HIP-HOP SCRAPBOOK `RHYME AND REASON' A LETDOWN.

Byline: Stephen Holden The New York Times

Except for some fleeting glimpses of rap performers in concert, ``Rhyme and Reason,'' Peter Spirer's confusing oral history of hip-hop music and culture, provides scant indication of the music's thunderous exhortatory power. This is a shame, since the film is a serious if hopelessly rambling attempt to define that culture and to address many of the controversies swirling around it.

How much of gangsta rap is based on reality, and how much on fantasy? Is a street language that routinely defines women as ``bitches and ho's'' as sexist as it sounds or just a tough-sounding slang that heard in context is not automatically demeaning?

When wealthy rap stars leave their inner-city neighborhoods for posh suburban estates, are they traitors to the culture that made them rich or just doing what anyone would do given the opportunity? These are a few of the topics addressed by dozens of rap stars and hip-hop entrepreneurs in bite-size commentaries.

A densely compacted montage of talking heads, ``Rhyme and Reason'' is at its most coherent in early scenes that remember the birth of rap music in the mid-1970s in the South Bronx and the floating street culture where rappers competed for status at outdoor block parties.

The rhythmic scratching of records is given cursory analysis, as are the relationships of graffiti and break dancing to rap. One upbeat commentator who pops up like a nostalgic cheerleader is Kurtis Blow, whose 1980 hit, ``The Breaks,'' is among the most influential early rap anthems.

The film notes that the West Coast gangsta rap that began surging up the charts in the late 1980s was more heavily funk-oriented and angrier than the East Coast party music. The most articulate West Coast rapper to appear is Ice-T, who describes the addictive allure of the Los Angeles outlaw culture with a chilling insouciance.

Once ``Rhyme and Reason'' loses the thread of rap history and becomes a forum on topics such as violence, sexism, record companies, money and careers, its momentum dissipates. One longs to hear the sounds that inspire so much commentary and to see firsthand the relationship between the rappers and their music. But the movie dashes from person to person, often getting contradictory responses to the same question.

Crucial historical voices are also missing. Russell Simmons, the entrepreneurial king of East Coast hip-hop; Run-D.M.C., the most influential East Coast group, and LL Cool J, rap's longest-running solo superstar, are never heard from. Tupac Shakur puts in only a token appearance, and his death last September at age 25 is perfunctorily noted in an unrevealing video news clip that appears to have been shoehorned into the film at the last minute.

In discussing the evolution of rap, the film doesn't even bring up the practice of sampling that has made the most contemporary hip-hop records by the Fugees and others dauntingly sophisticated sound collages.

``Rhyme and Reason'' is a messy hip-hop scrapbook. It could have been so much more.

THE FACTS

The film: ``Rhyme and Reason'' (R; profanity).

The stars: Tribe Called Quest, Wu-Tang Clan, the Fugees, the Notorious B.I.G., Heavy D, Salt-n-Pepa, Nas, Tupac Shakur and Dr. Dre.

Behind the scenes: Directed by Peter Spirer. Produced by Charles X Block, Spirer and Daniel Sollinger. Released by Miramax Films.

Running time: One hour, 30 minutes.

Playing: Selected theaters.

Our rating: Two Stars.