Track Listing

1. In the flesh
2. Quality control part II
3. Jayou
4. Lesson 6
5. Concrete schoolyard
6. Setup
7. Action satisfaction
8. Sausage gut
9. Improvise
10. Blacktop beat
11. Without a doubt
12. Lesson 6 (1) (Reprise)
13. Cuts and scratches
14. Action satisfaction dub

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3799 in Music
• Released on: 1998-06-01
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
When people talk about the resurgent hip-hop underground of the late 1990s, they're usually talking about the West Coast, Northern Cali uprising--and when they talk about that movement, chances are good that, somewhere between Company Flow and the Invisibl Skratch Piklz, there will be some mention of Jurassic 5. Their self-titled EP features the group's deep lyrical skills flip-flopped with DJ Cut Chemist's supreme turntable compositions. ("Lesson 6: The Lecture" is a classic DJ cut, building a hip-hop collage of samples out of scraps from an old instructional music record.) The format is typical for '90s hip-hop--an oversize crew of rappers passing the ball back and forth--but the vibe from the six-man pack of Jurassic 5 is still something of a throwback to a Last Poets or Pharoahs block party. Piano and flute loops weave through tracks like "Jayou" and "Concrete Schoolyard" and bring you to a place of higher consciousness, but the place where the MC skills truly meet the DJ skills is the anomalous cut-up funk of "Action Satisfaction," in which J5 teach the true meaning of sharing. --Todd Levin

Customer Reviews

Just doing it for the love of the sounds
I've heard a lot about 'production' and how lyrics being negative doesn't matter but this LP proves how good the original ideas behind hip-hop still are and also that you don't need to rhyme negatively to be relevant. This is all about fitting each beat with each word, still not having to be too serious about yourself and just loving the sounds which we can create and doing it all for the enjoyment, the idea behind hip-hop for me.

No Rabbit in a hat Tricks
The line out of Concrete Playground sums it up really - "lets take you back to the concrete streets, original beats with real live MCs, playground tactics, no rabbit-in-a-hat tricks, just that classic rap from Jurassic".

Its the kind of music you can't put a date to, it stands the test of time better than the 2Pac tripe that requires Elton John or Billy Joel or some other bilge as a backing track cos no one could be bothered to write their own.

This is what I suppose people would call Old Skool, and it is a great album, and an amazing debut!

Back to the good old days
This is proper hip-hop, original beats and clever lyrics. The group claim they're all about the music and this is certainly true. I have to draw attention to 'cut-chemist' the real star of the group - check out 'lesson 6' for an example of his skills. J5 are often compared to dilated people's and on the basis of this lp you've gotto say they're even better.