The Morning Call from Allentown, Pennsylvania • 48

A48 THE MORNING CAli, SATURDAY. DECEMBER 11 1999 (SC Review; ''a Dr. Dre on the offensive. Notorious B.I.G. outsized and pedantic.

ft 1 4 Q-Tip jazzy joy and b-boy juice. Arsonists a sense of graffiti-like urgency. it DR. DRE: Dr.Dre 2001 (Aftermathlnterscope) j. The best defense is a good offense and offensive Dr.

Dre is in trying to re-certify his street cred, despite the family man image he now so carefully cultivates. (He's married with two children.) The 34-year-old charter member of N.WA and G-funk pioneer his 1 992 disc. The Chronic," brought laid-back 70s funk-soul to the hip-hop party brings in the muscle (notably Snoop Dogg), for the new "Dr. Dre 2001." And like a gangster overlord, he al- Hows his minions to do the dirty work when it comes to the violence and sex freak bashing. "2001" is most formidable when Dre recapitulates recent rap history the somber, defiant The Watcher" and the lame state of the competition "Forget About Dre" and "What's the Difference," where Eminem and others pole-axe the new-era gibberish spouters.

But a major chunk of the disc is repellant Dre brutally blows off a teary, persistent married lover in You." With his freakaholic friends Kurupt Nate Dogg and Six Two, he celebrates ho's on "Xplosive," offers a porno sce- -nario in "Lef Get High," and on "Housewife," allows Kurupt and Hittman to offer this immortal advice: "You can't make a ho a housewife." Of course, lest you think Dre is truly a misogynist, he gives a woman sniper her props on "Murder Ink." That machine guns Dre's anti-violence stance on the final two tracks, "Bang Bang," which cleverly incorporates gunshots into a tale of urban killing fields, and The Message," where Mary J. Blige achingly oohs as "Dre recalls the death of his younger brother, Tyree, whose neck was broken in a fight in 1998. For the most part, the doctor is out on "2001." LenRighi THE NOTORIOUS B.I.G.: Bom Again (Bad Boy) Since his death in 1997, the Notorious B.I.G. (a.k.a. Biggie Smalls, a.k.a.

Christopher W-lace) has managed to stay in the public eye, in large part due to the continued speculation over his violent (and unsolved) death and the often drab work of Sean "Puffy" Combs, whose smash album "No Way Out" was a virtual homage to his slain musical cohort Now, nearly three years after his death, comes "Born Again," which at times is able to overcome its "house clearing" tendencies (marrying Smalls' unreleased raps with new mixes) to act as a final tribute to a rapper who was always more sinner than saint Executive produced by Combs, "Bom Agairf is stocked with a VIP guest list including Eminem, Snoop Dogg, Busta Rhymes and Ice Cube that trades retrospective barbs with the ghostly visage. While overlong and often bordering on tine pedantic, the album does have some choice tracks: The opening "Notorious B.I.G." deftly samples a Duran Duran tune to backdrop the tightly mixed boasting among Smalls, LiC Kim and Puff Daddy, while "Rap Phenomenon" adds the one-two punch of Redman and Method Man with equally volatile results. It's too bad then that the bulk of what remains probably had its best residence in the Bad Boy vaults too much been there, done that album concludes with a spoken message from Biggie's morn, whose eloquent hfurt-IxmJk sounds slifjl itly cut of music credentials. Iglesias has the pop smarts. At just 24, the son of Julio seems to following the family tradition of selling boatloads of discs all over the world, and justifiably so.

Enrique's voice has amazing range and an emotional element This saves some of the thinner material includes "Be With You" and "I Have Always Loved You" from disappearing. His voice has a unique inflection on Bruce Springsteen's "Sad Eyes" (and there's not a trace of the Boss). 'XDyeme" rocks with a fun atti- 1 the "Wild Wild West" soundtrack tune that first broke Iglesias in the is on board, as is the lush textured single "Rhythm Divine," easily the best track here. But all is not perfect "You're My 1" is positively drippy, while the Diane Wan-en-penned duet with Whitney Houston, "Could I Have This Kiss Forever," is cliche-ridden. The disc ends with three songs rendered in Spanish.

Most pop music seems utterly disposable, but Iglesias proves if possible to do light pop tunes that last longer than their run on the charts. Larry Printz Enrique Iglesias, Jessica Simpson, Len, Lou Bega, Robbie Williams, Amber, Q102 Jingle Ball '99, 8 p.m. Tuesday, Electric Factory, 421 N. Seventh St, Philadelphia. 215-627-1332, 215-569-9400.

The show is sold out AMBER (Tommy Boy) The color amber is pale yellow. The singer Amber, on her new self-titled disc, is pale Madonna, and that's when her singing has some character on the well-intentioned but preachy "Love One Another," rthe earnest "I Found Myself in You," and the soulful hand-wringer "How Can I Tell You (The Truth)." But perhaps I'm being too tough on the young dance-pop vocalist-songwriter, who was bom in the Netherlands and raised in Germany. She claims that on her 1996 hit. This Is Your Night'and her debut disc, "One More Night" producers Christian and Frank Berman pulled all the strings, and that now she's her own woman. All well and good, but she's something of a ditz.

The jiggy single "Sexual (La Da Di)" is perky, pulse-pounding piffle in both versions here; she wants the guy to value her friendship and be addicted to her perfume! Then there's the sappy seductive "Sexual Virginity," and the ballad "If I'm Not the One," where an emotionally wounded Amber sweetly confesses, This frigidity drives me crazy." But the capper is the dis-co-ized Gordon Lightfoot tune "If You Could Read My Mind," performed with Ultra Nate and Jocelyn Enriquez; taste sinks faster than the Edmund Fitzgerald. "Amber" is not forever. Len Righi Amber, Enrique Iglesias, Jessica Simpson, Len, Lou Bega, Robbie Williams, Q102 Jingle Ball '99, 8 p.m. Tuesday, Electric Factory 421 N. Seventh St, Philadelphia.

