March 23–30, 2000

disc quicks|hip-hop

Jungle Brothers

V.I.P.

(Gee Street/V2)

The Jungle Brothers, fathers of the Native Tongues movement, have always been among hip-hop’s finest musical instigators. They stretched the genre, becoming the first hip-hop group to rhyme over house music with 1988’s "I’ll House You," which still garners heavy club rotation. But the JBeez’s fifth album, V.I.P., produced by Alex Gifford of British big-beaters Propellerheads, doesn’t continue their graceful nudging of hip-hop’s boundaries. Instead, it takes clumsy stabs at artistic license. On the title track, the tune from TV’s I Dream of Jeannie loops over the chorus. The cut’s instrumentation gives it, and the humdrum "Freakin’ You," a Beach Boys taint. Even with two appearances by the bluesy Holmes Brothers, very few songs on V.I.P. inspire more than a reach for the FF button. The exceptions are "I Remember" and "Strictly Dedicated," which spark Mike G’s and Afrika Baby Bam’s classic, conscious rhymes. Guests Black Eyed Peas douse "Down With The JBeez" flavorably, but the song runs almost nine minutes. That’s a problem with many of the songs: running longer than the average attention span. V.I.P.’s song tempos are either breakneck-fast or molasses-slow, making the JBeez’s fifth release a scarcely victorious attempt at capturing both house and hip-hop audiences, and jeopardizing their firmament in the hip-hop jungle.

—Hamida Kinge