The bass player's real, the drummer's real," intones Grand Puba at the end of "Who Makes the Loot?," one of the stronger cuts on the Brand New Heavies' Heavy Rhyme Experience: Vol, 1. The former Brand Nubian frontman joins Main Source, Gang Starr, Kool G. Rap and other respected rappers in rhyming over the Heavies' midtempo grooves. The conceit is simple: Pair rappers with live instrumentalists who play soul, rather than sample soul music.

Hip-hop has been criticized for being derivative, even cannibalistic, because it relies on rapacious sampling, but Heavy Rhyme Experience may leave listeners nostalgic for the jagged, dislocated denseness of Hank Shocklee's plunderous, musician-free assemblages. Because the Heavies are playing songs in real time from beginning to end, the burden is on the band's rhythmic acuity rather than on the production techniques that have long been a trademark of the best hip-hop. Deprived of the quick edits and the wry sonic mutilations and displacements that sampling affords, the backing tracks seem merely earnest and workaday.

"Jump n' Move," featuring Jamalski, is typical of Heavy Rhyme Experience: While the rapping is dynamic, the production is bland and the playing shiftless. There are no rhythmic surprises, just an automatic-pilot shuffle, and in this moderate funk setting the rappers seem enervated. "Do What I Gotta Do," featuring Ed O.G. Bulldog, starts with a terse guitar riff that promises to spur the rapper on, but soon the group's endemic mildness creeps in, leaving the band drifting like a Muzak version of Blood, Sweat and Tears.

The Jamaican dance-hall artist Tiger chats over the album's best track, "Whatgabouthat." The song is driven by a capering Ohio Players-style bass line, but what's most interesting about the song is the juxtaposition of Tiger's DJ mannerisms with the band's playing – as opposed to real musical drama. Contrary to the promise of the title, on Heavy Rhyme Experience the Brand New Heavies come off sounding trite and lite. (RS 639)

DIMITRI EHRLICH