215-627-1332, 215469-9400. The show is sold out MILTON NASCIMENTO: Crooner (Warner Bros.) With his latest disc, "Crooner," Brazilian singingcomposing legend returns to his roots in the 1950s and '60s, when he was a street-performing kid 'Please'See AtjQ Enrique Iglesias has pop smarts. place on an album with tracks such as "Big Booty Hoes." In the end, the contradicting trajectories of "Born Again" probably give it more flavor than the music itself, which finds family and friends trying to make a saint out of an artist who was at his best playing the sinner. James Doolittle UM CEASE: The Wonderful World Of Cease a Leo (Queen BeeAtlantic) Biggie knew. Lil' Cease was getting mad love from the Notorious B.I.G.'s before the Big Poppa died.

In almost every TV and print interview and on his own discs. Biggie would mention his up-and-coming protege as hip hop's next big thing. Lil' Cease's debut, The Wonderful World Of Cease a Leo," doesn't disappoint putting a rough, East Coast edge on hip-hop for the first time since, umm. Biggie. "Ray Around," with Lil' Kim (his sister), Mr.

Bristol and Joe Hooker is the disc's best compilation track, if not its best song, with "More Dangerous," featuring Busta Rhymes, Mr. Bristal and G-Dep, not far behind. Lif Cease's strong, raspy flows and a bumping beat make "Mr. Nasty" a definite head-nodder and has the feel of a DMX and Ja Rule joint Lil' Cease also shows he can slow it down and put together a soulful, slow rap like his mentor Biggie, teaming with 1 12 on "Everything," a tribute to Biggie's life that is light-years ahead of Puff Daddy's "111 Be Missing You." Clearly, Lif Cease is on his way up the hip-hop food chain, and it's hardly a surprise, considering who taught him how to survive the rap game. Dave Andrews Q-TIP: Amplified (Arista) Of this year's best hip-hop discs, Fminem's "Slim Shady LP" has the most punch awl when hip hop was about having fun?" at the end of the borderline-maudlin "Flashback." It's not a call to arms just a sorely necessary nostalgic reminder.

Joe Warminsky 0l MARC ANTHONY (Columbia) Marc Anthony has hit the Top 10 with the irresistible "I Need To Know." Co-written by Anthony and Cory Rooney, who produced, the gotta-dance groove zoot-suits the swing revival one better. Backed by a synth strings and piano figure and Bobby Allende's percus- sion making a hurdy-gurdy for four-way hips, the Latin pop star sings an ending for this song seemingly longer than that on "Hey Jude." But if you still can't get enough (and thaf possible), there's also a Spanish-language version. In and around these tracks are many ballads, some memorable, some not The opener, "When I Dream At Night" is a lushly romantic midtempo tune featuring Anthony's high-pitched, earnest vocals. "Am I The Only One" is a lovestruck ballad. "You Sang To Me" is another sweet midtempo offering.

"My Baby You" is a lovely anthem to Anthony's daughter, Arianna, that is pure poetry. Anthony's dramatic vocals enliven the ballads "Don't Leave Me" and "Love Is All." Two other salsa-style tracks, Thaf Okay" and "She's Been Good To Me" (also here in an additional Spanish version) seem intended as "I Need To Know" sound-alike follow-ups. The 15-track disc concludes with "Da La Vuelta," co-written and produced by Emilio Estefan Jr. PaulWillistein ENRIQUE IGLESIAS (Interscope) Ricky Martin, Marc Anthony, Enrique Iglesias. Most people can't keep them straight without a scorecard.

Martin's music is bland, but good looks can sell r. anything. Marc Anthony has the. i i A Amber not forever. but thaf a minor peccadillo for a disc that could restore anybody's faith in hip hop.

Joe Warminsky III ARSONISTS: As The World Bums (Matador) Anybody reared on radio rap is going to find the verbal onslaught and rugged grooves of hip-hop's underground sound to be a little unforgiving. And although groups such as the Arsonists and Company Flow aren't known for their finesse, they truly love hip-hop's historic architecture, and they revere the art of intelligent wordplay. "As The Work) Bums," the Arsonists' debut is appropriately cocky and sometimes overwhelming, from its wacko "monkey" skits (give it up to my cousin Matt for slipping one onto his sister's answering machine) to its self-produced jazz textures, symphonic hooks, trip-hop influences and unscripted MC battles. Above all the sonic horseplay, the New York quintet gives every song a sense of graffiti like urgency, as it the words couldn't wait. One of them blisrts, 'Tail remember The Roots' Things Fall Apart" is the artistic champion, but Q-Tip's solo debut "Amplified," has more fun than both.

As one-third of the late A Tribe Called Quest Tip played the role of impish crowd-stirrer, but by the time the trio's 1998 disc. The Love Movement" limped away, neither he, Phife nor Ali Shaheed Mohammed appeared to have much left In Tip's case, however, the hip-hop old folks' home isn't showing Touched By An Angel" yet "Amplified" brims with jazzy joy and b-boy juice, as if he's not satisfied with simply being a sage munchkin, or a revered relic, like Rakim or Chuck D. Producer Jay Dee should get most of the credit for the disc's head-bobbing first two singles, "Breath And Stop" and "Vivrant Thing," but Tip manhandles Dee's grooves elsewhere. "Wait Up" is a classic microphone battle call. Things Do" revisits Tribe's better attempts at social consciousness.

And "Moving With is a sensible love song in an era when balladry has become rap's most itch-inducing cliche. "Amplified" only loses points when Busta Rhymes rears his knobby head on "N.T.,".