on
tive reaction to anti-
remarts ( ng to con ..
don violence agai t gay )
made by reggae r p rti t
Shabb ve p ently
nowb led.
ot only did they playa y
role in getting him kicked 0 f
the Bobby Brown tour, but Jay
Leno dropped Ranks from his
Tonight Show lineup, ying
h too, w offended. Leoo
w . d to be influer¥:ed by
pressure from the Oay & Les­
bianAllianceAgai t Defama­
tion.
Ranks subsequently issued
an apology, noting hi disap­
proval "of any act of violence
against homo exual or any
other human beings", But the
apology apparently wasn't
good enough for organizers of
an April 3 Rose Bowl benefit
that Ranks was set to co-head­
line.
Officials withdrew the invi­
tation for him to appear tating
they could not allow"the chari­
table efforts of this concert
event to be deterred by contro­
versy due to the unfortunate re-
. marks that were made and
subsequently retracted by Mr.
Ranks."
I g I tm. only how
that wo can moat in! ly
hUrt you.
Family
atter
Funkm tal, Rapmetal, Funk 'n
Roll ... all dead and/or dying. And
now LA' Proper Grounds has
come to put tb I t nail in the
co fins ... and d nee on th graves.
Sounds hostile, ure, but that's not
the point.
Th point is that Proper
. Grounds w not form d to cash
in on any sort of dismal trend. "It
wasn't even really a band atfirst,"
recalls founding Groundsman
Sean "Sandman" Kennedy. "Just
a decision between basketball and
music. And even when I first de­
cided on music, it was more of a
straight hip-hop thing."
� ,�:'-':":- :: .. -. " :
�Mone"
. J. - J
, ..•. , . _' .
':.PJU�, ,
[i�,"� •• "
�},wer
:�::�qllals
��::.: , �.:;, . .
'racism.
�i.*:!��:; ",'" "\. '
That said, Proper Grounds was
not formed - in a strict band
sense - for some three years
later, last April to be exact. Sand­
man's initial forays into hip-hop
were marked by the beginning of
his relationship with DJ Slang.
Additional members would come
in and out of the fold over the next
few years, but it was Sandman's
hooking up with guitarist/pro­
ducer Danny Saber that ounded
P:G. in earnest.
The two were introduced by
Los Ange s talent sc ut Guy
Oseary, hit it off creatively, and
the primal elements of P.O. were
a
o
synthesized. A ries of rill
demos, writ n and produced by
Sandman and aber, soon fol­
lowed.
WH· MAD 0 ap-
poin d Oseary head of A&R for
her Maverick label, he was quick,
to bring Proper Grounds to both
her ttention and to Freddy De­
Mann's.
Six rehearsals later, the band
played an informal showcase for
Maverick - and was greeted
backstage immediately thereafter
with an offer to sign. "It wasn't
any big thing," Sandman says.
"We had met with Madonna and
she said, 'All you have to do is
blow me away.' So I said 'Ok, we
will blow you away.'"
... and if th raw material that is
becoming Proper Grounds' debut
album is any i-ndication, the band
will continue to do so. Mood­
swing guitars and disorientating
samples provide the soundtrack
for a supernatural battle of the
will on "Mind Tempest" (lilt'
a ut upern tural fore that f- ..
ks ith me nd cpo te
rms," says Sandman. "I sur­
vive."). "Money In The Depths Of
A Plagueless Man" might appear
on first lis n to be P.G.'s redress­
ing of the Rodney King trail and
aftermath, but goes quite a bit
deeper, 'as Sandman explains: "In
a direct sense, 'Money ... ' is about
the King verdict, and in that same
sense, it is directed at the white
businessman/politician/figurehe
ad.
But it could apply to wherever,
whome r and whenever: Nige­
ria, Haiti, here, Blacks,
white ... Basi all , money plu
power equal racism. 0 matter
what col r you ar . if Y u're up in
the legi lature, you have money
and power, you're onna h-- n
Proper
round
motherf------ and nd out the
m sage: 'Stand in the way and
get taken out';" On a Iight r note,
S ndman d scribes his personal
favorite, "Downtown Circu
Gang" as a them song that show­
ca s "every clement of Proper
As befits a c median/social
commnentator In the tradiuon of
Lenny Bruce and Richard Pryor,
Paul M n y beli v s, "It is time
to be real. It's late in the day. F--­
the bull h--." Accordingly, he
leave th I w-I vel smut to oth­
ers and cuts right to the heart and
mind of things,
As Race, hi debut album on
the StepSun label, amply demon­
trates, Mooney I dct rrruned t
la er in on Am rica' . ubc n-
cious re spots, expo them to
his piercing intelli nee, and
make us lau h at the noti n that
we ever hid the w, und in the
first place. An equal op rtunity
offender, Moon y blasts y at
Hammer and Michael Jack n
with th arne gl e and gu t h
-brings to attacks on Woody All n
, and Je fr y Dahmer. H With r-
inglyamu ing about both "nigg r
raisins" and 'whit pe pI ' tal­
ents," He is a hard ore m di
ju ie with
funny eye.
