This is the beginning of a movement that would go one to create offspring and sub-genre’s within music for generations to come. ‘Straight Out The Jungle’ is often forgotten as the “lead-off runner” in the Native Tongue legacy because the Jungle Brothers had a more subtle debut. This album is sort of the “experiment” or “T-Model Ford” to what members of a Native Tongue would expand and improve on within a years time.
Sammy B, Mike G. and Africa Baby Bam made up the Jungle Brothers, who one could here the influences of the The Furious Five, The Last Poets and Gil Scott-Heron to name a few. They were a different animal in a time of HOP music that was still very gold chain, leather jacket and name brand sports shoe driven. Jungle Brothers represented a real part of Hip-hop Culture that was more grounded, fun and left of center. ‘Straight Out The Jungle’ is a consolidation of those attributes on wax, while keeping the content simple, and a groove ripe for those late high-schoolers and early college attendees.
The album is produced by the Jungle Brothers with Africa Baby Bam and Mike G. providing the lyrics. An early Q-Tip is the only feature on this album to make ‘Straight Out The Jungle’ a cohesive product of whatever the Jungle Brothers were set to provide. The title track of the album which was the lead single starts this album off with a sort of familiarity. Jungle Brothers had been dropping singles and making music for this album since 1987 so songs can sound dated if one was introduced to the group through their video singles like myself. The magic of this release as it plays repeatedly you tend to not hear that dated distinction. If anything the issue with the album is that it is mixed low and the quality of how they recorded this release was definitely limited. This quality also gives the album character as the Jungle Brothers don’t take themselves too seriously on the album and the songs have provided memorable quotes that have been used throughout the lifetime of HOP music afterwards.
‘Straight Out The Jungle’ has grown in popularity over the almost forty years since it’s debut. ‘I’ll House You’ was one of the first crossover hits of House music and rap, that would dominate HOP music’s more popular sound as “Hip-House,” for at least the next three years. Jungle Brothers have never been the biggest hit makers but were able to garner the respect of what has made this genre of music exceptional since it’s inception, which is individuality. A testament to how music and movements can fertilize seeds of creativity that might have been looked down on or looked over. What did you think of the album?
Singles include:
‘Jimbrowski,’ ‘Because I Got It Like That,’ ‘I’ll House You,’ ‘On The Run’ & ‘Straight Out The Jungle’
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