Quest M.C.O.D.Y

The distracted camera in ''Interscope Presents: The Next Episode'' notices a dark, dangling air freshener and slants of light on heavy bags in a basement gym.

Showtime's stunning series about battle rap is billed as the reality version of ''8 Mile.'' But though the producers of the new show also made that movie, the tag line makes ''The Next Episode'' sound like nothing -- just a sorry cable effort to get the dregs of Eminem. Not true. It's so good.

Shot in a boxing gym with the rapper Xzibit as host, the multipart weekly show promises to visit rap rivalries in Atlanta, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and New York. The winners will compete against one another, rapping three ways: with a live drummer, with a beat box and a cappella. Squaring off on tonight's Detroit excursion are two fast-talking men in their 20's, Quest M.C.O.D.Y. and J-Hill.

An idle, beautiful driving tour introduces Detroit, leading the camera to city partisans, who make it clear that rap wasn't the first music in their hometown. ''If it weren't for Motown,'' one guy says, ''you wouldn't have a Def Jam.''

Then Quest shows up. He has a sulky face, and he talks like this: ''My style of music is in your face. It's behind your back. It's right next to you. I could stab you in your back and walk off, easy. Then I could make you feel good about yourself.''

He raps like this: ''Dawg, why take your chain, when I could easily just take your fame, and erase your name?''

J-Hill, who is taller and pouts less, talks like this: ''I'm going after you. I'm going to embarrass you.'' He raps the same way.

Unlike ''8 Mile,'' in which Eminem's star power demanded a story about individualism, the meandering ''Next Episode'' is free to investigate the more fundamental mystery of rhyme itself.

What is it about rhyme -- about words whose terminal sounds correspond -- that can make us feel good or embarrass us? In his battle rap ''Absalom and Achitophel,'' John Dryden wrote, ''Rhyme is the rock on which thou art to wreck,/'Tis fatal to thy fame and to thy neck.''

And indeed, rhyme's utility as a proxy for violence is on display in ''The Next Episode,'' in which couplets are weapon and shield. One M.C. spells it out in prose: ''If you can rap, you ain't got to fight.''

Quest, who suffered a serious head injury years ago, suggests that his rhymes serve to punish the people who called him ''knothead'' when he was in middle school. Now he seems happiest when he's reading ''Green Eggs and Ham'' to his little daughter, with heavy inflections.

In the course of giving backstories for Quest and J-Hill, the show touches on drugs, trauma, baby-mama problems -- all the ghetto staples. But with its virtuoso camera work and graphics, the show is really showing off, and it doesn't strain for themes.

50 Cent, Busta Rhymes, Eminem and Russell Simmons all make appearances, musing knowingly about the implications of rap showdowns.

But it's Snoop Dogg, who can always be counted on for insight, who shows a real interest in a genealogy of meter.

''Who's the best?'' he asks. ''We never go back to the source to figure out who is the first to say, 'A, B, C, what-duh-duh-dee/duh-duh-d-duh-d-duh-d-duh-dee. Who was that?''

Yeah, who was that? Men of rap: look to Dryden and move back from there. The rest of you: watch ''Interscope Presents: The Next Episode.''

INTERSCOPE PRESENTS
The Next Episode

Showtime, tonight at 10, Eastern and Pacific times; 9, Central time

Directed by Moses Edinborough; Jimmy Iovine, Jillian Fleer, Paul Rosenberg, Randy Sosin and Gene Kirkwood, executive producers. Created by Jillian Fleer and Randy Sosin.

WITH: Xzibit, Quest M.C.O.D.Y., J-Hill, 50 Cent, Busta Rhymes, Eminem, Russell Simmons and Snoop Dogg.


- The New York Times

And it wasn’t just an awards ceremony, either. Live performances had heads bobbing, arms waving and hands wigwagging. Heavy audience participation turned the night into one of those beautifully gray 8 Mile scenes. Quest M.C.O.D.Y. didn’t score any awards, but along with the Legion of Doom, gave the night’s most powerful and energetic set.

- Adam Stanfel