Similar Albums:
- Artist: Jungle Brothers
- Rating:
- Release Date: 1988
- Genre: Rap
Review
The landmark opening salvo from the Jungle Brothers, Straight out the Jungle was also the very first album from the Native Tongues posse, which would utterly transform hip-hop over the next few years. That alone would be enough to make it a groundbreaking release, but Straight out the Jungle also contains the musical seeds for a number of soon-to-be-dominant trends. Their taste for jazzy horn samples helped kick-start the entire jazz-rap movement, and their concurrent James Brown fixation was one of the first to follow Eric B. & Rakim's lead. Plus, the group's groundbreaking collaboration with legendary house producer Todd Terry, "I'll House You," is also here; it paved the way for numerous hip-house hybrids that shot up the dance and pop charts over the next few years. The lyrics were often as cerebral as the music was adventurous and eclectic, appealing to the mind rather than the gut -- and the fact that rap didn't necessarily have to sound as though it were straight off the streets was fairly revelatory at the time. "Black Is Black" and the title cut are some of the first flowerings of Afrocentric hip-hop, but the group isn't always so serious; "I'm Gonna Do You," "Behind the Bush," and the sly classic "Jimbrowski" are all playfully sexy without descending into misogyny. To modern ears, Straight out the Jungle will likely sound somewhat dated -- the raw, basement-level production is pretty rudimentary even compared to their second album, and makes the jazz-rap innovations a bit difficult to fully comprehend, plus the album ends on several throwaways. But it is possible to hear the roots of hip-hop's intellectual wing, not to mention a sense of fun and positivity that hearkened back to the music's earliest Sugar Hill days -- and that's why Straight out the Jungle ultimately holds up. ~ Steve Huey, All Music GuideTracks
| Track Title | Composers | Performers | Time |
| Straight Out the Jungle | Jungle Brothers | Jungle Brothers | (4:00) |
| What's Going On | Jungle Brothers | Jungle Brothers | (4:07) |
| Black Is Black (Lyrics) | Jungle Brothers | Jungle Brothers | (3:38) |
| Jimbrowski | Jungle Brothers | Jungle Brothers | (4:30) |
| I'm Gonna Do You | Jungle Brothers | Jungle Brothers | (3:22) |
| I'll House You (Lyrics) | Jungle Brothers | Jungle Brothers | (4:59) |
| On the Run | Jungle Brothers | Jungle Brothers | (4:06) |
| Behind the Bush | Jungle Brothers | Jungle Brothers | (3:35) |
| Because I Got It Like That | Jungle Brothers | Jungle Brothers | (4:38) |
| Braggin & Boastin | Jungle Brothers | Jungle Brothers | (3:53) |
| Sounds of the Safari | Jungle Brothers | Jungle Brothers | (3:01) |
| Jimmy's Bonus Beat | Jungle Brothers | Jungle Brothers | (1:14) |
| The Promo | Jungle Brothers | Jungle Brothers | (3:35) |
