TV Reviews : KNBC Offers Temperate ‘Rock the House’

Yo! NBC raps.

The network makes a hyperactive prime-time move into pop music’s hottest corner with a half-hour pilot airing tonight at 8 on KNBC Channel 4. “Rock the House” is thin on actual live rap performances, but it has a winning personality--high-energy without seeming high-pressure. A segment of homemade videos from high schools (and one preschool) around the country generates a nice sense of community.

You get one song each from two legitimately happening rap acts, Kid N’ Play and Young M.C., and lots of routines by a pelvicentric troupe called the Dance Possey, all of it jazzed up by some slow-motion and black-and-white effects. An audience mills around and pumps its fists in a funky, warehouse-like set, and D. J. Romeo presides over this hip-hop “Hullabaloo” with a proper enthusiasm.

The pilot gives no indication that “Rock the House” is ready to tackle the touchier aspects of the dynamic and often controversial world of rap. Welcome to the temperate zone.