Jurassic 5 "Feedback" (Interscope)
By Tim Den
Thursday. Sep 21, 12:23 AM
More rockin’ the party and booty-shakin’ than ever.

It has been four long years since Jurassic 5’s last record, the impeccable Power in Numbers… one can’t help but wonder what the hell kept the guys silent for such an extended period of time. Did Cut Chemist’s departure force the songs to be rewritten? Or did the hip hop game finally push the MCs to the brink of calling it quits? All speculation aside, I for one am just glad that the team hasn’t thrown in the towel.

Feedback is what you’d call an “unexpected” album. Gone are the Soul-based / garage rock drums found on Power in Numbers and Quality Control (perhaps they left with Cut Chemist, who is renowned for wielding such aesthetics), replaced by a dominating sense of rockin’ the party and booty-shakin’. Indeed, as stated in the bio, some of these tracks could very well have been on Breakin’s soundtrack 20 years ago. While Jurassic 5 have always been kind of an old school throwback crew, Feedback is focusing the lens tightly around early ‘80s parties. Hell, the dry, synthetic beats of “Radio” could’ve been heard blarin’ out of car windows in late ‘80s Miami, and “In the House” could’ve been the backdrop to The Warriors. But does this mean the songs are any better than the group’s past works?

Yes and no. While tracks like “Red Hot,” “Back 4 U,” and (my favorite) “Baby Please” unleash the four MCs’ tongue-twisting skills just how we love ‘em (especially on “Baby Please,” where calculated rhythmic displacement becomes an art form), the album’s desire to please the dance floor and airplay often becomes irksome. Whereas the band’s past best included the likes of “Break,” “Sum of Us,” “Jurass Finish First,” and “Lausd” – songs that felt weighty both musically and lyrically – Feedback’s “good times” vibe blurs out a lot of the lyrical intent. Not that the group are saying anything new, though: it seems Jurassic 5 are still dissing mainstream hip hop, lamenting the state of Black culture, and trying to work out romantic wrinkles. Except now that they’ve done it with two excellent previous albums, a third with a lighter feel is just not gonna completely cut it.

But for what it’s trying to do, is Feedback enjoyable? Of course. Anything from Jurassic 5 is still gonna be more honest and inventive than 99% of hip hop out there. I mean, come on, name another group that utilizes a snare-less beat (“Get it Together”). Okay, so guest Dave Matthews sounds like a child molester when he whispers on “Work it Out,” but otherwise Feedback still brings it if you want smart hip hop.

Hopefully the next album will arrive in less than half a decade, brimming with more forward-looking sounds and words.
www.jurassic5.com
www.interscope.com

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Tim Den

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