�
In contempora t rrru
Mo n y' humor I fuel d y a
rap r' ra ,whJ h is why pre -
ducer Bill tephney, co- 'rea­
tor/engine I produ er Public
Grounds." -
, "They re like fruity Nazis, want­
ingto revise hi tory ... "), the mem­
r of Proper Grounds can't help
ut make an impression. In a
world where today's stars are y -
terday's news before sundown,
that's got to ount for something.
FROM 11-1 unt thercd chao
of their nin -rnan live 'h w t
their unaba hcd pr lytizing
("P.M. Dawn say. you. h uld just
forget the past," . ay andman.
It's a girl for Whitney and
Bobby Brown. Weighing in at
6 pounds, 12 ounces, the baby
was born in a New Jersey hos­
pital, with husband Bobby
Brown on haoo to witness tbe
experience first hand. The
proud couple named their
daughter Bobbi Kristina Hus­
ton-Brown, who is a week old.
This is the couple's first child,
-=- it is Brown's fourth, I think?
On theTube
PBS executives are looking
into the po ibility of moving
"I'll Fly Away" (which is ex­
pected to be dropped from
NBq to public television and
producing some new episodes.
If so, it would mark the first
time a prime time series went
from commercial to public TV
while till in production.
The producers' have said
they would be. pleased, how­
ever the cost of producing the
show (approximately $1 mil­
lion per hour) could get in tbe
way of that happening.
In other TV new, Shawn
Wayans' departure from "In
Living Color" male complete
the exodus of the Wayans fam­
ily from the how created by
Keenen Ivory Wayans.
Arsenio's next
film project
Arsenio Hall is slated to
have a film project out next
year, but ironically he won't
in th tarring role.
"It' a script I've found that
had to be made. It' about the
conflict between a father and
son in Africa. And it' about
apartheid. But mo tly what it'
about i that I got the opportu­
nity to give Morgan 'Freeman
his directorial debut, and have
a film tarring Alfre W dard
and Danny Glover.
If I don't make a dime, I'll
be glad that I had the opportu­
nity to bring those people to­
gether to do a quality project."
- 'Pt!Cla/ Contnbutor: Lisa Col­
luu (Behind·Th, unes)
Enemy and former vice pr . ident
f Def Jam Re rdin , think of'
Mooneya "the original W A­
Nigger With an Attitude."
Mooney himself 1 very calm
when h di cus his agenda. "I
went to those whi chool and I
think ju t like you," h tells the
San Franci can udi nre in -front
of whom he re rded Race. "I
don't want a piece f th cake. I
want the f----- t reci
well of Pryor's biopic, '']0 Jo
Dancer." As head writer for "The
Richard Pryor Show, " Moone y
wa the' first t ast Robin Wil­
Iiams, andra Bernhard, Mar ha
Warfield, J hn Witherspoon and
Tim Reid on national television.
Much more recently, was
he d writer during the first year of
"111 Living Color," for which be
created Homey the Clown. an­
dra Bernhard, for one, is not hy
about giving this underground
legend his prop. "lowe it all to
P ul," she ays. "H made me
r al. He nurtured me, infu d me
with confidence, trength and
honesty. And I studied hi m night
a ter night at the clubs."
Paul Mooney was born in Lou­
i i n and grew up in Oakland,
lifornia. a youth, he Ii rally
ran away from home and joired
th circus (the Charles G dy Cir-
cu ) coming in th pr the-
first v rican- American ring-
rna. tcr. Lat r he t ured with J n .
F nda nd the F--- the Army
eFT ) tr u , til] later, h toured
10 Eddie Murphy' "Raw II."
'It's M n y s time now,"
.s y mh rd "and not a min te
t 0