The New Beats

Like the culture it chronicles, The New Beats contains a rapid-fire series of quick changes of tone and attitude. A chapter on rap's early days, when DJs showed their mix tricks at big Bronx street parties, jumps from the Jamaican patois of rap pioneer DJ Kool Herc to the scene at upper Manhattan dance clubs, all without missing a beat. Fernando, a frequent contributor to hip-hop magazine the Source, relates a rich history so current and alive, it seems to come off the paper. The reader learns about rap's forbearers, Jamaican reggae and 1970s funk; how rap lyrics, so fascinated with crime, have antecedents in the African folk hero Anansi the Spider and the fictional New Orleans outlaw Stack-a-Lee; and why rap music has been referred to as ``the black CNN.'' With a mix of in-your-face journalism (the author traverses dangerous territory with Los Angeles gang members), and a knack for communicating musical sound through the written word (James Brown's voice is ``thicker and juicier than prime rib slathered with extra gravy''), Fernando has created a fast-paced oral history that will prove important even when the dust settles from this still-developing form. Photos. QPB selection. (Sept.)