Fear of a Pink Planet? The fear is real, according to Ghetto Rainbow‘s Straight Outta Castro: Greatest Hits 1998-2000. After this, consider the doors of one of hip-hop’s most insidious taboos blown wide open, as it were, with titles like “U Ain’t Gay Az Me,” “Back Door (Come on In),” and “Serve It Up (Tennis Anyone?).” Imagine, if you can, a sort of Public Enemy/GLAAD hybrid, clad of course in pink fatigues. Legend has the roster of Gay2Gay, Lucky P, Bruce G, DJ Ho-Mo, plus security detail Rear Admiral & the Pink Team, repping their alternative lifestyle on such albums as Live From Candlestick Park, Miata Drive-By, and Touché, Bitch! before succumbing to the inevitable feud with the Fire Island Bad Boyz Posse. Look, I’m not making this up; see for yourself at www.ghettorainbow.com. Greatest Hits contains some inspired moments (none more so than the C&C-style exhortation, “Everybody drop your pants now!”), but would have worked better as parody or political statement if it didn’t sound like either a DJ Screw outtake or a slipshod public-access prank. A circa-1982 robo-voice repeatedly intoning “wiener” is more sad than funny, but since the Grammy folks are so enamored of Eminem’s “production” values, I’m sure he’d be tickled pink to help out… R.U.G.G.E.D.‘s new Restoration is no joke, as the local rapper enlists some of that sleek Dirty South sound to help spread the gospel of J to the C. His confident flow and unshakeable convictions are admirable, but maybe he should pray for better beats, as Restoration veers off into hip-hop-lite territory a bit too often. It’s still a noble effort — after all, Judas Iscariot was the original player-hater… And so we come to the end of another “Beat Box” with Up South‘s Product EP, the latest offering from busy Hip Hop Humpday bee Bavu Blakes. Smooth, spontaneous, and cerebral, this five-cut appetizer recorded with Dallas chum Pea Dee only heightens anticipation for the full-length he’s supposedly cooking up with partner in rhyme Tee Double. As Ghetto Rainbow might say, keep it coming …
This article appears in February 2 • 2001.