RAPPERS' DELIGHT GRAMMY NODS REFLECT HIP-HOP'S ROLE AS A DOMINATING FORCE IN MUSIC AND POP CULTURE.

Byline: Sandra Barrera Music Writer

On a rare day off in January, Missy Elliott was hanging out on the street when she was approached by a woman old enough to be her grandmother. ``I'm 75 years old,'' the woman said, ``and I just want to tell you that I don't even listen to that music ... but I love your stuff.''

It was one of those hip-hop-has-arrived moments, when a rap artist gets props from somebody you wouldn't expect to be able to tell Eminem from Elvis. Rap has indeed come a long way and that fact is likely to be impossible to ignore tonight at the Grammy Awards, where there are more rappers than in any previous year as leading contenders in categories long viewed as the exclusive domain of other genres.

OutKast, the rap duo famous for its retro anthem ``Hey Ya!,'' is up for best album, as is Elliott herself. Nominated for record of the year are Beyonce and Jay-Z, Eminem, OutKast and the Black Eyed Peas with Justin Timberlake. The only nominee in that category that doesn't toss up rap rhymes is Britpop's Coldplay. Eminem's ``Lose Yourself'' is a contender for song of the year, and vying for best new artist are uber-gangsta rapper 50 Cent and the hip-hop-inspired reggae artist Sean Paul.

The visibility of more hip-hop artists at this year's awards ceremony inspires Neil Portnow, president of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, to draw parallels to America's best-known original musical form.

``Jazz was at one point a very outside niche and to some degree a clandestine kind of art form that ultimately made its way into the mainstream and influenced music tremendously,'' Portnow says. ``This to me is not dramatically different. And frankly, the proliferation of this cultural movement goes way beyond music.''

Witness that ultimate window into the American soul: the prime-time television ad. Rap has replaced the jingle, a form that now seems antiquated, even quaint in a world where Elliott and Madonna trade raps and dance moves for Gap Jeans. The two divas are selling to a predominantly white audience, but in the commercial a bevy of black and brown people look on admiringly and want to know, ``Where you get them jeans?''

And rap is not only used for selling jeans, soft drinks and cell phones - one ad has a group of seniors talking ``nine ways of nasty'' as they praise their new text messaging system - but also is insinuating itself into other areas of American life. NFL pregame shows are showcases for rap artists like OutKast, Nelly and P. Diddy. If America had a soundtrack, it would have at least a few tracks of rap.

``In the halftime show (at last Sunday's Super Bowl) the fact that we got as one of the guests Puffy and Nelly, you know, you don't get bigger than that,'' says Tom Calderone, executive vice president of music and talent programming for MTV and MTV2.

Elliott was still a cartoon-loving kid minding her manners in Virginia when the first hip-hop rhythms began crackling in the black ghettos of 1970s New York. There, block parties swarmed with people dancing the night away to the deconstructed grooves that were being scratched on the DJ's turntable and paired with rhymes. Rap came into being just as disco was starting to fade. At the time, the genre was inspired by the Jamaican toasting tradition of a DJ talking over the beat.

By 1979 the Sugar Hill Gang gave hip-hop its first commercial hit with ``Rapper's Delight,'' a catchy party anthem that borrowed the beat from Chic's ``Good Times'' and sold more than 8 million copies worldwide. Like rock, the music evolved in different directions: party jams, base raunch, sociopolitical commentary, gangsta rap. And it budded a branch that flourished into a kind of standard voice for pop, in America and even abroad. It would spread through Europe, Russia, the Middle East and, in a fine example of how culture regenerates, to Africa.

Nowhere outside the United States has it been more embraced than in Latin America. Latin hip-hop in the U.S. goes back to Ecuador-born Gerardo's 1991 hit, ``Rico Suave.'' By the middle part of the '90s, hip-hop was being imported from throughout Mexico, Spain and South America. Latin hip-hop has gained momentum with the emergence of new groups like Akwid, the Los Angeles-based duo that combines rap and regional Mexican.

``That's not something that U.S. Latin hip-hop acts were doing 10 years ago,'' says Josh Norek, who operates JN Media and is co-founder of the Latin Alternative Music Conference. He also performs with the Latin-Jewish collective known as the Hip-Hop Hoodios. ``The number of Latinos here in the U.S. has reached critical mass ... they want to hear something that maybe sounds like what they're familiar with from Mexico. But at the same time, they're living here in L.A. or other parts of the U.S. that are very urban, and I think Akwid is a good reflection of that,'' Norek says.

Hip-hop is all-encompassing in the way no other American music has been since jazz, says Stephan Talty, author of ``Mulatto America: At the Crossroads of Black and White Culture: A Social History.'' ``Even a white kid who doesn't physically know a black person is not only attracted to the rebellious aspects of the music but can find traditions in there that he sort of knows from rock 'n' roll or even pop music.''

The Black Eyed Peas pairs male rappers with the sweet and soulful voice of Fergie (aka Stacy Ferguson), the newest addition to the L.A.-based hip-hop group she joined last year after a lengthy stint in the dance-pop trio Wild Orchid. It was after Fergie joined the group during the making of ``Elephunk'' that the group scored the international hit ``Where Is the Love'' and earned three Grammy nominations, including record of the year.

