RAP SHOW STEADY, NOT MOBBED

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, February 22, 1992                   TAG: 9202230003
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: E-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: TRACIE FELLERS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
RAP SHOW STEADY, NOT MOBBED
The Steady Mobb tour, which came to the Roanoke Civic Center Friday night, featured rapper Ice Cube. But some of the concert's less-established acts, namely Black Sheep and Leaders of the New School, nearly stole the show.
That's not to say that Cube and his posse, the Lench Mob, received a lukewarm response from the crowd of 1,543. As rappers would say, the audience - particularly fans on the floor of the coliseum - was down with Cube for the entire 40 or so minutes he was on stage. Fans rapped along to their favorites: "The Wrong Nigga to ---- Wit," "Steady Mobbin," and "No Vaseline," all from Cube's latest album, "Death Certificate."
Not surprisingly, Cube and company also had the most striking stage set - a simulated cemetery. There were high walls, a huge skull with glowing red eyes in the center, and "tombstones" for Los Angeles police chief Daryl Gates, President George Bush, Cube's former group, N.W.A, and N.W.A. member Eazy E. To open Cube's part of the show, the stage was enveloped in a cloud of smoke and yet another prop came into play - a flashing blue light like those on police cars.
The primary fault with Cube's portion of the show was poor balance between his raps and the samples and supporting beats streaming out of the speakers. It often was difficult to hear more than a few words here and there, at least from box seats on the left side of the civic center coliseum.
Black Sheep, a group that appeared earlier in the evening, had better success in finding the right balance between raps and background sound. They also had success with the crowd during their 20 minutes in the spotlight. Their two hit songs, "Flavor of the Month," and "The Choice is Yours," even got some of the fans in the stands on their feet.
The crowd liked the energy of Leaders of the New School, a six-man act that preceded Black Sheep. One guy in the group had the best dance moves of the night. The tune with the chorus that goes: "Just another case of that ol' P.T.A . . ." had fans dancing, too. But the Leaders' raps also had trouble cutting through their backing sound.
Del tha Funkee Homosapien, actually a duo, had the show's most lighthearted approach and an imaginative way with rhymes. One song even used a revised version of one of those educational ditties that used to appear on ABC-TV between Saturday morning cartoons. The audience joined in the fun on the group's hit "MistaDobilina."

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB