"We make beats with rhythm and rhythm with beats," Jalil Hutchins raps in "Funky Beat," the first single from Whodini's third album. That perfectly describes this group's style. Every song pairs a different beat with a different rhythm. Unfortunately, the raps by Jalil and Ecstacy, who are virtually indistinguishable from one another, aren't so funky fresh. This record features boast rap ("Born and raised in the streets of Brooklyn/There're three of us and we're all good-looking"); cliché rap ("He who hesitates is lost/And the price that you pay is called the cost"); and, worst of all, sexist rap ("I'll never touch another man's prop-er-tee)."

Unlike Run-D.M.C., Melle Mel and Kurtis Blow, Whodini doesn't have a message. It was those rhythms and beats, not def raps, that made "Five Minutes of Funk" and "Freaks Come Out at Night," from the LP Escape, into dance-floor hits last year (I defy anyone to sing a few bars from "Five Minutes"). Whodini should have similar success with Back in Black's better tracks: "Fugitive," with its Run-D.M.C. heavy-metal crunch; "One Love"; and "The Good Part," a comic appeal for sex. If the Gap Band were to rap, the last cut would probably be the result.

Repeats, crashes, echoes, scratches (check out "Echo Scratch") and assorted hip-hop gimmicks elevate this bottom-heavy record above the average rap disc. But Back in Black is day-old rap; it sounds just a little bit stale. (RS 482)

STEVE BLOOM