Jurassic 5 - Feedback (July 25, 2006)

And now finally, after trying to write this review for at least ten years, I bring to you my thoughts on the fourth album from the Jurassic 5, Feedback. This project was famously the last album the sextet managed to release before disbanding due to irreconcilable differences. Because life is strange and retirement isn’t a thing most rappers believe in, whether due to financial concerns or otherwise, Feedback isn’t the last bit of product the J5 have released, as they’ve since reconciled and reunited, but unless they drop a new full-length project sometime within the next three years, this will likely be the last time you read about the group on these pages, as Feedback effectively crosses them off my ongoing projects list. You know, that “ongoing project” this blog was supposed to be before it got away from me?

Anyway.

A quick refresher, since it’s been a while since these guys have been a part of the conversation here. The Jurassic 5 is what is classified as “an alternative hip hop group”, which is a term critics default to when the rappers in question don’t talk about bitches, drugs, or straight-up gangsta shit all the time. The six-man operation, consisting of emcees Soup, Marc 7, Akil, and the inimitable Chali 2na (the only voice that stands out from the crew, unfortunately) alongside DJs Cut Chemist and Nu-Mark, formed in Los Angeles and secured a deal with TVT Records before jumping ship to a major, Interscope, who had no idea what to do with them. Their first three albums (their debut full-length being an expanded version of their debut EP, the appropriately-titled Jurassic 5 EP) scored highly with critics and old-school-leaning hip hop heads that enjoyed the playful feel of the music, the back-and-forth between the emcees, and the sample-heavy arrangements, all embedded with the different elements of hip hop as a whole. Their projects never sold enough to earn them a gold or platinum plaque in the United States, but they moved more units than you would expect given the description of their sound I gave earlier, so they were doing alright for themselves.

Feedback seemed to change everything for their dynamic, however. Cut Chemist departed prior to the recording sessions, marking this as the J5’s only project where they were actually a quintet, leaving the bulk of the production to Nu-Mark, although assists are provided by the likes of Salaam Remi and Exile, among others. The sense of playfulness between the four rappers was unchanged, although there’s a bit of weariness to be heard in some of their voices on Feedback, as they were perhaps downtrodden by the demands imposed on them by their corporate overlords. (Chali 2na, the clear standout of the group, had already taken steps out the door in the form of a solo career, which is still in progress to this day.) The writing was on the wall for the collective, though: even a blatant crossover attempt (discussed below) failed to score them any additional points within the music industry, and with the poor performance of Feedback at retail, they ultimately broke up to pursue other interests. They did release a new single nearly a decade after Feedback was released, but nothing else has come from the camp since, so the J5 may truly be a memory at this point.

At least we’ll always have Feedback?

1. BACK 4 YOU
A rap album intro with actual rapping on it, one which is supposed to reintroduce the audience to the Jurassic 5, yet fails to properly do so as nobody’s stage name is mentioned on here at all. And yet “Back 4 You” is pretty fucking great. The playful nature of the J5’s delivery remains consistent, and DJ Nu-Mark’s evolving instrumental manages to sound grateful, hopeful, and ready to dominate rap radio if given a shot, which isn’t the most natural combination but works for this track. Soup (who opens the song), Marc 7, and Akil are engaging with their old school-flavored good-natured boasting, but Chali 2na, long my favorite member of the group and that’s probably the same for many of you two as well, dominates with his inimitable baritone and forceful nature as he threatens to “drown all you circus clowns” within our chosen genre. The group obviously knows what’s up, as 2na gets two verses on “Back 4 You” to everyone else’s singular contribution, but he’d pull off the best performance on here even without the increased screen time.

2. RADIO
If there were any justice within this here hip hop game, Interscope Records would have pushed “Radio” on, er, radio, as this shit deserves a much wider audience. A song-length homage to the Crash Crew’s “On The Radio”, this Salaam Remi production honors its source material (even throwing in a brief tip of the hat to Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock’s “It Takes Two” at the very beginning by setting the song intro to the very same Galactic Force Band sample) by giving all four rappers the opportunity to wax poetically about growing up with our chosen genre. “Radio” dropped a couple of years after The Game’s “How We Do”, but Remi is far more successful than Dr. Dre and his ghost producers were are recreating the feel of the golden age of hip hop, although he has an unfair advantage in the J5, all of whom gravitate toward the more positive aspects of the music and less the gang war and 50 Cent of it all (although Chali’s contribution is the shortest out of everyone here, but since everyone else sounds great over this type of production, we’ll allow it this time). I’d urge you both to drop everything and play this one right now, but you’ve likely already done so because you know what Max is about. This shit is nice.

