THERE WAS A TIME in hiphop when entertainment, in the original sense of the word, was all that mattered. Hiphop artists saw themselves as entertainers whose main mission was to dazzle the crowd with new illusions and sounds. At a hiphop show, one entertainer would rhyme the most complex stories off the top of his head, another would scratch while blindfolded, and another would perform a human beatbox version of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. Those were days when Doug E. Fresh and the Get Fresh Crew were on top of the world. Doug E. Fresh was "The World's Greatest Entertainer," and his best songs, "The Show" and "All the Way to Heaven," were like mini-circuses that contained a little bit of everything: great scratching, Slick Rick's pornographic raps, and Doug E. Fresh making popping, snapping, Pac Man-like noises with his mouth.

In the late '80s, Public Enemy replaced Doug E. Fresh and the Get Fresh Crew the way Dizzy Gillespie replaced Louis Armstrong, or bebop replaced swing, or any modern art replaces a popular or vulgar form. Public Enemy offered the same mini-circus that the Get Fresh Crew did -- a spectacular DJ, a clown, soldiers marching up and down the stage -- except now the entertainment was politicized. It became "edutainment," to borrow a term from KRS One, and the kind of apolitical, pure entertainment that Doug E. Fresh and others practiced became as disreputable as Armstrong's rolling eyes and funny faces 50 years ago. Doug E. Fresh has been out of work ever since.

In the late '90s, however, the original idea or function of the entertainer was resurrected by two crews: Invisibl Skratch Piklz and the Roots. Though the Roots are politically conscious, they also have a deep sense of hiphop history, as their name implies. So part of their program has been to preserve, and even elaborate on, the early aspects of their art, no matter how embarrassing or disreputable they are. This is why Rahzel is a significant member of the Roots crew; he is an entertainer in the classical sense, meaning his only concern is to "move the crowd," and dazzle us with his prodigious lyrical and beatbox skills.

Rahzel is not a philosopher, a prophet, or a preacher; he is an entertainer, and he is content with that. His CD, like his live performances, takes the form of a mini variety show. There are short sketches, a song or two, lots of dexterous rapping, and beatboxing feats that will get you out of your chair. In fact, it seems inaccurate to call what Rahzel does with his monster mouth beatboxing, because when compared to Doug E. Fresh, or the late and overweight Human Beat Box from the Fatboys (who is now remembered for videotaping himself having sex with a minor), he is like the morphing robot from Terminator 2. He is more fluid and more flexible than the mere bionic beatboxers of old.

The Invisibl Skratch Piklz, who were formed in the late '80s, and rose into prominence in the late '90s by battling world-famous DJs, are also aware of their roles as entertainers. The biggest name in that group is Mix Master Mike, who is famous for his turntable work on three tracks of the Beastie Boys CD Hello Nasty. When I saw Mix Master Mike last year, I was simply amazed by the speed of his hands and the precision of his needle. Like Rahzel, Mix Master Mike is a true showman, and his method of mixing, which can be heard on his solo CD, Anti Theft Device, is not poetic like DJ Krush, or intellectual like DJ Spooky, or architectural like DJ Cam -- just dense. It's as if he were trying to impress us with the sheer number of things (samples from science-fiction movies, cartoons, commercials, sitcoms, and rap songs) he can juggle all at once. And sure enough, at the end of the show you are very impressed.

These two great entertainers are to perform with a rapper named Choclair. Though his new CD, Ice Cold, has three excellent tracks, Choclair does not have any real skills, and so is more suited for music videos than the live stage, where one has to do something impressive if they want "people to get all up in it." He does not share the same performance values that Rahzel and Mix Master Mike live by, so he is somewhat out of place in this lineup. All in all, the important thing is this: If you missed Rahzel during Bumbershoot, then don't miss him at the Showbox.