Jungle Brothers: Straight Out the Jungle (limited edition, smoke vinyl) [WARLOCK]

Why you'll love it

This limited edition comes on smoke vinyl with an obi strip. Rolling Stone ranked it No. 116 of the 200 greatest hip hop albums, Pitchfork put it at No. 71 of the 100 best rap albums, and The Source named it one of its 100 best albums.

This edition

• Limited edition
• Smoke vinyl
• Obi strip

About the album

Before De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest and Black Sheep, there were three friends from Harlem who decided hip hop could be playful, Afrocentric and a little bit jungle-themed. Mike Gee, Afrika Baby Bam and DJ Sammy B made this record for the indie Warlock label, and the Native Tongues collective grew out of it. Their taste for house music would soon help launch the hip-house sound, too.

The title track struts in on a big funk break, "Because I Got It Like That" is pure swagger, and "Sounds of the Safari" throws rainforest sound effects in with the beats. "Black Is Black" brings a young Q-Tip along, "Braggin' and Boastin'" and "On the Run" keep things loose, and "I'm Gonna Do You" shows off their stash of soul and jazz samples; the trio wrote, arranged and produced the lot themselves. The Los Angeles Times praised its charismatic and suave funkiness.

Pitchfork credited it with setting the sampledelic baseline for everything De La and Tribe did next. Which makes this, in the strictest family-tree sense, the grandparent of a great many record collections.

Also at Kops: more Jungle Brothers on vinyl · browse Hip Hop / R&B

Tracklist

Listen

On Warlock Records (cat# PONE9010), a reissue of the 1988 album.