A Sweet yet Fiery Essence

By GIL GRIFFIN

PERFORMER: NENEH CHERRY

ALBUM: HOMEBREW

LABEL: VIRGIN

THE BOTTOM LINE: The singer-rapper paints poignant, street-smart scenes of life, love and urban reality.

One minute she is tender, singing with a lilt as soft and sweet as cotton candy. The next she drives her points home by rapping tart, in-your-face rhymes as pungent as picante salsa. Afro-British singer-songwriter Neneh Cherry, 27, exhibited this sweet yet fiery (and fervently feminist) demeanor on her memorable 1989 debut album, Raw Like Sushi. The alluring dichotomy continues on her sensational new release, Homebrew. Call it the essence of being Neneh.

The album, co-produced in first-rate fashion by Cherry with her husband Booga Bear and Johnny Dollar, kicks off with the appropriately titled Sassy, an old-school, freestyle rap tune, in which she asserts, "Fellas got to give me the most respect/ 'Cause you know I don't waste my time." Propelled by a jazzy piano riff, she rhymes a duet with the Guru, a raspy male rapper from the group Gang Starr. "If you step to her wrong," he warns, "you're getting played like jazz."

Many of the cuts, such as Move with Me, Twisted and Red Paint, show Cherry in a soul-searching mood, singing and rapping almost mystically ("Move with me, I'm strong enough/ To be weak in your arms"). The sparse, moody arrangements, combining synthesizer strings, record-turntable scratches and occasional guitar, bass and piano riffs, give her hip-hop, rock and jazz fusion a delightfully surreal ambience.

But Cherry rocks out too. Money Love, the first single released from the album, flexes a kinetic, chunky drumbeat and power guitar riffs. Trout, which despite its ambiguous title is a hymn of praise for sex education in public schools, is set to a booming, get-up-out-of-your-se at hip-hop drum rhythm, with guitars and harmonica added for good measure. On this track Cherry does a snappy duet with R.E.M. lead singer Michael Stipe, who manages not to embarrass himself while rapping.

Homebrew's hallmark track, though, is I Ain't Gone Under Yet, an eloquent portrait of a stereotype-defying young mother on the streets. The piece aims to make listeners rethink their assumptions about the homeless and single mothers. First Cherry raps, "The city's my home, the streets where I roam/ But still I leave the drugs and violence alone." Then she breaks out into smooth singing: "Your under is my over/ I've never seen your over yet/ But don't forget/ I ain't gone under yet."