Female groups release summertime albums

During the summer months, it is imperative that record companies release the best songs they possibly can from their artists. Summertime is when the masses are traveling looking for good music to make the drab scenery go by quicker. They're at the pool, o r at the gym with their Walkmans.

Examples from past summers include "Summertime" by DJ Jazzy Jeff and the artist formerly known as the Fresh Prince, the numerous versions of the "Macarena" and "What's Love Got to Do With It" by Tina Turner. This summer has such acts as the fallible Spic e Girls, prison inmate Mark Morrison's "Return of the Mack," and Bob Carlisle's AT & T tear-jerking commercial wannabe "Butterfly Kisses," which could even make God cringe.

Necessary Roughness (The "Untouchable" Death Row Records) the debut from female rapper The Lady of Rage, and the latest effort from En Vogue, EV3 (EastWest Records) offer something old, stale, challenging, yet frivolous for summertime listeners.

The Lady of Rage

The Lady's rhymes are some of the most unoriginal, silly to hit shelves in a long time. Yet, her lyrics can be smart, religious and old school. At least the samples are different from her male rivals', and catchy, but not bass booming.

Many of her rhymes are as simple as nursery rhymes and sound as if they were warped to the present from the beginning ages of rap music. With such lyrics as, "Othas have tried to ride the beat like triple X porn star/Kick it to the R/O-B-I-N I'm out," fro m the song "Sho-Shot," sound as if they were written by Slick Rick or Biz Markie.

But, some of her other rhymes are creative and not as hard-core or monosyllabic as her male competitors'. For example, "I'm a force to be reckoned with/'Cause definite dysfunctions/U couldn't connect to my shit wit' conjunctions." Riddle me this, would Sn oop, Dre, or Puff Daddy ever put the word "conjunction" in a rhyme?

And, other rhymes, especially in the rapping prayer "Confessions" contain religious names, symbols and a begging for forgiveness, most obviously in the opening line, "Forgive me God, for I have forsaken thee."

Maybe the Lady is asking for forgiveness for selling her soul to the album's executive producer, the notorious Suge Knight, for shoddy lyrics. Maybe her next prayer should ask Dr. Dre to write some songs that will make her a rapping force to be reckoned w ith.

Conceivably, the Lady could join a girl group. By design, they are as obtrusive a male masturbatory vehicle as a porno starring Jenna Jamison. Just the thought of young women prowling provocatively while cooing blissfully holds endless libidinous prospect s. More successful girl groups, though, can attract male and female listeners, because these girls make it clear they wouldn't be a doormat for a man.

En Vogue

Five years ago, the funky divas of En Vogue informed misguided men that they were "never gonna get it." That song and phrase put the teeth behind the request Diana Ross and the Supremes made with "Stop! In the Name of Love."

In the course of five years, one can become a fool in love, though. Likewise, on their new album, entitled EV3 for more than one reason, the ladies stress tenderness over sass.

After losing one funky diva - Dawn Robinson left the fold to pursue a solo career like fellow member Terry Ellis did in 1995 with her solo debut Southern Gal - there has been little effect on the remaining members of En Vogue, which is saying a lot about their song producers.

Songs produced by such names as Babyface, Organized Noise and David Foster show the ladies' sweet and harmonious vocal strengths, even without Robinson. "Too Gone, Too Long," written by Diane Warren and produced by Foster, who have written songs for perfo rmers from Michael Bolton to Celine Dion to Barbra Streisand, sets a limit in a melodiously wistful way, on a wayward player.

Yet, songs done by the group's founders Denzil Foster and Thomas McElroy compress the ladies' voices, not letting them explore their vocal ranges as they did on their first two albums.

Luckily, as the album's executive producers, the divas put those songs toward the end of the album(when the listener starts to think about what they're gonna wear the next day). Nonetheless, some of those songs make it painfully clear just how much these ladies need the guiding hand of a skillful songwriter and producer in order to remain the funky divas we know and love.