ENTERTAINMENT
, BRIEFS
'I
t believe it w com-
bi tion of all th bove. Yet,
for y , people blamed dru
for the problem that
h dowed the ucce e of
Richard Pryor, however m ny
who kne him, Y that when
the dru topped, the problem
w till there, 0 en de crib-
ing him lf-d tractive.
Having been in hi
pre ence on numerou oc­
c ions, (Li a Collins), I'd
have to agree. You could
it in his behavior, in the people
h urrounded himself with.
There w the side of him
that tried to reach put,-w
ensitive, honest and vul­
nerable. Then there wa
another ide,-on that w
guarded, jaded, and even cold.
At present, hi bigge t
challenge is overcoming Mul­
tiple Sclerosi (MS). Attack­
ing the nervous ystem, MS is
not life-threatening, but can be
extremely disabling.
Patients uffer a variety of
ymptoms from a baking of
the limb and unsteadines in
walking to paraly is. With
treatment, however, MS can
be controlled. But that treat­
ment i dependent upon the
control of emotional distur­
bances, and the one thing
Pryor has been famous for is
his mood swings. Let's all just
keep him up in our prayers.
Kim Kenner, member of
the female rap group- "Hoes
Wit Attitude", w recently
wounded in a driveby shooting
outside a West Hollywood,
California restaurant.
Kenner, also known as
Baby Girl, was treated at
Cedar Sinai Hospital for-head
and leg wounds and was
released.
Matty Rich­
In financial
hot water
Matty Rich is in some
financial hot water. The ac­
tors in his film "Straight Outta
Brooklyn" are claiming he
hasn't paid them for their
work.
In addition, the private in­
vestors who gave Matty
$77,000 to finish up "Straight
Outta Brooklyn" say they
haven't been paid either. The
backers wanted their money
out of the $500,000 the film's
distributor, Samuel Goldwyn
Company, paid Matty.
According to reports,
Matty'S lawyer says that
money was used to shoot more
scenes for the film. He says all
the investors will be paid out
of the film's profijs. The
wonder boy's fashion line,
"Matty Rich Wear" is in
trouble. The 'Rich War'
designers says they're owed
more than $3,000.
Moonl1ghtlng
Queen Latifah is going full
steam at acting. She's been
concentrating her energies on
film (most recently "Juice",)
but don't be surprised if you
tum on your TV this fall and
catch her on NBC.
Seems rap' top female star
has hooked up with fellow rap­
per Monie Love for a serie
pilot-a modern day "Laverne
& Shirley", that is a possible
candidate for the fall schedule.
_ complied by K. B.b - Be­
ItUwl 1M Sc.MI &: RtMioSc�-TM­
Coburua, Ipec;1II cOlllribuum
, .
Every thin ' Gonna Be Alright,
the new ughty by ture vid ,
trie to evo e I ense of pi ceo
Here' the de cription from the .
record:
Say something positiv 1
Well po itiue ain't where I live
I live right around tM corner
(rom West Hell
Two blocks (rom South Sh.J
And once in a jail cell
That' Dante ungentrified.
N ughty by Nature are een in the
peculiar bombed-out zone
brightened by a few green young
trees that i recognizable· an
American inner city. It's no more
than a vi ual etting, ufficient
pace for the group to hold forth
they do thi quite good rap.
The vi ible reality give just hint
of the emotional deva tation the
song d cribes. More so than "The
Message" or "Mind Playing Tricks
on Me, " Everything's GOIUUJ Be AL­
right mar the first real change in
teenage disaffection to be found in
pop ince Rebel Without a Cause.
It' no longer "close to the edge" and
it' beyond petulance. Towards the
end lead rapper Treach confides,
"How will I make it1/1 won't that's
how!" That same hard, immoral
tone that made "O.P.P." finally off­
putting has even more conviction
here. Treach i n't asking for pity and
he' not romanticizing.
As Springsteen- tyle white rock
expressed teenage J there
wand underlyhi"sa . - a
brief show of attitude before claim­
ing the place ecure for one in the
octal order. This turned
Springsteen' mo t angul hed
entreaties into subservient acknow­
ledgments of orthodoxy. Hi father-
on links were not just identification
but proof of continuity and capitula­
tion. Naughty by Nature's "Ghena
Bastard" JD risks no such sentimen­
tality; their genuinely nihilistic rap
dares the affront that traditional
rock'n'roll only plays at.
Consider Springsteen's most dis­
ingenuous rebellion song, "Prove It
All Night":
Baby tie your hair back
In a long white bow
Meet me in the field
Behind the dynamo
You hear: their voices
Telling you not to go
They made their choices
and they'll never know
What it means to steal
To cheat, to lie
What it's like to live and die
To prove it all night.
