Arena Rap Has Arrived

CHULA VISTA —  Rap may have been the most vital area of pop music over the last decade, but the rebellious, beat-heavy genre has been a very unreliable experience live.

For the most part, watching a rapper walk to the microphone stand is like watching Shaquille O’Neal step to the free throw line on a bad night.

Clang.

Clang.

Clang.

Rather than design concerts with the imagination and craft they put into the recording process, rappers have tended to treat live shows as merely glorified in-store appearances, pacing the stage, waving their arms and trying to maintain a party vibe.

That history made the sold-out opening of Dr. Dre’s Up in Smoke tour Thursday at the 19,600-capacity Coors Amphitheatre here all the more gratifying.

There were brief sequences early in the four-hour show--anonymous sets by support artists Tha Eastsidaz and TQ--that clanged. And there were a couple of wobbly moments when the ball rolled around the rim for a long time before it finally fell in.

Chiefly, however, Up in Smoke--starring Dre, Ice Cube, Snoop Dogg and Eminem--was pure swish. The tour, which concludes a two-night stand at the Arrowhead Pond in Anaheim on Sunday, could well represent the coming of age for arena rap shows.

Because he is the best-selling figure in rap at the moment, all eyes were on Eminem--and the Detroit rapper delivered his often crude, aggressively provocative tales with the same power of his records.

This was Eminem’s first Southern California appearance since the release of his smash album “The Marshall Mathers LP,” and also since his much-publicized arrest earlier this month in Michigan. In that incident, he was charged with felony assault and weapons charges after he allegedly attacked a man who reportedly kissed Eminem’s wife in a neighborhood bar.

Rather than simply pace aimlessly around the stage, Eminem moved in time with the music, and rather than run the songs together in generic fashion, he set each one up nicely.

Before “Criminal,” a biting response to critics who denounce his sometimes X-rated music, Eminem had the stage crew inflate two huge balloons shaped like fists. It’s not hard, given Eminem’s defiant persona, to guess which finger on each hand was extended skyward.

But Eminem’s most theatrical moment came when he paused at center stage with a contrite expression on his face.

In his best repentant, choirboy fashion, he said he knew that everyone in the audience has probably heard about his marital problems. But he wanted to assure everyone that things were working out. In fact, he said, his wife, Kim, was with him on the tour.

“Kim, Kim,” he called, as if inviting her out on stage.

After a slight pause, a member of the stage crew walked out kissing an inflatable female doll.

Eminem then broke into his playful hit single “The Real Slim Shady,” which taunts parents by claiming that he is simply a reflection of young America. “There are millions of us . . . just like me . . . who dress like me, walk, talk and act like me.”

Together with his album, the 30-minute set confirmed that Eminem is a genuine original, gifted enough to potentially be placed alongside such figures as Chuck D., Ice Cube and Tupac Shakur on the top shelf of hip-hop artists.

Up next was Ice Cube, who, as a member of N.W.A in the late ‘80s, was an architect of gangsta rap. His 30-minute set relieved any fears that a recent focus on movies has softened him as a rapper. It also showed that he has benefited greatly from performing scores of concerts through the years.

After being lowered onto the stage in a giant cylinder, Cube, wearing a Laker jersey at one point, asserted an easy, charismatic command. His recent material lacks the originality and force of his landmark work with N.W.A and his early, incendiary solo albums, but he delivered the newer songs with conviction and force.

For someone known chiefly for his masterful studio production work, Dr. Dre seemed remarkably comfortable and effective as a performer as he teamed up with Snoop Dogg and a flock of guest rappers in a lively hour-plus set.

Backed by such colorful staging as a giant, menacing, talking skull and a series of fiery explosions, Dre served up such memorable early-’90s touchstones as “Nuthin’ But a ‘G’ Thang” and “California Love.” Both those numbers showcase his ability to mix contemporary hip-hop with the melodic lilt of old-school R&B; and funk. But such recent numbers as “Still D.R.E.” and “Forgot About Dre” were equally striking.

Dre and Snoop introduced “California Love” with a gentle salute to some deceased musicians, including N.W.A’s Eazy-E, the Notorious B.I.G., Big Punisher, Tupac Shakur and funkmeister Roger Troutman. The last two, Dre pointed out, had joined him in the studio on the “California Love” record.

Dre’s set was also highlighted by the dynamic rapping of Xzibit, a 25-year-old L.A. star in the making. He showed exceptional dynamics and rhyming punch as he teamed with Dre and Eminem on “What’s the Difference,” from Dre’s hit album “Dr. Dre 2001,” and then joined Snoop on the pair’s recent hit, “B Please.”

But Dre also turned the stage over to a slew of guest rappers who failed to maintain his momentum. The set would be greatly improved by trimming 10 to 15 minutes.

Rap detractors beware: This tour isn’t a toned-down, family-rated exercise. There were moments every bit as crude and offensive as those found on most rap records. There was a “Dirty Harry” celebration of violence in one of the videos shown during Dre’s set, and a wink at marital infidelity in another. The songs were filled in places with expletives and ugly images.

Through it all, however, there was also a sense of self-affirmation and community, elements that are as much of part of rap as the ribald humor and testosterone release.

The biggest disappointment was the N.W.A segment at the end. When the lights came back on at the start of the encore, N.W.A co-founders Dre, Ice Cube and MC Ren stood proudly alongside Snoop Dogg under giant banners that spelled out the group’s name in bold red letters.

This was the first arena reunion of what was arguably the most influential rap group ever, and you expected some of the classic numbers from “Straight Outta Compton,” its galvanizing 1989 album.

Instead, the rappers--backed, like all the evening’s acts, by a DJ rather than a band--did “Chin Check,” a tune they recorded for Ice Cube’s recent movie, “Next Friday.”

The foursome then left the stage, leaving the “reunion” seem more like a marketing ploy than an act of passion--a commercial for the long-discussed tour that finally appears to be on the planning boards. (Original N.W.A member DJ Yella is expected to join that tour.)

On a night of so many bull’s-eyes, it’s too bad that the show had to close on another clang.

* Up in Smoke tour, Sunday at the Arrowhead Pond, 2695 E. Katella Ave., Anaheim, 7:30 p.m. Sold out. (714) 704-2500.