Originally published on It Is Happening Again on March 18, 2014
Glastonbury, 25 June 2010. It’s hot. Too hot. We’re queuing
up to meet Chali 2na. He’s just come off stage, having performed with
Breakestra, and is chatting to fans, signing autographs and posing for photos.
Jurassic 5, the hip hop collective which made him famous,
split up three years earlier, citing the classic “musical differences” and,
since then, Chali has busied himself with a plethora of collaborations, including
with the aforementioned Breakestra.
It’s our turn. We were at the back of the queue, but he
treats us like we’re the first people he’s seen all day. Handshake. Autograph.
Photograph. Then the journalist in me kicks in and I start asking him questions.
Has he performed at Glastonbury before? He has.
Was that with Jurassic 5? Affirmative.
Will Jurassic 5 perform together again? Uh…
He looks awkward. This cannot possibly be the first time he
has been asked that question today. WE WERE AT THE BACK OF THE QUEUE.
“You’re all working on your own projects at the moment,
right?” I chip in.
He looks relieved.
“Uh… yeah, yeah.”
“Well, hopefully we’ll see you guys back together again
soon,” I quip, optimistically.
He gives me a smile which betrays a hint of pity and puts
his hand up for one of those handshake/high-five hybrid things, saying: “Aw,
respect man.”
---
I first encountered Jurassic 5 while at university in 1998.
One of my housemates had their self-titled debut and I was immediately struck
by the way it managed to sound so old skool and yet… so new, so fresh.
From the off, it was clear that this was the real deal. J5
weren’t concerned with guns, bitches and bling (which, as the great philosopher
Scroobius Pip once reminded us, were NEVER part of the four elements and NEVER
WILL BE). Theirs was not a world of macho posturing or pointless playground
beefs based on territorial disputes and perceived disrespect. They had no need
to pretend: every claim of lyrical prowess was instantly backed up. The
evidence was right there in your hands, on your turntable, embedded in your
consciousness.
So what about the album itself? Firstly, ‘Jurassic 5’ isn’t
technically an album, per se, but more of an extended version of their earlier
self-titled EP. Of the 13 tracks, just six are what you might call ‘songs’ (I
hate to use that term in relation to hip hop but you know what I mean, right?)
while the rest are either brief skits (‘Sausage Gut’, ‘Set Up’) sample-heavy
instrumentals (‘Lesson 6: The Lecture’) and ‘reprises’ (in other words,
shortened instrumentals) of earlier tracks. However, far from sounding
fragmented or disjointed, everything comes together to create a
mini-masterpiece which has stood the test of time.
Musically, this is hip hop stripped back to basics. Four
MCs, two DJs. That’s it. What more do you want? Jarring kids’ TV samples
shoe-horned into your track to get commercial radio play? Nah. P Diddy
producing your record on the condition that he’s allowed to dance like a twat
in your video? Not on their watch. Your own line of over-priced, garishly
coloured headphones which look like something you would buy from the Early
Learning Centre? GET OUT AND DON’T COME BACK.
Taking its cue from the conscious hip hop of De La Soul and
A Tribe Called Quest, this is an album where substance takes precedence over
style. What sets J5 apart from their peers is their smooth lyrical flow and
four MCs rapping together as one, almost harmonising in places. These aren’t
people who ‘think’ they can have a go at rapping – these are people with a
talent that others should aspire to. The standard has been set.
It’s coming up to 16 years since ‘Jurassic 5’ was released.
To this day, it remains one of the albums I play the most. The day I get bored
of it is the day I stop breathing.
---
O2 Academy, Birmingham, 11 June 2013. It’s hot. Too hot.
We’re queuing up to meet Chali 2na. He’s just come off stage, having performed
with a reformed Jurassic 5, and is chatting to fans, signing autographs and
posing for photos.
It’s our turn. We were at the back of the queue, but he
treats us like we’re the first people he’s seen all day. Handshake. Autograph.
Photograph.
I resist the urge to say “I told you so”.
