THE JUNGLE BROTHERS
De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest may have been more commercially successful, but the
afrocentric, jazz political rap movement and unfadeable Native Tounge Massive started with the Jungle Brothers. Their debut full length “Straight Out the Jungle” opened up many doors that are walked through by today’s artists like Mos Def, Common and even Kanye West.
Their taste for jazzy horn samples helped kick-start the entire jazz-rap movement, and their James Brown fixation was one of the first. Plus, the group’s groundbreaking collaboration with legendary house producer Todd Terry, “I’ll House You,” paved the way for numerous hip-house hybrids that shot up the dance and pop charts over the next few years and appeared to be a staple on every East Coast Rap Album from ‘88 until ‘92. The opening track “Straight Out the Jungle” samples the classic Bill Withers drum break as the JB’s tell you where they are coming from. “Black Is Black” (featuring a young Q-Tip) and “Sounds Of The Safari” introduces the pro-black edge, while the sexually subtle classics “Jimbrowski” and “I’m Gonna Do You” are funny, clever and timely. Hard, smart, fun, clever
and brilliant, Mike G., Africa Baby Bam and Sammy G may not have realized it but they crafted a classic rap album that stands the test of time.
Traffic Entertainment Group now presents the album, reissued on high grade, loud pressed, double vinyl, for the first time in many years.
PRESS FOR STRAIGHT OUT THE JUNGLE
“The landmark opening salvo from the Jungle Brothers, Straight out the Jungle was also the very first album from the Native Tongues posse, which would utterly transform hip-hop over the next few years…it is possible to hear the roots of hip-hop’s intellectual wing, not to mention a sense of fun and positivity that hearkened back to the music’s earliest Sugar Hill days — and that’s why Straight out the Jungle ultimately holds up.”
“Rap’s hook-up with jazz was a liaison that was bound to happen, and while Jungle Brothers weren’t the artists to take the sound to its zenith (we’ll give a nod to Pete Rock for that), they certainly helped warm listeners up to the idea…Straight Out The Jungle is a veritable hip-hop memoir – pre-empting the obsessions of the 90s and later, it stands as a crucial historical link between three distinct worlds.”
– Fact Magazine, 100 Best Albums of the 1980s
“…legions of rappers have gone to lengths to explain how they keep from going under, with the most dramatic accounts often getting the most attention. Few, however, went about it as cool, playful and informed as the Jungle Brothers in 1988. …there’s no overestimating the importance of this album. As an innovative landmark in rap album history, it’s practically on the same level as “Critical Beatdown” and “Criminal Minded.” As a 1988 album, it’s part of the outstanding class of ’88.”
“Like an early Bambaataa jam with comic timing, it starts out looser and more comradely than most rap dares any more. Then it stays that way. Crew name turns an insult around while permitting some light pan-Africanism, a Melle Mel hook, and the simple point that anywhere people get killed for the color of their skin is a jungle for sure…”
