Jungle Brothers |
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Fri. March 10.2000 2:51 PM EST |
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Jungle Brothers Branching Out On V.I.P.Progressive rappers even going so far as to open for Backstreet Boys. by Staff Writer Christopher O'Connor |
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On V.I.P., the Jungle Brothers have strayed from traditional hip-hop to experiment with drum & bass, house and other types of electronic music. (Jill Greenberg) |
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Jungle Brothers rapper Afrika doesn't think it's all that weird that his progressive rap group is opening on tour for boy-band heartthrobs the Backstreet Boys. "The majority [of the Backstreet Boys' fans] are ... teenaged girls between 13
The two groups share booking agents, who arranged for the rappers to open the shows. As Afrika (born Nathaniel Hall) said, the Jungle Brothers are happy to expand their following as they expand the boundaries of their sound. On their latest record, V.I.P., which was released Tuesday, Afrika, 29, and partner Mike G, 30, have strayed from traditional hip- hop to experiment with drum & bass, house and other types of electronic music. Their main collaborator these days is Alex Gifford of the successful British techno group Propellerheads. "When we started off with [1989's] Straight out the Jungle, we might have been in the urban audience ... and making our own scene," Afrika said. "But then, hip-hop turned into more R&B and more into a sub-genre, which was like gangsta-scene or thug-scene, which wasn't what we were about. "When we started this album, it was like, do we go through door #1 — The Source magazine — or do we go through door #2 — URB magazine?," he said, referring to a popular electronica monthly. "It was very obvious where we need to be going" (RealAudio excerpt of interview). Various Styles Employed V.I.P. sounds as bold as its intentions, thanks in large part to Gifford. The title track puts a playful spin on drum & bass. A gleefully skittering drum shuffles. A chorus of girls makes like the Andrews Sisters, singing "yeah, yeah." And the song samples the chimes from the theme to the '60s television series "I Dream of Jeannie." "Sexy Body" takes the sound toward dance-hall funk — the rappers offer sex-crazed lyrics over fuzz-bass and a searing guitar riff. "Get Down" (RealAudio excerpt) is textbook acid-house, right down to the programmed cymbals and repetitive vocal snippet. "The Brothers," a laid-back pop song, is sung in the soulful tradition of Kool & the Gang and the Commodores. The closest the group comes to pure hip-hop is "Down With the JBeez" (RealAudio excerpt) a collaboration with their younger, jazz-inspired brethren in Black Eyed Peas. "I see a lot of music forms ... taking ideas from hip-hop, and I think it's really cool that people are trying to branch out," said New York club DJ Liquid Todd, who has spun songs from V.I.P. to mixed response so far. "But if you like pure hip-hop, this is not your vibe." Afrika said the Jungle Brothers understood that they were taking a risk by altering their style on the new album, but they followed their ambition anyway. Gifford was a good fit. The group mostly wrote and recorded demo versions of songs and then worked with Gifford to arrange and reshape them. Regarding the varying styles that run through the album, Afrika said, "That's what we liked about [Gifford]. All those elements were in the package. He knew what worked. He remembered how we used to have fun with the music." Leaving The Collective Along with fellow New York rappers A Tribe Called Quest, Queen Latifah, De la Soul and Monie Love, the Jungle Brothers came to prominence in the late 1980s. Together, those artists made up the now-defunct collective known as Native Tongues, marked by the use of jazz, their quirky styles and lyrics and their collaborations with each other. The various members of the Native Tongues crew have traveled in different directions over the years. A Tribe Called Quest gravitated toward mainstream hip-hop and broke up in 1998; their lead rapper, Q-Tip, began a solo career last year. Latifah now hosts her own daytime TV talk show and acts. Still making music together, De la Soul have maintained an independent, low-key profile. The Jungle Brothers first dabbled in electronic music in 1989, releasing the single "I'll House You" with Todd Terry. Afrika said the Native Tongues' success was part of their demise. "The blackness, the positiveness, the fun spiritedness — that put a label on it, and then people were able to say whether they wanted to be with it or not," he said. But the public's expectations could be a burden, Afrika said. He said that people were asking A Tribe Called Quest, " 'The Jungle Brothers had success with a house record. Are you gonna do a house record?' " (RealAudio excerpt of interview). Those days are behind the Jungle Brothers now, Afrika said. They're reaching out to new people — including the folks in the Backstreet Boys' audiences. |
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