Altsounds - Jurassic 5 - J5 Deluxe Re-issue [album, box-set]

I have to admit, I was pretty damn excited to get my hands on the highly anticipated Jurassic 5 deluxe re-issue. This exclusive bonus set contains their original release of the Jurassic 5 EP, plus a rare 15 track bonus disc, and a DVD that includes the London date of their first world tour.

I had first bought the Jurassic 5 EP some ten years ago; it was part of a whole new alternative hip hop scene that was starting to break through. Alongside these soon to be stalwarts were other revolutionists Kool Keith and Black Star, and hip hop was reborn.

The Jurassic 5 EP literally lived in my CD player from the moment I bought it, and I have memories of it fitting exactly three times fully when recorded on a 60 minute cassette tape (back in the day when tapes weren’t completely obsolete). It was a short album, but I loved it.

Listening to it now, after so many years of not having even looked at it, bought back a lot of good memories but mostly it just sounded great. The obvious stand out track would be the only top 40 hit Jurassic 5 had with “Concrete Schoolyard”, whose intro sounds as fresh now as it did back in ’97, followed closely by an example of their amazing word association in the track “Jayou”, and lastly the brilliant “Action Satisfaction” (both versions).

Though I listen and used to listen to the album from start to finish without the need to forward any tracks, I can accept that there are some serious fillers on here. Mainly instrumental sample types that wouldn’t be lost on a Beasties album, tracks like “Lesson 6; the lecture” and it’s reprise, and while they aren’t at all unpleasant to listen to, they are not songs by any stretch. Which leads me to wonder how much material Jurassic 5 had in the first place to need to include so many instrumental pieces in the already short EP? They possibly didn’t have that much, me thinks.

That said, the songs that are on here are brilliant, and of a far higher caliber then some of the other rubbish that I remember being out at the time. The whole EP, together with the instrumental tracks and full songs, make the album as a whole a really well put together piece and almost like a little piece of art that takes you on a journey (I know music is art but I’m sure you know what I mean!). A definite break from the musical norm, nonetheless hip hop norm.

The other disc in this deluxe set; a bonus disc of 15 rare tracks, also contains like the prior disc lots of music samples in almost equal ratio to songs, and we have a few more “Lesson Four: The Radio” type tracks.

As a whole the second disc is not as good as the first of this set (which was their first EP), but there are definitely some good gems here. These include “Ducky boy” and the very Tribe sounding “Rhythm”, to my personal favourites, “(Who’s gonna be the) Next victim” and the final track “Unified Rebelution”. Alongside these are also good re-works and remixes of the songs that appeared on their first EP, such as “Jayou remix” and “The Joint freestyle”. I found the latter half of this disc to be far the better than the earlier.

Ultimately Jurassic 5 fans should really enjoy J5 Deluxe Re-issue, and it’s definitely something special you’d want to treasure and keep in your collection. With the bonus DVD that includes a documentary titled “The Jurassic Period” by Jason Goldwatch, there’s also footage of the set at their Brixton tour date and the full video for the infamous “Concrete Schoolyard”.

The whole deluxe set of 3 discs is a little slice of positive hip hop history. And you get a poster. You can’t beat that.