Jurassic 5 "Feedback" album review

When you hear the word Jurassic, one usually thinks of something old. Very old. That usually isn't a good thing either, however Jurassic 5 is a hip-hop group that has consistently prided itself in old school sounds but making them sound fresh. The quintet, from Los Angeles have been knocking on the door of the mainstream for a few years now but seem hell bent on knocking the door down with their brand new disc. That of course can be a good and a bad thing and here it is a bit of both. In the end the good outshines the bad though.


A few weeks ago they released their first single, "work it out" featuring the Dave Matthews Band, proving that they want that mainstream success. Unfortunately it is one of the disc's weakest songs. It lacks the freshness and energy that usually lace J5 songs. DMB sounds good with J5 but this track doesn't feel right. It feels forced and J5 should never sound forced. Their Barbershop quartet type song hooks are usually boisterous and give the listener something to vibe too. Luckily they make up for it elsewhere. The other major complaint here is the lack of topics covered. There are a few too many girl related tracks like "Brown Girl" and "baby please(sick AL green sample though)". While the production on those tracks sound fresh and the flow is impeccable, the content just feels rehashed.


Luckily this disc is jam packed with really dope fresh sounding production and other great concepts. "where we at" is a trip down hip-hop memory lane and "end up like this" kind of gives us a glimpse into how J5 started and how they keep going. Other stand out tracks for me include "red Hot" "Gotta Understand" "In the House" and the closing track which features no vocals only really dope djing called "Canto De Ossanha" lyrically this disc lacks the depth of their 2002 release Power in Numbers and their debut album Quality control and to be honest they do nothing new here. They seem to have gotten content in where they are in regards to lyrical content. I definitely think this album is worth the pick up, if just to hear how they managed to sound old school yet fresh at the same time. Plus, this kind of rap music should be getting heard, not the garbage infesting the radios and skewing the world's view of the music and the culture surrounding the music!