Despite the song's catchy nature, Black Eyed Peas' Taboo insists that the group known for its energetic shows still likes to ``stage dive, we like to mosh pit, we like to make people bounce, and the thing about Fergie is she's the type of person who likes to get the crowd moving.''

``By the end of the day, the amount of hip-hop influence on so many levels of entertainment just cannot be ignored,'' says MTV's Calderone. ``The Grammys just put up a mirror to the country and this is what you're seeing. Go to Tulsa, go to St. Louis, go to Chicago and you'll see that hip-hop is selling everywhere.''

Last year, rapper 50 Cent (that's how his name is spelled, though he insists it be pronounced ``Fitty Cent'') had the top-selling record at 6.5 million copies. The fifth-best-selling album was OutKast's ``Speakerboxxx/The Love Below'' at 3 million.

What's driving the popularity?

Like other ``subversive'' forms before it, rap owes some of its appeal to rebellion and the urge of a new generation to have a voice distinct from the previous one.

``Rock, punk and even Nirvana - there's really not much there to rebel against, but the one thing your parents definitely do not have a taste for or maybe were not exposed to at the time was hip-hop,'' Calderone says. ``Then you go to the other part of it, which is the fact that hip-hop right now is supplying us with some really great television characters, you know? People want to see Nelly, people want to see Puffy, people want to see OutKast, people want to see Ludacris, people want to see Chingy. There's not a lot of rock bands we could say that about.''

People also want to see Elliott, who is touring with Beyonce and Alicia Keys, although she isn't likely to do any stage dives. Rap forefather Afrika Bambaata characterized Elliott, who is known for her wit, as ``a Grace Jones or Prince of hip-hop.'' She does more than make records and videos for a living.

Between recording and the occasional movie cameo - her latest is in the motion picture ``Honey'' - Elliott writes and produces projects for other artists. Some of the more recent include the theme song to the UPN series ``Eve,'' whose eponymous star is a hip-hop artist herself. In a way, Elliott embodies the ubiquity of hip-hop, while subtly mocking its testosterone-saturated absurdity, and melds it with the ferociously competitive business end of the art.

``She is the original,'' says Talty.

It's rap's moment in the sun - a long, bright day. And there's no sign it will be setting anytime soon. Especially not at the Grammys, where, from the business side Portnow sees the potential for even broader appeal. ``The fact is that as successful as hip-hop artists may be in music, and as many records as they may sell, they are going to be exposed to a whole new set of ears and eyes on this telecast,'' he says. ``And we're delighted.''

Hip-hop nominees

Here are some of the top Grammy categories that hip-hop artists are nominated in:

Record of the Year: ``Crazy in Love,'' Beyonce featuring Jay-Z; ``Where Is the Love,'' the Black Eyed Peas and Justin Timberlake; ``Clocks,'' Coldplay; ``Lose Yourself,'' Eminem; ``Hey Ya!'' OutKast.

Album of the Year: ``Under Construction,'' Missy Elliott; ``Fallen,'' Evanescence; ``Speakerboxxx/The Love Below,'' OutKast; ``Justified,'' Justin Timberlake; ``Elephant,'' the White Stripes.

Song of the Year: ``Beautiful,'' Linda Perry, songwriter (Christina Aguilera); ``Dance With My Father,'' Richard Marx and Luther Vandross, songwriters (Luther Vandross); ``I'm With You'' Avril Lavigne and the Matrix, songwriters (Avril Lavigne); ``Keep Me in Your Heart,'' Jorge Calderon and Warren Zevon, songwriters (Warren Zevon); ``Lose Yourself,'' J. Bass, M. Mathers and L. Resto, songwriters (Eminem).

Best New Artist: Evanescence, 50 Cent, Fountains of Wayne, Heather Headley, Sean Paul.

Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals: ``Can't Hold Us Down,'' Christina Aguilera and Lil' Kim; ``La Vie En Rose,'' Tony Bennett and k.d. lang; ``Gonna Change My Way of Thinking,'' Bob Dylan and Mavis Staples; ``Feel Good Time,'' Pink featuring William Orbit; ``Whenever I Say Your Name,'' Sting and Mary J. Blige.

Best Song Written for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media: ``Act a Fool'' (from ``2 Fast 2 Furious''), Christopher Bridges and Keith McMasters; ``The Hands That Built America'' (from ``Gangs of New York''), U2; ``I Move On'' (from ``Chicago''), Fred Ebb and John Kander; ``Lose Yourself'' (from ``8 Mile''), J. Bass, M. Mathers and L. Resto; ``A Mighty Wind'' (from ``A Mighty Wind''), Christopher Guest, Eugene Levy and Michael McKean.

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4 photos, box

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) GRAMMY NOTES

How hip hop became pop

(2) Missy Elliott

(3) Will.I.Am of Black Eyed Peas

(4) Andre Benjamin, left, and Antwan ``Big Boi'' Patton of OutKast.

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HIP-HOP nominees (see text)