MUSIC TO THEIR SEASON: BENGALS GET PICKED UP BY THEIR BOOTSY RAPS.

Byline: BILLY WITZ NFL 

The Bengals are cracking, packing hard hats and lunches. Pleasing fans while we pile the wins in bunches. Ain't no hunches, ain't no gimmicks, ain't no limits to our play. When it's all over, the nation will be screaming, 'Who dey?'

``Bigg Cats''

That musicians and athletes are often drawn to each other has led to some unfortunate consequences over the years: Shaq's foray into rap, Master P delving into basketball and representation - wonder what Ricky Williams thinks of that contract now? - and, intentionally campy or not, ``The Super Bowl Shuffle'' laid out 20 years ago by the Chicago Bears.

No matter how impossibly low the bar has been set, it's hard to believe that the ones high-stepping over it hail from Cincinnati, which over the past 15 years has been responsible for exporting plenty of bad football and Nick Lachey.

Nevertheless, a group of Bengals have teamed up with old school funk bassist Bootsy Collins for several tracks and a forthcoming video, and the results - surprisingly enough - appear to have as much upside as the Bengals themselves.

Two songs, ``Bigg Cats'' and ``Fear Da Tigers,'' were released last month on the Internet and are starting to get exposure around the country. Meanwhile, they're already the cat's meow in their hometown.

The songs have been getting heavy airplay this week in Cincinnati, where the Bengals' 7-2 start - their best since they went to the Super Bowl in 1988 - and the arrival of the undefeated Colts today has fooled the locals into thinking it's January.

``People have been tailgating since Friday,'' Bengals defensive end Duane Clemons said Saturday. ``Everybody in Cincinnati thinks it's a playoff game. The anticipation is killing `em.''

So, too, is the music.

If it won't win any Grammys, Bootsy and the Bengals have at least given Cincinnati a rallying cry that's as much their own as the Ickey Shuffle.

And that was precisely the point when Collins, a longtime Bengals fan, told Clemons that the team needed an anthem to go with their ``Who Dey?'' chant and asked if he and a few teammates were interested in helping.

To Clemons, the thrill went both ways.

When he was a kid growing up in Riverside, his father listened to Parliament, Funkadelic and Bootsy's Rubber Band, which were distinguished by Collins' space bass and his pimped-out outfits that are as outlandish as the Bengals' uniforms.

``Bootsy was one of my all-time idols,'' said Clemons, who inherited his father's record collection.

``There's something about when he grabs the guitar, the sound of that bass. Funk is about being who you truly are. In football, you have to put your game face on, when you go to work you put on your suit and tie, but funk is about being totally naked in front of the world. Whatever your creative juices tell you to do, that's who you are when you're feeling the funk.''

The two met two years ago, shortly after Clemons signed with Cincinnati as a free agent. One thing led to another.

``I had thought of doing a song on the Bengals, I just never followed through with it. I was always busy doing other things,'' said Collins, who was inducted into the Rock N' Roll Hall of Fame in 1997.

``Once I developed a relationship with Duane, I said, 'Wow. This might be something to do.''

A few weeks into the season, Collins invited Clemons and offensive linemen Ben Wilkerson and Stacy Andrews to his home studio, dubbed ``The Mothership,'' to listen to some tracks he'd come up with.

``They were listening to this one track and they started groovin', so I'm asking what y'all hear and all of a sudden (Clemons) started kicking some raps,'' Collins said. ``I told him just act like the microphone is a quarterback, go tackle it. When Duane got all fired up, the other cats got a pencil and paper and got going.''

Call it Rumble in the Jungle, Call it Thrilla in Manilla. No matter what you wanna call it, on the field, we're gonna kill ya.

The next week, Collins had them all back to work on it some more. Soon, teammates Rudi Johnson, Tory James, T.J. Houshmandzadeh, Shaun Smith, Odell Thurman and Tab Perry, a rookie from UCLA, came along.

In the wrong color jersey, yeah, you're going to get dealt with. Hit you so hard, your great grandmother felt it.

In the tracks, Collins introduces a number of Bengals, putting rhythm to the names of Jonathan Fanene, Hannibal Naives and Car-Son Pal-Mer, but other than that and chirping the refrain - ``Crank it up, fool'' - the words all belong to the Bengals.

These days, so does everything else in Cincinnati. Since Marvin Lewis arrived as coach three years ago, there has finally been hope for a franchise that hasn't had a winning season since 1990.

The young, talented Bengals - after back-to-back 8-8 seasons - appear poised for a breakthrough. Though they still must prove they can beat the best teams in the AFC - their most impressive win has been over Chicago - if the Bengals knock off the Colts today, the schedule gives them a shot at winning home-field advantage throughout the playoffs and beyond that Super Bowl XL in Detroit.

And so while the music matters to the Bengals, it's little more than a pleasant diversion. Unless, of course, they can mix the two.

``I don't think we're going on tour,'' Clemons said. ``Unless it's to Detroit.''

CAPTION(S):

2 boxes

Box:

(1) BUMP & RUN

(2) WEEK 11 CAPSULES