POP MUSIC REVIEW : Guy’s Fans Too Easy to Please

Guy got away with murder Saturday at the sold-out Universal Amphitheater in the first of the night’s two shows.

This R&B;/dance unit hoodwinked the audience, which was loaded with swooning females in their late teens. Fronted by lead singer Aaron Hall, Damian Hall and producer Teddy Riley, Guy put on a show that was all flash and no substance. But it was such a slick con job that the audience didn’t know what hit them.

These guys know that to please the female teen crowd in concert you have to be slender, well-muscled and a good dancer, and be backed by a band that can provide powerful dance rhythms.

How about competent singing? Obviously not necessary. Aaron Hall’s sloppy vocals certainly didn’t turn Saturday’s crowd off.

Riley, a bona fide studio wizard at 21, deserves credit for masterminding Guy’s album, which has sold nearly 1 1/2 million. He’s tapped into a sound that turns the young black audience on. But he and his colleagues in Guy haven’t found a way to translate that sound to the stage. Apparently there’s no hurry. Audiences seem to be quite satisfied with that diet of flash Guy is serving up.

Speaking of pulling the wool over an audience’s eyes, rapper M. C. Hammer--sandwiched in between Guy and short sets by Today and Kid ‘n Play--is a capable con man, too. He gave the audience lots of noise and glitz--including go-go dancers and smoke machines--laced with racy movements and sexy chatter.

On his records, Hammer is a passable rapper, but amid all that noisy accompaniment, most of his lyrics were unintelligible. But when a good-looking, well-built, high-stepping rapper is cavorting in front of an audience of rapturous female teens, the last thing on their minds is lyrics.