Long before Cold 187um found fame spitting out rhymes as an MC for the

hip-hop trio Above The

Law, he played trumpet in his junior high school band and rapped in the

hallways of Pomona High

School.

It's where he first developed his appreciation for the warm sound of

live musical instruments, and where he earned his rapping handle.

"[Crewmate] K-oss gave me the name because I used to battle other MCs at

school and he used to come

up to me and say, 'You're killing um,' and 187 is the penal code for

murder, so the name just grew

from there," said 29-year-old Cold 187um, a.k.a. Gregory Hutchison, of

his sinister nickname.

Although he's not playing much trumpet these days, Cold 187um and his

partners in rap out of Pomona,

Calif., fellow MC K.M.G. and DJ Total K-oss, have not lost touch with

their humble musical

beginnings. Above The Law continues to use live instruments in their

music, most recently on their

sixth LP, Legends, the threesome's second LP on Tommy Boy (due in

stores Tuesday).

Above The Law's latest offering finds them moving away from the

street-hustler sound of their first four albums (released on the late Eazy-E's Ruthless Records label), a sound that earned them

critical acclaim. The move is most clearly demonstrated in songs

such as "Promise

Me"

(RealAudio excerpt). The piece begins with the sound of bullets flying,

before giving way to a mother's

voice cautioning her son to be careful in the outside world. As the

woman's voice fades, a lilting piano

melody starts in, occasionally punctuated by a rattling guitar riff that

Hutchison and K.M.G. lay their

smooth raps over.

"They seem to be wholly originals, and they create their own melodies,"

said Thembisa Mshaka, rap

editor of the Gavin Report, a highly respected weekly magazine that provides information to radio programmers. "It's nice to know

there's still a place for that in a world where the loop reigns

supreme."

""Promise Me" talks about when you're young and you're hustling, your

parents know what's really

going on and they want you to get out and do better," Hutchison said.

"We want to educate youngsters,

and show them that life ain't all like what people portray it to be.

There's a lot of repercussions."

Legends begins with

HREF="http://www.addict.com/music/Above_The_Law/Intro_Floetry.ram">"Intro

'Floetry'

" (RealAudio excerpt), featuring Hutchison's baritone intoning a

series of events that might

befall a young rapper as he begins to find success. "When you go/ Oh yes

you yourself do go

platinum/ But 75 percent of the work you do/ Was created by somebody who

wants 100 percent of the

publishing/ Nothing's in your name/ You're not really a player in the

game."

Hutchison said the song is meant to serve as a warning to up-and-coming

rappers about the pratfalls of

relying heavily on sampling to carry their music. "That's meant for a

lot of artists who started off

where we started off. We perceived ourselves as running the ship. We

learned from sampling. We saw

the success, we didn't see the check," said the rapper, who plays

keyboards on the album.

In addition to his rhyming role in Above The Law, Hutchison said he is

working as a producer with

some artists at Dr. Dre's Aftermath label and toiling as an executive for his

own Black Owned Entertainment

label. [Mon., March 2, 1998, 9 a.m. PST]