. They claimed they
were the victims of sexist
double standards and censor­
ship.
� The Godfather of Soul
got out of jail and went
straight for Pay Per View.
- LaToya clo ed out the
year wi th clai ms of abuse,
kidnapping attempts and
other fantastic stories.
And in light of Jermaine's
bootleg version of "Word To
The Badd", Latoya sounds
like she might have been on
the money with one of her
comments.
- Of course no year is
without it's sad spots.
20-year-old rapper MC
Trouble died in June of an
epileptic seizure. Kevin
Peter Hall, star of "Harry and
The Hendersons" and .hus­
band of "227's" Alaina Reed,
died of pneumonia. Jazz
legend Miles Davis, Redd
Foxx, the Reverend James
Cleveland, as well as David
Ruffin all passed last year.
- Then there wer law­
suits and the violence.
Berry Gordy sued J.
Randy Taraborrelli over
"Michael Jackson: The
Magic and the Madness,"
while taking time out to
publicly acknowledge that he
is the father of Diana Ross's
daughter Rhonda Suzanne.
Geto Boy Bushwick Bill
tried to .get his 17-year old
girlfriend to shoot him, insist­
ing he wanted to die. She
ended up hooting out his
eye. He said it was all his
fault.
- c 91 will go down in
history as the year Black
cinema came into it's own.
John Singleton became a
household word after "BoyzN
The Hood" was released to
. . critical acclaim and opening
weekend violence. The film
raked in 'over $50 million at
the box office.
"New Jack City made $47
million dollars and had one of
the hone t sound tracks of all
time.
'91 was a year to remem­
ber.
.RadioScope ... The
Column special contributor.
2
bone in elementary school and junior
high, as well as drums, conga and
other percussion. When he bought a
drum machine, he then became
known as a uperior programmer.
Prince, meanwhile, was playing
guitar when h was 13, at the arne
time he was studying the drums.
Also a breakdancer, when he was 16
he started to get into the music he
wa breaking off of and began t
write rap too.
But the common thread that ac­
tually parked the ormation of
Powerule was that E and Prince were
former' high chool tudent of
Daylle, known in music circles as the
"Rappin' Teach," who had left teach­
ing to become a rapper.
"1 knew if we could get a group
together, we'd have a chance to
make' a record," recall E. "But I
. hadn't seen Prince in a couple of
years. Then one day I ran into him
on a train ... J aid, , Hey man, I've
been trying to find you. "I Teaming
with Ax in the. tudi , the trio went
to work.
LO-KEY MEMBERS: (I-r) T-bone, Lance, 'Dre, proft, and 'D'.
o
POWERULE MEMRE S
(1- ): Prince Power, D.J. Ax, and E. Vill.
Marcano), E. Vill (Eric Villa), and
OJ. Ax (Victor Maria). In fact, the
name Powerule i derived from a 5%
Nation of lam expression used to
describe Latinos.
"The Latino influence has been
there from the beginning of hip hop,"
explains E, "but the originals weren't
given a lot of credi t for it because
they did it in Spanish. the three of us
through were brought up if African­
American communities around very
few Latino . We were mixed into a
common culture and use the com­
mon language of inner city talk.
That' what we. spea instead of
Spani h. But Lann have been up-'
porting rap from the tart and we're
here to claim that recognition."
He also points out that many of
tbe original Latino hip hoppers are
still influential in the making of the
. music though the public may not be
aware of it. They're producing in
tudio , engineering behind mixing
boards, and playing the percus ion
on rhythril c . Md Ax, "We've
been overlooked in the p 1. But no
one's overlooking u now."
Powerule i out front and on tage.
Prince Power, the group' main
rap writer, hail from Q ens and
became a local legend at jams and
competitions. Rapping ince he w
16, he wa a regular at 34 Park in
Hollis and appeared in how' wi th
the like of Tr achero Three, MC
Shan, Biz Markle. and LL I J.
E. Vilt taned out in h
Queen Vill ge hangin
Davy D's Basem nt when he wa 13
and watching tho e early rap es­
siors. Beside learning how to put
ongs together, he also began to spin
records at parties.
THOUGH DJ. AX was born in
the Dominican Republic, he too wa
rai ed in Hemp tead, where he was a
member of the Na ty 4, a very
popular group in the day of
Spectrum City, a club that also
pawned Public Enemy, Original
Concept and Son of Bazerk. He al 0
used to make demo tape for" Dr.
Dre ' operating r m how on
WBAU and has produced tracks (or
everal rap and dan e groups.
Intere tingly, b th Ax nd Prin e
play mu ical in trument , unlike
m t rap arti . Ax tudied trom-
Originally, hip hop was a gritty,
heavy, stripped-down street grove, a
rebellious underground ,
phenomenon that rapped and
scratched and told tales of hard lives
in a hard city through rhymes set to
a slow booming bass beat that
reached into your very soul. Dis­
tinctly different from R&B or rock or
P\)P, hip hop shunned fully-sampled
rhythm tracks or melodies from any
other genre. Hip hop was of itself,
born and bred on urban sidewalks. .
That original sound is what
Powerule, a New York City-based
trio, resurrects on its debut album,
Powerule, Volume I (Poetic
Groove/lnterscope Records). "We
get back to the essence of.hip hop,"
says OJ. Ax, "which many people
have gotten away from. We make
the original hip hop new again be­
cause production standards are
higher today but we keep the same
concept, the hard beat, the kicks, the
bass. There aren't a lot of samples,
we don't cut up a lot of tape. We
keep our heads on straight and keep
rap rap."
On tracks such as "Thai's The
Way It Is (the first single) and
"Premises" (from the lifestyles of the
rich and famous to the land of the
poor and the namele ") with their
Hand-hitting social commentary to
party jams "Back" and "Roughneck
Style," Powerule say in "Smooth,"
the ingle which first earned it notice
in 1990 and which is reprised on the
self-produced Volume I, the group i
keeping itl rough but playing it
smooth. J
"We're not here to make
everybody happy with the way
thing are," say E. Vill. "We
definitely hit the issues. But we have
fun songs too. Everyone has to have
some fun."
THE SO UND i n 't the only thing
distinctly different about PoweruJe
- so too is the story behind Prince
Power, E. Vill and OJ. Ax. Because
they do not sing bilingually, it may
urprise orne to learn that the three
are Latino : Prince Power (Oscar
, .
E A Y "Smooth" i about
"taking a look at yourself and eeing
that there's more than one path in
life. There's a lot of easy money in
the drug culture and that could've
been an option for anyone of us but
we kept out of it and put our energy
into music. It' not an easy thing on
the block to do when it seems you
can get rich real quick. There's a lot
of despair here. 1 hope our music
..r
make the tatement that you can
pursue and get omewhere with what
you love. I'm glad we're doing that,
that' what makes us feel good."
Powerule' is a voice for po itive
change, self-respect and under­
tanding across all ethnic lines.
When it gets right down to it, Prince'
ay with the traight-ahead original
hip .hop attitude that power
Powerule, "We all live in the arne
'hood."