Best Local Recording

Best Local Rap/Hip-hop Hardcore Act

Ninetyseven - Chillum<

It's a mongrel category this rap/hip-hop hardcore. Straight-ahead punk bashers face-off against more rap-, dance-influenced punk bashers. Who better to represent this crazy category than Chillum, Wormtown's musical mongrels and chief purveyors of that funk/hip-hop/rap/jazz/metal/punk thing. They like to call it "East Coast Boo Yaa Funk," which may not be a helpful descriptive for the uninitiated who've yet to hear these cats. Suffice to say that Chillum are laying down their own homegrown hybrid of pressure-cooked, ass-shaking mayhem.

To see them live is to watch an eight- (sometimes seven-) man sideshow of muscular, adrenaline-laced schizophrenia that mixes and hopscotches genres. Their performances alternate between controlled chaos and a three-ring circus. Chillum are no strangers to success having had music from their first CD, 9'6", featured in both MTV's Real World and Road Rules. They coheadlined last years Locobazooka Festival, snagged a 1997 Worcester Phoenix Best Music Poll award and even landed on our cover.

Out to prove they're more than just a bunch of pretty faces, the boys quickly returned to work and released a second CD, Ninetyseven (ECAE), that not only would solidify their standing as scene big shots but would lead the band toward broader horizons. Ninetyseven trumps Chillum's previous effort as the band take on a more experimental edge, showing they're still very much a work in progress. Where they'll end up next is anyone's guess, but we do know MTV is one stop. Music from the new disc has again been picked up for Real World and Road Rules as well as a new ABC show called Catch Me If You Can.

If it's true that nice guys finish last, it's also true that, at least in Chillum's case, maniacs can finish first.

-- John O'Neill