Rating:
Genre:
Rap
Release Date: 07/25/2006
Leading up to the release of
Feedback,
Jurassic 5 rapper
Soup distanced his group from the
rap underground that had embraced his music, but apparently had not paid enough of his bills. "It's a step up for us because we have been basically known as an underground group.... We've been known as a backpacker group." Indeed, after years of bringing their live show to thousands of scattered festival-goers (
Lollapalooza,
Warped,
Bonnaroo,
Reading), the group reached for the same type of commercialized sweet spot that had made
Black Eyed Peas one of the hottest things in
rap during the mid-2000s. That doesn't mean more sex, but it
does mean more anthems, more featured appearances, and more sounds from the contemporary
rap charts. With producer
Cut Chemist gone for a solo production career, the group focused heavily on their other in-house source,
DJ Nu-Mark, who contributes an opener in
"Back 4 U" that makes it sound as though nothing has changed in the
Jurassic camp. His pair of
Sugar Hill tributes later in the album (
"Radio," "In the House") end up being highlights of the album, not because they're stellar, but because the outside producers come up short so often.
Interscope may have sprung for some of the most expensive for-hire producers --
Scott Storch (famous for
50 Cent,
T.I.,
Lil' Kim, and
the Roots) and
Salaam Remi (
Fugees,
Nas,
Ludacris,
Joss Stone) -- but any savvy listener can go right down the track listing and match nearly every production to the source that prompted it.
"Baby Please" is a horn-led
Neptunes rewrite,
"Gotta Understand" a signature
Kanye West production (complete with
Curtis Mayfield's sampled crooning), and
"Get It Together" tries to capitalize on the fad of catchy whistling hooks already defined by
Juelz Santana's
"There It Go! (The Whistle Song)." The first single, a sunny singalong titled
"Work It Out," has the contributions of
the Dave Matthews Band. Against productions this commercialized,
Jurassic's top-notch rhymers --
Chali 2na,
Soup,
Akil -- usually end up spitting rhymes already familiar to listeners of their earlier work.
~John Bush, All Music Guide
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