3. BROWN GIRL (FEAT. BRICK & LACE)
A song for the ladies that feels like an Interscope requirement that Feedback follow a Black Eyed Peas-type of progression, complete with R&B duo Brick & Lace singing the hook because that’s what the sub-genre calls for. There’s a weird dark undertone to “Brown Girl”, however, and it isn’t coming from producer Scott Storch’s iffy beat. All four of the J5 rappers participate in dreaming up the idealized version of a crush (Soup even timestamps the track by asking, “Can a brother get your number [and] e-mail address”), but as they wind their way through their respective verses, you get to hear some feedback (pun not intended) that is… unexpected, to say the least. Chali 2na unearths a fear of abandonment, while Marc 7 chastises his partner for wanting to have fun rather than “grow her damn mind”, the tone of which betrays the fact that he’s already frustrated with her. This was certainly an interesting direction for this type of song to go, even if it was inadvertent on the part of our hosts, but it isn’t interesting enough to warrant chasing this song down on a crowded street.

4. GOTTA UNDERSTAND
Contributing to the reasons why Feedback isn’t held in the same regard as Quality Control and Power In Numbers is “Gotta Understand”, a Bean One production that suffers from a lack of focus on the part of the performances, a bland-as-shit instrumental, and a weak choice of vocal sample intended to drive this song, one that will instead bring on a bout of madness. This shit sucks, you must understand. Chali 2na, Akil, Soup, and Marc 7 each deliver multiple verses dispersed throughout the three sections, but it’s never clear as to what this song is even fucking about (the first block appears to chastise rappers only in it for the money and fame, while the second segment discusses women but in a very inconsistent manner, and the final “verse” is all over the goddamned place). Not helping matters at all is the ineffective beat, one which loops the sample repeatedly but does absolutely nothing else. Every artist involved sounds like they’re fully aware that this shit sucks but felt the need to record anyway out of obligation to the producer, who must be somehow related to every single member of J5 because I can’t even fathom how anybody could ever hear this and think, “Yeah, that shit bangs, let’s fucking go!”, because they would only be lying to themselves.

5. IN THE HOUSE
Nu-Mark returns for “In The House”, another attempt by the Jurassic 5 to revive the feel-good old-school hip hop of the golden era, and while this is less successful than “Radio”, there’s still some sparks of life to be found here. (Not in the overlong skit that ends the audio track, however. That shit was unnecessary.) The offhanded reference to the group consisting of six members merely dates the track’s origins to some point before Cut Chemist left, obviously, but “In The House” plays as though the J5 didn’t really need two different disc jockeys within their ranks in the first place, as the four emcees pair off over Nu-Mark’s playful instrumental. “I’m as jazzy as a French Quarter funeral,” Chali 2na offers at one point, and even though this wasn’t one of my favorites from the crew, I still found it difficult to argue with the man.

6. BABY PLEASE
Just because the Jurassic 5 have an appreciation for hip hop as a whole doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re compatible with every facet, both positive and negative, of the genre. Case in point: “Baby Please”, a bizarrely misogynistic rant railing against women for reasons such as “being clingy”, “wanting a baby”, “being ‘half-amazing, half-crazy’” (that one’s problematic all by itself), “stalking”, “[sleeping] with all mankind”, and, most appallingly, being afraid that “baby on the low might Robert Blake me” (as Marc 7 puts it at one point). Producer Exile chops the fuck out of Al Green’s “Love and Happiness” for a track that’s about neither, and all four J5 rappers flounder in their sexist shit-talk that pins all the blame for their troubles with the opposite sex on said opposite sex without ever looking in the mirror. “Baby Please” was not only a bad song (Exile’s beat isn’t very good, folks, and he’s done some pretty great stuff with other artists), it’s also an extremely bad look for the Jurassic 5 that should have been left on the cutting room floor. Although misogyny is still prevalent within our chosen genre, so in its way it does belong on a rap album, I guess? The cognitive dissonance is making my eyes bleed.

