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MP3.com Live: J5 rocks the party
LA hip-hop collective brings a new album and their trademark retro flavor to San Francisco's Fillmore for a boisterous performance.
SAN FRANCISCO--In the hip-hop galaxy, we can talk all we want about beats, rhymes, styles, and skills, but when it comes to rocking a party, nobody does it quite like Jurassic 5.
Jurassic 5
The LA-based collective came through San Francisco's Fillmore last night on the second of a two-night stand, showing off a new look (DJ Cut Chemist went solo, leaving the group with the name-appropriate four MCs and one DJ) and a bundle of tracks from its new album, Feedback, which hits stores tomorrow.
The 90-minute set was classic in every meaning of the word: not terribly ground breaking or complex, but the type of show that anyone with a pulse can enjoy, particularly those with an ear for old-school rhymes and block-party beats.
In their own unmatched style, Jurassic 5 MCs Chali 2na, Akil, Mark 7, and Soup bring the vocal interplay and harmonization of old-soul groups--think the Delfonics or the Spinners--to the hip-hop game. Each MC was equally adept last night at trading lines back and forth between one another or chanting a chorus as one. The result was old-school hip-hop at its finest and most danceable.
Feedback is good but not their best record. But unlike most rap groups, which have to overcome bass-heavy sound systems, hype-man overkill, and simply poor live performance skills, Jurassic 5 absolutely shines in a live setting. Because of that, the group even turned the party out with "Work It Out," the somewhat cringe-worthy collabo with Dave Matthews from Feedback.
From the moment the MCs walked on stage, one by one, each emerging as they pounced into their first verse of Feedback opener "Back 4 U," it was clear that the crowd was in the hands of professionals.
All four MCs are extremely skilled rhymesayers, but as in any collective, there has to be an alpha dog, and in J5's case, it's Chali 2na. Blessed with a booming baritone, an eye-grabbing stage presence, and a rhyme cadence that's custom fit for live performance, the self-proclaimed "verbal Herman Munster" had the crowd in the palm of his hands from the outset.
Jurassic 5's
Feedback.
That charisma went a long way to creating the party vibe, where even the most overused cliché's in hip-hop, such as requests to wave hands like you don't care and "Where are the ladies at tonight?" came off as less tired in the hands of the J5's verbal craftsmen. Even as the set entered its second hour, the group's requests for Feedback were met with thunderous cheers, particularly during a fast-paced freestyle session featuring Brother J of opening act X-Clan and the duo Zion I.
It wasn't all gleeful, throwback rap, though. Each MC, particularly Akil, has shown a penchant for political prose in recent years, and the group gave a collective middle finger to the current commander in chief during "Freedom."
But just a few tracks later, J5 at its core was at its best. With the skillful DJ Nu-Mark cutting up the record behind them, the MC quartet rapped the chorus of 2002's "Break" in unison: "We payin' homage as well as returnin' favors." That lyric might as well be the group's motto, assuring its spot as the ultimate link to hip-hop's bling-free, party-centric past.
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