So why is Jurassic 5’s Feedback on this best 1,000 albums ever thing?
Feedback is the best album by one of the greatest hip-hop collectives of all time.
Jurassic 5 has long lived in my personal hip-hop pantheon – a crew with golden age DNA, underground fire, and some of the tightest flows ever recorded. To paraphrase Chuck D, this posse got velocity.
Like the Wu-Tang Clan, it’s not just about how good each individual performer is – it’s also the chemistry in terms of how they sound together, how one voice flows into the next so that the collective whole feels so much greater than the sum of the parts.
Feedback is the best example of everything they did right. Which is to say it sizzles, red hot to the touch.
And speaking of heat, I point you to Exhibit A in the form of the absolutely sizzling “Red Hot.” Producer DJ Nu-Mark has never been sharper than on this one, and the hook is absolute dynamite.
As I mention above, the Jurassic 5 crew – which includes Chali 2na, Cut Chemist, Zaakir, Akil, and Marc 7 – is unmatched in all of hip-hop with the possible exception of those dudes roaming the Wu lands of Shaolin.
I mean, Marc 7 dropping the following is just one example, and it’s mind-blowing just to see these bars on a screen alone:
Syllable slasher, insurmountable mic gasher
Quick to vent with intent, you can’t crash us
Constant link passers, styles’ll skate past ya
Beats that we present will make you hate like a slave master (hardcore)
Heated and hot, control the venomous plots
We be the cream of the crop, so keep our name out your mouth
We’ll entertain your brain for three minutes and change
Whereas “Red Hot” runs… well hot, “Baby Please” maxes out J5’s soulful groove levels while losing not a speck of excitement. Exile takes producing credit on this one, and the use of organ gives the track an exquisite level of depth and soul.
With all of that being said, “Future Sound” is my favorite track on Feedback, and indeed I think it’s the best that Jurassic 5 has ever produced. An ingenious use of samples from the likes of Three Dog Night(!) and The Roots lays the groundwork for the fellas to drop a masterclass in underground rap that’s positioned to be accessible to a wider audience.*
* While people who know what’s up certainly have at least a passing familiarity with Jurassic 5 (at least circa 15-20 years ago), I always found it a bit mind blowing that J5 never achieved a level of success commensurate with the most popular rap and pop acts from the era.
While the Dave Matthews Band was arguably one of the most popular acts among my fellow jam band-loving students back in college at Binghamton University in New York in the ‘90s, he (and they) were never my favorites. I never disliked their stuff, but it was never really my thing, if you can dig.
I mention this because I have all kinds of love to give for Dave Matthews and crew’s unlikely but sparkling collaboration with J5 on “Work It Out.”
Some stats & info about Jurassic 5 – Feedback
- What kind of musical stylings does this album represent? Underground Hip Hop, Rap, Hip Hop, Jazzy Hip Hop, Alternative Rap
- Rolling Stone’s greatest 500 albums ranking – not ranked!
- All Music’s rating – 3 out of 5 stars (??)
- When was Feedback released? 2006
- My ranking, the one you’re reading right now – #59 out of 1,000
Jurassic 5’s Feedback on Spotify
A lyrical snippet from Jurassic 5’s Feedback that’s evocative of the album in some way, maybe
This is the future sound.
What does the “best 1,000 albums ever” mean and why are you doing this?
Yeah, I know it’s audacious, a little crazy (okay, maybe a lot cray cray), bordering on criminal nerdery.
But here’s what it’s NOT: a definitive list of the Greatest Albums of All-Time. This is 100% my own personal super biased, incredibly subjective review of what my top 1,000 albums are, ranked in painstaking order over the course of doing research for nearly a year, Rob from High Fidelity style. Find out more about why I embarked on a best 1,000 albums ever project.