7. WORK IT OUT (FEAT. DAVE MATTHEWS BAND)
I’m not ashamed to admit this, because I don’t think my story is very unique: the mere idea of this specific song is what turned me off from Feedback as a whole. I never even listened to it all the way through until fucking today, whereas I’ve heard the rest of the project at least once (or multiple times if we’re talking the first two tracks). My reluctance to give this one a fair shake comes down to three words: Dave Matthews Band. I fucking hate the Dave Matthews Band – their jam-banding, feces-dumping, ants-marching brand of feel-good alt-folk horseshit reminds me of what was wrong with popular music in the 2000’s, and they’re not even my most hated band. (I’m pretty sure I’ve named my most hated band before somewhere on these blogs – if you find it, maybe you’ll win a prize or not.) But by all accounts, Dave Matthews himself seems to be a nice enough guy who sticks to doing his thing, so maybe younger Max was approaching all of this the wrong way. The Jurassic 5 and Dave Matthews (the feature credit goes to the full band, but only Matthews appears on “Work It Out”) first connected when the J5 were his opening act (an odd combination, sure), one he apparently introduced himself during those live shows, and when the opportunity arose for the two to collaborate, he jumped at the chance. Interscope Records obviously saw dollar signs, as “Work It Out” was the last single released prior to Feedback hitting store shelves (and for the longest time was the last single from the Jurassic 5 entirely), but as the critiques rolled in, the label must have realized their mistake, as all promotion for Feedback immediately ceased, leaving the J5 in the dark. Today it’s 2021, and after listening to “Work It Out” in full for the very first time, I’m ready for my gut reaction: meh. “Work It Out” is a love song (which is easier to sell to a wider audience) where Matthews’ is the first voice you hear, which shifts the balance of the track away from our hosts even with Nu-Mark attempting to bring some of his flavor to the beat. The performances from everyone are wholly inoffensive, as each rapping member of the J5 try to salvage a flailing relationship while Matthews wishes that everyone involved would just “Work It Out”. And it’s all pretty underwhelming: the instrumental is very low-energy, Matthews is criminally miscast here (although at least he doesn’t actually try to rap, thank your lucky fucking stars for that), and Akil, Marc 7, Soup, and Chali all sound kind of bored with the topic of discussion, as though this were a label mandate that nobody involved was altogether happy with. Which it might have been, I don’t know, but “Work It Out” does not find the Jurassic 5 making the best of a strange situation. Matthews emerges virtually unscathed, if that’s your cup of tea, but I didn’t really give much of a shit. Perhaps younger Max was on to something after all.

8. WHERE WE AT
“Where We At” comes with a fun surprise in the box: an uncredited appearance from Yaasin Bey, known back in 2006 as Mos Def. But the reason he’s sans credit on Feedback is a frustrating one: the motherfucker barely does anything on here, reciting a brief monologue that sort-of ties into the theme of the track before retreating back into the woods, never to be seen again. It’s a bizarre cameo, one that makes you question why the Jurassic 5 even fucking bothered. (I mean, if your argument is “name brand recognition”, then why didn’t they advertise his presence within the liner notes?) Without that shiny distraction, “Where We At” is a step back in the right direction for our hosts, who ride Nu-Mark’s simple instrumental while trying to justify their place within our chosen genre, one they hold without resorting to the gangsta rap of their California peers (but while continuing to talk their shit, because this is hip hop, after all). “Rhymes and beats that we create can defeat that weak crap,” Chali 2na offers optimistically, but while that line seems pretty corny, it works because “Where We At” is pretty fun. Not bad, guys.

9. GET IT TOGETHER
Salaam Remi’s loop on “Get It Together” is pretty contagious, giving this song the feel of one of the better tracks from Power In Numbers. Each member of the J5 gets a full verse to talk their shit, the instrumental providing the right amount of kinetic energy to fling the rhymes to their destination. The track isn’t simply a barfest either: the underlying theme is our hosts telling the listener to get their shit together, in all of the various forms that may constitute, and Soup’s line, “You can’t live in somebody house and start airin’ it out,” hit harder than I had expected today. Not the most fascinating song in the world, and that title is pretty generic all things considered, but I liked this one.

