Jurassic 5 – EP

Los Angeles in the early to mid-nineties was a hotbed of musical activity …especially in the west coast hip hop scene. 

On any given week you could catch some of the biggest names in the game playing at small clubs and bars throughout the city. One of the biggest spots in town for the music was a little club called The Root Down.  I saved some of their flyers from that era and I look back at them now and wonder when we’ll ever see shit going down like that again. 

In one month you could see DJ Z Trip, Blackalicious, Madlib and Ozomatli for like…ten bucks.  Better yet, all your hip hop heros were there, just wandering around the place.  (I remeber one show where I stopped and chatted with Peanutbutter Wolf for a bit while commenting that the guy next to us looked like Mos Def.  Turns out it was Mos Def.)

But the group that became the cornerstone of the LA scene was Jurassic 5 and when their now legendary “Jurassic 5 EP”dropped in 1993, they pretty much had shit on lockdown.

They got their start at a South Central open-mic hot spot called the Good Life Cafe, the place that helped spawn the careers of The Freestyle Fellowship and The Pharcyde to name a few.  Back then, they were two groups…The Rebels of Rhythm and The Unity Committee, and in early ‘93 the crews collaborated on a one-off 12″ called “Unified Rebellion” that was an instant underground hit on college radio and mix shows.  Jurassic 5 was now official.

Led by MC’s Zaakir, Akil, Marc 7 and the baritone Chali 2na the group’s sound is held together by the dynamic DJ team of Cut Chemist and DJ NuMark. (Jurassic is one of the few groups out there that uses two DJs on the regular) Capitalizing on the new interest, the group released “The Jurassic 5 EP” later that year on their own indie label and sold over 200,000 copies.  Obviously the streets were hungry for the sound Jurassic 5 was peddling.

The EP is only 8 tracks long, but each track is so deftly crafted and upbeat that it feels like a full album. (Hell, Beck’s latest album is only 10 songs.)  In fact, once it hit legendary status and they got picked up by a major label, they added a few more tracks and called it “The Jurassic 5 LP.”  From the throbbing beat of ‘Jayou’ to the early hip hop feel of ‘Concrete Schoolyard’ the album remains firmly rooted in the past, while all the time looking forward.  No bad day could withstand the onslaught a listening of this album would bring.

But the real treat is and always will be the live show, as it gives the MC’s a time to truely shine and live up the their name.  If you haven’t seen it, the Cut Chemist and DJ NuMark throwdown that happens in the middle of every show is worth the price of admission alone.  To celebrate the 15 year anniversary of the album, they’ve recently released a special edition with all kinds of tasty extras for hungry ears. 

Grab it folks.

DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist – Brainfreeze

This is the stuff Mixtape legends are made of.

I picked this up on a whim at the record store because I knew DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist and was already a fan of their work.  I thought to myself:

“Hmmm…a mix of funk 45s, how quaint.”

Then I tossed it in my pile, only to discover later that it contained some of the rarest, funkiest shit I had never heard of.  I have a shitload of old funk and soul in my crates, so for something this awesome to come out and not have a single track I could identify kind of brought my mind to a halt.  45’s like these go for mucho dinero on Ebay! But to fully understand the brilliance of this mix, you need a little history.

See, there used to be an awesome club in San Francisco called Future Primitive.  Their hook was that they would pair up two DJ’s with different styles, usually a party rocker and a turntablist, and have them throw down for an evening.  One one occasion DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist were on hand, and already good friends and musical contemporaries when they decided to rehearse a little set just using their old funk 45’s.  What happened was nothing short of magic…so they kept the recording, pressed up 1000 copies to sell at their shows and another 1000 for local record shops. 

It sold out real fast.

Back in the 80’s, when DJing was just beginning to evolve, guys like Double Dee and Steinski started a mini revolution by releasing a few tracks called ‘The Lessons’ which cut and mixed snippets and parts of popular tracks together into a new track.  What most DJ’s didn’t know was that this was done in a studio by cutting and pasting audio tape.  As far as they knew it was being done live, so they began emulating this technique using two turntables instead.  The rest is history, and would eventually lead to the skills you hear on this mix.

