Torch Songs

The Winter Olympics might be more esoteric than its warm-weather sister event — as a Sports Illustrated writer recently pointed out, kids worldwide compete at running and jumping, while only a privileged few spend their leisure time on ski slopes. But that doesn’t mean the event won’t attract big-name athletes and musicians. Moby, Sting, ‘N Sync, Christina Aguilera, Dave Matthews, the Dixie Chicks, Charlotte Church and Creed are among the high-profile acts invited to perform at the opening ceremony, at one of the nightly celebration concerts or at the closing ceremony. What’s missing from this list is any link to hip-hop nation, especially now that recent Jay-Z collaborator R. Kelly might get disinvited because of allegations of his less-than-appropriate coupling with a teen-age girl. Complicating the matter of filling the rap gap is the need to keep Olympic entertainment snow-pure, a criterion that knocks the top-selling yet foul-mouthed likes of Ludacris and DMX out of the running. Salt Lake City promoters needed G-rated rhymers with skills to prevent hip-hop from getting iced, and, with the help of Utah-based booking manager Tom Zingirides, they found a few in the Kansas City area.

Zingirides caught Nelson El and Verbal Contact in action at a convention in Nashville two years ago and kept the lyricists in mind when searching for appropriate hip-hop representatives. “They were positive, motivational groups with great stage presence,” he recalls. “I was thrilled to have that to present to the world instead of the kind of stuff you have on the radio.”

While it’s certainly a compliment that Nelson El and Verbal Contact were chosen to represent their art form, the venue at which they’ll be performing — a massive heated dome — isn’t to be confused with the Olympics Medal Plaza. Nor do the headliners at what Zingrides dubs “the Pepsi Dome” boast the same popularity and relevance as the Medal Plaza performers — Rick James, Eddie Money and Quiet Riot fill out the nightly roster at what could be called the Olympic Spirit Fest. Still, the rappers’ high-profile sets on February 22 (Nelson El from 9 to 10 p.m., Verbal Contact from 10 to 11) will introduce these worthy MCs to their largest and certainly most cosmopolitan audiences to date.

On El’s recently released sophomore disc, Chop City, his forceful and clear delivery provides the sole connecting factor among the album’s tracks, which range from R&B-flavored numbers with smooth hooks courtesy of female vocalists to chorus-free posse cuts to sparsely orchestrated underground bangers.

“That’s by design,” El explains. “I wanted to divide it like a pizza, with a couple slices for everybody — East Coast, Down South and the West.” To achieve the desired effect, El enlisted Lord Draft, a Newark, New Jersey-based producer with a loop-heavy style; Rah, the South Carolina transplant behind the synthesized thump of “EPA” as well as several old-school-soul-laced tracks; and local standout T. Woosley, who anchored the complex beats with trunk-rattling bass drops.

Lyrically, Nelson El’s topics don’t stray far from hardcore territory — sipping Cognac, stacking paper, blasting tools — but his lines contain no cursing. (However, several of the guest rappers, most notably female MC Genesis, don’t use similar restraint.) His no-profanity stance traces back to when he used to perform his newly penned rhymes in front of his mother. “A lot of people think that it’s a big moral stand, but it’s just the way I did it then, and I figured, ‘Why change?’ It requires more creativity and it makes me broaden my vocabulary.”

Still, while lines such as I love guns and knives/And taking lives don’t contain dirty words, they’re not the most appropriate sentiments at the most terrorist-aware athletic event in history. And in a setting where biathletes will probably get patted down hundreds of times a day en route to engaging in their bizarre hybrid of skiing and rifle-blasting, “Lock and Load” might not be the most appropriate anthem. Sensitive to such concerns, El has crafted a violence-free hour-long set, which he plans to preface with a “shout-out to everyone who lost a family member or loved one on 9/11.”

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Other than these alterations, El’s stage show, which incorporates elements of slapstick comedy, remains intact. At one point, his backing track seems to malfunction, a phone rings and El retrieves the offending cell from his pocket. “Hello, man, I’m doing a show right now, hit me back,” goes the one-sided dialogue before the beat drops back in and El and his hype men pick up the rhymes on time. During their performance of “It’s the El,” El and his crew, the E.P.A., arrange four chairs on stage and simulate driving in the manner of the old children’s school-bus game. “We’re not just up there rapping,” El explains. “We want to put on a show.”

El’s shenanigans, combined with his confident stage presence and authoritative tone, make for a tough set to follow, but Verbal Contact should prove equal to the task. Verbal Contact and Nelson El share common producers (T. Woosley executive-produced Verbal Contact’s debut disc Poetical Checkmate), and both keep their flows so fresh and so clean. But while Nelson El’s version of keeping it real includes some occasional gun talk, Darrell “The Saint” Thomas and Ben “Blaze-1,“ Verbal Contact’s MCs, prefer to focus almost entirely on the bright side of ‘hood life. The duo titled its new disc, scheduled for release in May, Welcome to the Hood, and that’s a real, sincere invitation, not an implied threat to tangle with the group on its turf.

“It’s about having good times in the ‘hood,” Thomas explains. “You hear about ‘My ‘hood is the hardest,’ but on our album, we focus on the positive side.”

While the group obviously has plenty of love for its home, circumstances force Verbal Contact to stray to distant locales such as Connecticut and Tennessee for paying gigs. Thomas blames these forced marches on less-than-medal-worthy support from local venues and radio stations. “It’s pretty hard to get exposure here,” he says. “In St. Louis, they play a lot of local music, and that really helped Nelly. Here, we just have to take what we can get, hustle our CDs in the street.”

In Salt Lake City, however, Verbal Contact and Young Spanky, an up-and-coming solo artist on Thomas’ Big Dogg Entertainment label who will be making the trip with the group, will find a much more promising setting. Athletes, tourists and journalists starved for late-night entertainment (or as late as it gets in Salt Lake City, which suffers Cinderella Slipper Syndrome after midnight) should make for an enthusiastic, souvenir-buying audience. Verbal Contact and Nelson El might even get to rub elbows with some one-time big shots, given that, with hotel space gone, even internationally esteemed artists such as Air Supply might have to spend post-performance nights in trailers. But even though it’s a golden opportunity, Thomas can’t view this show simply as an industry showcase gig.

“It’s an honor,” he says. “We get to represent live American hip-hop for people across the globe.” On another level, an Olympic berth eases the pain of Thomas’s dashed hoop dreams. “I thought I might go to the NBA, but it didn’t seem to work out,” says the former Penn Valley Community College baller. “Now, my music can make me part of the Olympics.”