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| Quality Control - Jurassic 5 |
I was in my teens when i discovered the lesson in expression that is Hip Hop. Straight out of Compton became my favourite album of all time almost instantly, closely followed by Cypris Hill's Black Sunday. I was genuinely excited, after years of listening to nothing but the blues I was discovering a whole new genre. That journey of discovery was cut short when I looked around and found that the Hip Hop I had fallen in love with had fallen off the face of the Earth. All that was left was this over produced over marketed bitches & bling bullshit, rappers acting like it's cool to spend 300 dollars on a bottle of champagne and still trying to claim that they were "down with the hood". I mean all that gangsta bullshit was good fun when it was N.W.A spouting it, they were talking about where they came from and the kind of stupid shit that happened in their hood. Fast forward 10 years and it all just seemed phoned in, like it was just part of the persona of rap. Fans were more concerned with gang affiliations, gunshot wounds and rivalries than a rappers actual capabilities and skills. Basically Hip Hop had lost it's soul
If it wasn't for this album my love for Hip Hop probably would have ended before it ever really begun. I first heard Jurassic 5 on a listening post in Tower Records above Easons on O'Connell street. I didn't really know what i was listening to at the time but two years later Jurassic 5 earned a permanent place in my music collection when i purchased "Quality Control" for the first time. This album is pretty much perfect or about as close to perfect as you can get. Quality control is not just this albums namesake it's a testament to how this album was recorded, assembled and produced. The album begins with "How We Get Along" which I have always considered as one of the best Hip Hop intros of all time. The music is sampled from James Brown's "Lickin Stick" and it's kind of difficult to imagine a better artist to sample on the first track of a Hip Hop album. Depending on what version of the album you have it may or may not feature "Improvise", It's also on their first album and sums up what Jurassic 5 do best "We take four MC's and make them sound like one". It's the flawless mixing sampling and scratching of their two Dj's that make this even remotely possible. The final track "Swing Set" changed my entire perspective on Dj's and sampling. Cut chemist and Dj Nu Mart almost sort of combine to form the backbone of this incredible Hip Hop collective and make the group sound like 4 MC's and one incredibly sick Dj. I think this may also be the key to how Jurassic 5 take such a distinctly Old School set-up and make it sound so fresh
While "Swing set" showcases the skills of both Dj's "The Game" very much shows off the skills of all four MC's. This is probably the most underrated track on the album and perhaps my favourite. This basketball anthem very much reminds me of Dj Format and Abdominal's "Rap Machine" in that it is a raw display of their pure rhyming ability. Last but nowhere near least is "lausd", If it was unclear at this point as to where J5 are coming from this track will clear things right up "Yo, we are no superstars who wanna be large and forget who we are. Don't judge us by bank accounts and big cars, no matter how bright we shine we're far from being stars". As much I would like to talk you through every song on this album I fear it would turn into the rantings of an obsessive fan-boy. If you consider yourself too busy to just lash on this entire album and are currently youtubing all the tracks I've mentioned here, check out "The Influence" & also the title track "Quality Control"
