ALBUM REVIEW : ‘Short Dog’s’ Rap: It’s Not Mantovani

Back when everybody hated rap, “Short Dog’s in the House” (Jive/RCA) is the stuff they thought they were hating, ultra-hardcore pimp rhymes from the streets of Oakland, droned over monotonous, bare beats. Too Short’s raps are irresistible to old-school rap fans: nonstop litanies of his conquests and his kingdom. His rapping is formidable and unique, never straying from hip-hop’s roots in macho streetcorner jive.

Of course, the flagrant misogyny here makes the album all but unlistenable to women--especially the track where Ice Cube guests. This album sounds as if it cost about $500 to make, but it will probably go platinum, just like his last one did . . . even if the sharp rap remake of Donny Hathaway’s black-consciousness anthem “In the Ghetto” never gets a second of airplay.