Jurassic 5

“We never tried to be old school,” the distinctive baritone voice of Jurassic 5 MC Chali 2na echoes down the phone line. “That’s just what we did then”. “Then” was in 1992 when Los Angeles’ Jurassic 5 emerged with an acclaimed debut EP featuring the now classic song ‘Concrete Schoolyard’ that promised to take hip-hop back to its roots of “original beats / real live MCs / playground tactics”. Now, one of the most popular alternative rap groups are set to release their third full length album, ‘Feedback’, that sees them take a significant step away from their signature old school sound. There’s the Boney M meets dancehall of ‘Brown Girl’, a soulful collaboration with US rock star Dave Matthews on ‘Work It Out’, while ‘Gotta Understand’ is a glitzy LA take on the East Coast sound.