POP MUSIC REVIEW : Pair of Rap Acts Not Worth the Wait

Back in the early days of rap, it was OK to run shows on “hip-hop time”--which means later than scheduled. Fans paid low prices to hear artists perform a song or two in underground venues with lousy sound systems. Promptness wasn’t expected--the audience was grateful if the performers actually showed up.

So now that rap is big business, club-goers are getting professional shows, right? Wrong. Too often, fans get sucked into paying high cover charges without getting what they were promised. Sunday’s concert at the House of Blues featuring Notorious B.I.G. and Craig Mack--two of the most popular new artists among the current crop of East Coast rappers--was an exercise in how not to put on a show.

Scheduled to begin at 9 p.m. with a performance by Da Brat--who canceled at the last minute--the show began nearly three hours later with no explanation of her absence. When Mack finally took the stage for a 17-minute set, the New Yorker fumbled his way through five songs, with his labored delivery doing little to reinvigorate the drained audience.

Although Brooklyn’s Notorious B.I.G., whose “Big Poppa” is currently the nation’s No. 1 rap single, managed to re-inject some life into the crowd with his lumbering, Baby-Huey-turned-gangsta style and the hundreds of dollar bills he tossed their way, he walked off the stage in mid-show, offering the mike to Mary J. Blige, who happened to be in the house. Why not hand it over to a rap star--Snoop Doggy Dogg, Warren G and Ice-T were also milling through the crowd--rather than an R&B; singer? When B.I.G. returned, his average rap skills and unoriginal lyrics about big booties and bitches couldn’t turn the night around.

If performers are going to hearken back to old school practices, how about charging old school prices?