The diggin’ in the cratez iTunes strategy has reunited me with the Jungle Brothers. The JBeez, for short, were an offshoot of the late 80’s/early 90’s Native Tongues hip-hop collective. Not quite reaching the same level of renown as A Tribe Called Quest or De La Soul, looking back they had a pretty productive oeuvre.
Apropos, Elle Driver: “You know I’ve always liked that word… ‘oeuvre’ … so rarely have an opportunity to use it in a sentence.”
Some highlights:
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Jimbrowski, their debut, “the thing’s so big you need a U-haul to haul it”
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Because I Got It Like That, the 12” followup if I remember correctly
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JBeez Coming Through, “5000 boomin watts. Sound system state of the art”
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Black is Black, especially the Gee Street Ultrablack mix
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I’ll House You, A House music anthem to this day, “feel the vibe, feel the vibe, feel the bass, c’mon!”
What’s great about all of these tracks is that the beats, rhymes, and energy still hold up well today. For a 1.5 album group, their sophomore effort Done By The Forces of Nature was a little weak, the JBeez got a lot done.