Imagine a party by the corner store in the heart of the New Orleans' Magnolia projects, with the baddest-ass DJ this south-side of Texas, and big-booming, thick-hitting bass beats backing the lyrics of neighborhood kids weaned on rhythm. Hell yeah that's gonna sound good. Hell yeah it'll make you "put your hands in the air and throw your ass up." But how innovative is the beat mixing? What about the rhymes? With lyrics like, "We got that fire/We got that fire/Yo, holler at Cash Money if you want these Oscar Meyers...," how much can the Big Tymers and the rest of the Cash Money Millionaires get away with before someone calls them the 'N Sync of hip-pop?

After the slow sales pace of the New Orleans summer forced the cancellation of the first night of what was scheduled to be a two-night engagement at House of Blues, the Cash Money Millionaires crew sold out Tuesday night's Big Tymers (Mannie Fresh and Bryan "Baby" Williams) tour kick-off show to a 1,000-capacity-packed house of Dirty South bouncers. Promoting their I Got That Work CD, beat junkie Fresh and rhymin' Cash Money co-CEO Williams were joined on stage by Li'l Wayne , Juvenile, B.G., the Hot Boys and an assortment of nephews, brothers and boys from the hood. In stride, Juvenile opened and closed the show flipping cash at the audience out of wad-filled hands, while Fresh and Baby flashed ice-covered wrists and necks with trademark bling-bling bluster. The name "Big Tymers" says it all -- Cash Money is trying their damnedest to make their big-talking prophecy self-fulfilling.

Since the release of "Back That Azz Up," (Juvenile's take on New Orleans' DJ Jubilee's "Back That Thing Up"), the New Orleans Millionaires have been consistently feeding bounce-lovers enough rockety bass to rattle windows across the country and enough catchy singles to capture the undying attention of urban dance radio stations everywhere. At the moment, the Big Tymers are blessed with a case of "Oops!... We Did 'Everybody Get Your Roll On' Again," the chorus of which reappeared over and over in Tuesday night's set, as the crowd burst into a frenzy of arm twirling and ass shaking. Conveniently, the artists behind each year's favorite bounce single seem to appear together with each Cash Money tour, apparently to keep the back catalogue movin'. Even Spliff made a guest appearance, emerging from a circle of Cash Money's Army to talk to the crowd about "Whoa." Familiar tunes including "#1 Stunna," "I Got That Work," "Big Ballin" and "I Got That Fire," were interspersed with rhyme jaunts by everyone from B.G.'s fourteen-year-old brother to a bounce-bound hot girl who more than held her own as the only female onstage.

The result was a great-sounding show, but one that never exceeded the much-hyped appreciation of Mannie Fresh's beats, which bounce and roll like reggae club music, mixed with the faster speed and heavier booms of gangsta rap. Once the initial thrill of swimming through soundwaves subsided, the Big Tymers were still stuck reincorporating second-run beats and lyrics and mixing together the inspiring topics of what they've got and where they're from. As good as the end result might sound to bass junkies, endlessly similar beats and repetitive rhymes eventually doom the music to an anti-climactic roll; unimaginative raps about girls and money don't help matters any either.

For what it is, the Big Tymers tour, carefully skipping over critical hip-hop centers like New York and Philly, opened in New Orleans sounding keyed up and ready for stops through the Dirty South and across the West. But for all the musical, lyrical and technical innovation the genre is capable of, the daytime radio flavor of Cash Money and Big Tymers' new tour only yields "just a little taste of the bass for you," ultimately making good on Public Enemy's decade-old warning not to believe the hype.

JENNIFER ODELL
(June 23, 2000)