REVIEW: Spearhead, Chocolate Supa Highway (Capitol)

- Joann D. Ball

Spearhead's mastermind, Michael Franti, creates, narrates and delivers in the African-American musical tradition of Gil Scott-Heron and Curtis Mayfield. He also updates the 411 disseminated by hip-hop pioneers KRS-One of Boogie Down Productions and Chuck D. of Public Enemy.

Along with Spearhead members Ras I. Zulu, Carl Young, David James and Trinna Simmons, Franti tells it like it is over serious grooves and beats on the band's second release, Chocolate Supa Highway. On this 15-track session, Franti and company prove that hip-hop is more than the CNN of Black America as Chuck D. once suggested.

With Chocolate Supa Highway, Franti loudly proclaims that "hip-hop is our world-wide Internet...about inspiration, not information." And this inspiration network connects hip-hop to soul, funk and jazz, as well as to reggae, folk and African rhythms. The cultural and musical internet session begins after a successful log-on through the brief intro "Africa On Line." On the title track, Franti raps in a deep, rich baritone about his observations of African-American life and the contradictions of American society on the eve of the Year 2000.

The reggae vibe on Chocolate Supa Highway is the direct result of Spearhead's slot on the 1996 Smokin' Grooves tour. Spearhead particularly connected with Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers, and Franti reunited with Melody Maker Stephen to produce the record. "Ganja Babe" is a hot, slow, sexy groove celebrating herbs and women that is filled with references to 70s songs (among them "Sweet Thing," "Close to You," and "Summer Breeze") and nursery rhymes. And Stephen Marley's guest appearance on "Rebel Music (3 O'Clock Roadblock)" is in many ways a nineties variation on father Bob's "I Shot the Sheriff."

Other delights here are the folk-tinged, acoustic guitar-based "Tha Payroll," and "Wayfarin' Stranger." On the latter, guest singer Joan Osborne does an incredible job contributing folk purities in the tradition of Joan Baez.

Musically, the Chocolate Supa Highway is a smooth ride at a comfortable speed, not too fast or slow. The bass pumps hard and smooth under the messages on "Keep Me Lifted," "Food for Tha Masses" and "Madness in Tha Hood (Free Ride)." The record's first single, "U Can't Sing R Song" is a particularly sweet offering filled with Isley Brothers' influenced backing vocals, saxophone, strings and other seventies R&B stylings. The Isleyinfluence is also present on "Gas Gauge (Tha World's in Your Hands)" which samples the classic "Groove With You."

Take a 65-minute ride on the Spearhead's Chocolate Supa Highway. Then visit the band's Capitol Records website at http://www.hollywoodandvine.com/spearhead