While the current crop of hip-hop superstars have often gotten a bad rap for their extra-curricular activities, a passel of performers got together in the Bronx on Tuesday evening to proffer a little payback -- in the most positive sense of the word. |

In an effort spearheaded by Fat Joe and Jimmy Rodriguez (one of New York's best-known restaurateurs), a slew of rappers and Latin performers got together for a spur-of-the-moment concert that raised more than $300,000 for victims of Hurricane Georges.

Tickets for the show --which was held at Rodriguez' El Patio Club -- weren't cheap: Corporate-sponsored tables went for $10,000 a pop, while single seats set attendees back a cool grand. But folks who ponied up the dough -- or were lucky enough to win one of the ducats given away by a local hip-hop station -- were treated to appearances by such Bronx-bred (or based) artists as Fat Joe, Big Punisher, Lord Tariq & Peter Gunz and salsa legend Tito Puente.

The money raised will be distributed throughout the Caribbean, with particular attention to the Dominican Republic, where most of the hurricane damage occurred.

DAVID SPRAGUE(October 7, 1998)