After the 1989/90 and 1991 seasons, 1993 is the third and also one of the last years of the hippie hip-hop, which died soon and was already starting to disappear completely from mainstream game.
De La Soul was dead and would have knocked two final blows from the grave, while the disqualifying homophobia of A Tribe Called Quest had been censored and this had saved the group from public beheading, but they too, after having agreed with De La Soul on the period in which to release their records (1991, 1993, 1996 and an unlikely return for both in 2016), they would retire in a few years with a "clean" and unassailable discography, still known in the most renowned hip-hop circles and podcasts as one of the best discographies ever.
Finally, the Jungle Brothers, they were completely freaking out. Oh, man, like B.A. Baracus at his best times, I don't pity them: J Beez (hahaha, sorry, I get it just now) they were the first to introduce this kind of lightheartedness into rap, these bizarre and nonsensical lyrics, funny and random, vicious (De La Soul steals from them the idea of doing the first sex skit in history on a hip-hop LP), this wild and carefree nature, from which the twin groups in the Native Tongues will steal with both hands and never give back or quote. They deserved to have critical glory, platinum records and number ones on Billboard rankings, but after five years in the game, what do they have? Nothing. Their singles are faring better in the Netherlands than at home and their albums are selling in the UK but not in the US.
In 1991, while Afrika Baby Bam, DJ Sammy B & Mike G are watching what happens on the hip-hop scene, De La Soul and ATCQ release their respective sophomore records: they don't even come close to the brilliant quality of the Jungle Brothers' second effort, but the specialized critics don't care, and they shower praise for everyone. At this point, somehow, the Jungle Brothers learn about the period in which the other two main groups of the Native Tongues will release their next records and set to work to release their project in order to obtain part of the limo of criticism that the torrent of insiders will lead to the next flood. The trio begins to produce different tracks, even if I've never heard them, they were probably good songs, but they aren't good enough. The label doesn't like them. And the label is the powerful Warner Bros. Records. The songs proposed by the group are experimental, too experimental to be published by an ultra-global-major like Theirs.
These songs are produced by the eclectic bassist Bill Laswell, with whom Afrika Baby Bam collaborated a few months earlier on his debut album "Transmutation", made with the supergroup Praxis, where Baby Bam is credited as «AF Next Man Flip (Lord of the Paradox)», hardly anyone of them passes the final selection of the fourteen tracks and the title of the disc has changed from "Crazy Wisdom Masters" to the current one, a bit limp. The group is therefore forced to make other songs, more average, maintaining a lyricism that revolves around the usual themes of the group, sex, weed, braggadocio, a few attacks on Warner Bros. executives and rival artists who are biting them from every direction. The trio chooses a slow, smooth and decent rapping style, with few style variations. The production is credited to the group itself, to their aid comes Bob Power, the sound engineer behind all the masterful albums of A Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul, named for the "new" cuts of the Jungle Brothers, whose rhythms are all quite average. Musically, there are jazzy and funky boom bap rhythms similar to their previous records, some soundscape is crisp, lively and energetic, with vibrant drums and good samples, however, most of the songs have decent, even cheap funky beats, mundane hooks, mediocre or outlandish samples and generic, slow, pounding drums.
The whole record is a directionless mess, the Jungle Brothers perhaps had the potential to create one of the best experimental hip-hop albums of the year, but they haven't had the opportunity: the listener is rewarded in the finale, when the more experimental cuts are free to roam happily. The group manages to save only three of their original intended tracks: "BlahBludify", a kind of sonic chaos that features about two minutes of outlandish noise due to the confusing blend of jazzy boom bap, wacky samples and a distorted voice looped in the background; "Spittin Wicked Randomness", where the group delivers with whimsical style on a fresh energetic beat; "For the Headz at Company Z", the best one of the whole LP, dissing to Warner Bros. itself on fresh jazzy-funky boom bap production with layered samples, tight and pounding drum machine, a crazy piano and confusing sounds mixed in the background, there's no real delivery by the group.
Overall, on this 50-minute experimental psychedelic album, everyone seems to have gone mad, there are singing parts, rapping ones and shouting all together, wacky and shrill samples, random sounds, all mixed together by a ridiculous mixing, it's all random noise: these three no longer wanted to rap, and in fact, there's little rapping done well here. Four years after their last work, the attention of the public and critics has shifted to other groups, they're destined to retire. De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest have plenty of time to watch their "friends" fail and, few months later, drop another classic album each in the fall of the same year, agreeing on the next critically-blessed release: summer 1996. As happened in the past, once again the Jungle Brothers will not be able to get on the bandwagon and their fourth album will be released, ignored by everyone, only a year later, but at that moment they were already over.
Rating: 5.5/10.
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