10. FUTURE SOUND
Curious that a song titled “Future Sound” by the Jurassic 5 would dare to only feature two of the four rappers in the group. Chali 2na and Marc 7 sit out this Nu-Mark production, which frees up Akil and Soup to provide their most aggressive performances yet. For example, bars such as, “Put this verbal dick in your mouth until I bust a nut” just aren’t what one expects from a Jurassic 5 album, but it’s here, and it isn’t as out-of-place as you’d think. “Future Sound” isn’t entirely successful, however, and not simply because the rest of the crew is missed: Nu-Mark’s instrumental follows many of the same beats as the group’s finest output, but it’s missing the soul, which renders this shit more workmanlike than intended. Ah well.

11. J. RESUME (SKIT)
A quickie DJ cut designed to remind the listener why you originally gravitated toward the Jurassic 5 in the first place.

12. RED HOT
The first single from Feedback, released nearly a full year before the proper album, features the playful back-and-forth the Jurassic 5 excel at. This one’s just fun as hell, Nu-Mark’s production bopping around as Soup, Chali, Akil, and Marc 7 pass the mic around with no other purpose in mind than to “entertain your brain for three minutes and change”. 2na’s claim that the Jurassic 5 have been “tight since we was labelmates with Mic Geronimo” was both hilarious and, it turns out, completely accurate (I had forgotten about the J5’s days on TVT prior to writing this review), but “Red Hot” isn’t so much focused on making you laugh as it is helping you to forget your problems for a little while. This shit was just nice. Strong recommend.

13. TURN IT OUT
Unlike this song, which slows the tempo down to dangerous levels of apathy. The track is called “Turn It Out”, you’d think there would be more of an effort to portray the illusion of energy here, especially coming after a lethargic, lengthy-as-hell interlude sequenced immediately after “Red Hot”. Le sigh.

14. END UP LIKE THIS
Feedback is in full-on wind-down mode with “End Up Like This”, a Salaam Remi-produced effort that leans much more heavily on self-reflection than anything else in the J5 catalog. The instrumental is good, if downbeat, although the vocal sample worked in that gives the song its name gets pretty frustrating to hear after a few repetitions. There is no playful back-and-forth to be found here, as each member of the group is focused on the what-ifs of life and work and what could be done to avoid the more negative outcomes. It’s pretty realistic for an artist to face their fears head-on without knowing what steps to take to overcome them, but that isn’t the direction many heads would ever want to hear the Jurassic 5 travel down anyway, so overall the track fumbles the ball. Probably doesn’t help that none of the four rappers sound altogether convinced of their own words, either. Ah well.

15. CANTO DE OSSANHA
Nu-Mark ends Feedback with a Latin-influenced instrumental interlude that doubles as end credit music for a Jurassic 5 film that ends on a somber cliffhanger (see: “End Up Like This”) that literally came out of left field. It sounded joyous and pleasing and isn’t out of place considering the group’s prior albums, but on what ended up being their last album (at least so far), it doesn’t provide anything resembling the closure you may have been hoping for, leaving the status of the J5 in eternal limbo.

FINAL THOUGHTS: Sadly, Feedback ends the Jurassic 5 narrative on a down beat, the energy waning from the collective as the project winds down. I’m sure this wasn’t the intention, but Feedback comes across as a record where at least a couple of the members of the group felt that their show was about to be cancelled by the network, and their performances indirectly suffered as a result. To be fair, there are some fantastic songs on here that are deserving of a wider audience, just not as many that have appeared on previous efforts from the J5, and the outright bad songs present are such that they override any good our hosts have managed to accomplish. The four rappers, especially Chali 2na, sound best when they are within their element, an environment that they’re pulled from far too often on Feedback – perhaps Cut Chemist was the group’s collective anchor? The production on here also suffers more often than not, with DJ Nu-Mark unfairly shouldering much of the blame for uninspired sample choices and bland musical backing that fail to spark a fire within the J5. This was ultimately a disappointing effort from a rap crew that should have demanded more from themselves, but instead they leave the game as a mere footnote. A damned shame.

BUY OR BURN? Neither, really. This isn’t a project you’ll absolutely need to have in your collection.

BEST TRACKS: “Radio”; “Red Hot”; “Back 4 You”

-Max

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