The romantic female image im­
plies a love for the circumstances
that test the singer, and the white
bow is, of course, a sign of surrender.
To convince himself he isn't selling
out, Springsteen has to fantasize dis­
tance from his elders so he
deliberately misreads their matura­
tion by doubting their one-time reck­
less and daring.
Springsteen lies by refusing to
admit how transitory teenage rebel­
lion can be, or how traditional. It's
the typical delusion white rock offers
its audience of power inheritors.
. Lacking a social inheritance (and
rejecting pop indulgence), Naughty
by Nature sneers at distant authority
with mti-romanticisrn:
r
By SHOCK ROCK
Sp!cI.' to Mlchillan CltIDn
This young brother from High­
land Park, Michigan produced, co­
wrote & arranged his whole album
with his partner Sleeepy-D. Their
album, The Spotlyte album. P­
Groove is busy working on his
second album & producing others.
He took time out of his busy
schedule for an interview in the.
P.O.P Zone (his studio).
SHOCK ROCK: what kind of
equipment do you work with?
started a rap group (Kneet Ultra).
The lead rapper inspired me to be a
rapper. Later on I started producing.
Then in '85, I started dee-jaying.
SR: Would you rate yourself as
a Hip-Hop, R&B or universal
producer?
p·G: Hip-Hop, really. But I'm
working to be a universal producer.
SR: Being a producer, give me
your views on West Coast produc­
ing.
p·G: West Coast producers are
intense and complex,
SR: East Coast producing?
P.GROOVE: ROLAND R-8, P-G: East. Coast producing is just
. Roland R-ST20, T.ascam 424 That's as intense but simpler.
at my studio. Then for final mixes I SR: What groups have you
go to the Tempermill Studio produced?
SR: What musical producers in- p·G: My group, Prince Shaheed,
fluence you? . .K.O.B cl The Saw, Tasba T.
p·G: Marley Marl, Teddy Riley, sa: What groups do you want to
EPMD. work with?
SR: How did you get started?
P-G: Back in ·83, my father had
p·G: Main Source, Tribe
• called Quest, Black Sheep.
New Artist Of The Year
.1991
NAUGHTY BY NATURE
So don't say jack
And please don't say you
understand •
All that man-to-man talk
'Can walk down
If you ain't lioin' it
You couldn't feel it
So kill it, 'skillet
and all that talk about it
Won't help it
Now will it?
ferent for Naughty by Nature than
they were for Springsteen in '78, but
this isn't just the difference between
Carter and Bush. It's the difference
between the racial facts of American
life.
Naughty by Nature has a hard un­
derstanding of those facts. This
video gives a nightmarish memory
far more hellish than all ofBoyzN the
Hood. It's totally harsh, befitting the
fade-out lyrical reference to Hell Up
in Harlem ("If you ain't ever been to
the ghetto ... ").
There's more .amplitude on the
'record itself where the title is the
chorus. The sweet female voices of
the British 'disco group Boney M
This lsn'ta daydream of lawless­
ness (the video shows the group on
street reconnaissance with Treach,
carrying a machete). This song
doesn't question elder's nerve; it
speaks. on their remoteness and
futility. In 1992, the stakes are dif-
. . .
,
P-Groove - Highland Park rapper.
vamping "No Woman No Cry" are
sampled in to show the warmth and
beneficence ghetto bastards don't
have. The ound of Boney M not
only distances the self-actualizing
politics of reggae but it mocks the
optimi m SPringsteen personalized
and that Conservative now hold
before the disfranchised. This sweet
chorus is the bitterest irony im­
aginable.
Out of
Con rol
By LISA COLLINS
Behind· The.Scenes
Due to budget overrides,
control of Spike Lee's latest
project, - "Malcolm X", is
now in the hands ota com­
pletion bond company.
The move came when
production costs exceeded
the pre-agreed $28 million
budget by $5 million.
The Completion Bond
Co. is a Century City,
California-based firm that
insures investors against
films going over budget and
over schedule.
With this move. the
Completion Bond Company .
assumes the legal power to
finish the film, assuring its
delivery to Warner Bros by
the end of the year. 0Nerner
Bros hopes to rei e -Malcolm
X- dur ng the Chr1stm holidays).
Completion Bond Co.
representatives say despite
the move, Lee will retain
creative control. Only he'll
have to conform to a much
m are restrictive po t­
production budget.
Shooting for the three­
hour film, which included
locations in Egypt, South
Africa, and Harlem, was not
affected.