Jurassic 5 - 'Feedback' (Interscope) Released 24/07/06

It’s hard to quite gauge the impact Jurassic 5 have had on rap and music in general since they unleashed their sublime eponymous debut in 1998. Their feel-good and almost liberated sounding hip-hop has carved the band a niche in the higher echelons of the music world and has provided a wholesome alternative to the gruesome brutalities of gangster rap. Eight years since their emergence, and while they’re admittedly not treading new furrows, ‘Feedback’ showcases the same lyrical dexterity, the insanely cool grooves, the layered juxtaposing raps and the uplifting vitality that has made the collective so essential all along.   

Searing from the offset, ‘Back 4 U’ with its hammering beat, insanely catchy piano motif and melodic hypnotic raps tees things up perfectly. Forever shifting direction and style, ‘Radio’ is an electronic driven feisty ditty, ‘Brown Girl’ featuring the sultry chorus courtesy of Brick & Lace is commercial (almost the sister of The Wu Tang Clan’s ‘Gravel Pit’) yet pulls it off with class and aplomb. And after going all old skool on our asses with the ridiculously funky and jacking ‘In The House’, the Dave Matthews Band make an appearance for ‘Work It Out’, a collaboration that really shouldn’t work, but it’s a perhaps a sure sign of the sextet’s musical genii that it’s an irrefutable highlight.  

If we were being pedantic, we could say the album isn’t always peaks – the Princeadelic ‘Gotta Understand is very much J5 by numbers, ‘Baby Please’ serves up interesting grooves but never quite delivers, and the ultimate ‘Canto De Oassanho’ lays on the latino flavour a tad too thick - yet these are just minor niggles. It’s testament to the band that throughout its 15 tracks the album never sags or wanes and absorbs the senses. Tracks like the great ‘Future Sound’ does exactly what it says on the tin, progressive musically and littered with skilful wordplay, ‘Turn It Out’ is crunching and abrasive and the melodic ‘End Up Like This’ is simply smooth as ****.