“Brainfreeze”, named and themed after 7-11 promotional 45 that actually has a sick break on it, was never repressed officially after 7-11 sent a cease and desist letter and they boys decided to simply move on. This was a huge mistake by 7-11, who should have jumped on the bandwagon and supported this project instead. But god forbid they be associated with something this fucking cool. It has been bootlegged to death though, and can still be found at some record stores.

If you were lucky enough, you got to catch the boys doing this show live…and got to enjoy a Slurpee while doing so. What’s more amazing than the rarity of the 45’s on this mix, is the fact that Shadow and Cut pretty much destroyed their copies by doing this mix.

But real art requires sacrifice.

Bonus!!! Here’s the tracklisting via Wiki!

Mix One

• Lamont Johson Quartet – “Thunder Kick” (Trailer to unreleased film)
• The Jules Blattner Group – 2001 – “A Soul Odyssey”
• Fried Chicken – “Funky DJ”
• The Mohawks – “The Champ”
• Reuben Bell – “Superjock”
• Albert King – “Cold Feet”
• Ultimate Force – “I’m Not Playing”
• Eddie Bo and Inez Cheatham – “Lover And A Friend”
• Mack Rice – “Three People In Love”
• The Nu People – “I’d Be Nowhere Today”
• Nu-Sound Express Ltd – “Ain’t It Good Enough”
• Mystic Moods – “Cosmic Sea”
• American Gypsy – “Inside Out”
• Odetta – “Hit Or Miss”
• The Mar-Keys – “Grab This Thing (Part 2)”
• Rusty Bryant – “FireEater”
• Simtec and Wylie – “Bootleggin’” (Part 2)
• Wilbur Bascomb and The Zodiac – “Just A Groove In ‘G’”
• Eddie Bo and The Soul Finders – “We’re Doin’ It (Thang) (Part 2)”
• Rufus Thomas – “Sophisticated Sissy”
• The Showmen Inc. – “The Tramp (From Funky Broadway)” (Part 1)
• The Original Soul Senders – “Soul Brother Testify (Part 2)”
• Rufus Thomas – “Itch and Scratch (Part I and II)”
• Alvin Cash – “Keep On Dancing (Instrumental”)
• Lou Courtney – “Hey Joyce”
• Bummer radio spot

Mix Two

• The Singing Principal – “Women’s Lib”
• Salt – “Hung Up”
• The Soul Lifters – “Hot, Funky, and Sweaty”
• Frankie Seay and The Soul Riders – “Soul Food”
• The Interpretations – “Jason Pew Mosso” (Part 1)
• Thunder and Lightning – “Bumpin’ Bus Stop”
• Billy Garner – “I Got Some”
• Pleasure Web – “Music Man (Part I and II)”
• Gary Byrd – “Soul Travelin’ (The G.B.E.)” (Part I)
• Clifton Chenier and Grandma Gee Gee – “Just Keep On Scratching”
• “W” radio spot
• Marlena Shaw - “California Soul”
• The Vibrettes- “Humpty Dump (Part 1)”
• Eddie Bo - “From This Day On”
• 7 Eleven- “Dance The Slurp”
• Kraftwerk - “Numbers”
• Flash and The Five – “Flash It To The Beat”
• Pearly Queen – “Quit Jivin’”
• Tony Alvon and The Belairs – “Sexy Coffee Pot”
• Chuck Mangione – “Hill Where The Lord Hides”
• Funka Fize – “No Words”
• Schooly D – “Gucci Time”
• Jurassic 5 – “Unified Rebelution” (A cappella)
• Third Guitar – “Baby Don’t Cry”
• Don Pierce – “This Funky Thing”
• Funka Fize – “Because You’re Funky”
• The Troubleneck Brothers – “Back To The Hip Hop”
• Stu Gardner – “Devil In A Man”
• Samson and Delilah – “There’s A DJ In Your Town”
• Giorgio Moroder – “Tears”
• Tim and Bill – “Someone”