Jurassic 5’s Power In Number’s Album Due Out October 8 On Interscope

FROM: MARCEE RONDAN/ALEXANDRA GREENBERG/ MITCH SCHNEIDER

JURASSIC 5’s
ÔPOWER IN NUMBERS’ ALBUM DUE OUT
OCTOBER 8 ON INTERSCOPE,
FIRST SINGLE “WHAT’S GOLDEN”
RECEIVES MULTI-FORMAT AIRPLAY ON
RHYTHMIC/TOP 40 AND MODERN ROCK RADIO;
VIDEO ALREADY “BUZZWORTHY” AT MTV,
TV PERFORMANCES SET FOR
LATE NIGHT WITH CONAN O’BRIEN AND
LATE LATE SHOW WITH CRAIG KILBORN
NATIONAL CROSS-COUNTRY TOUR TO FOLLOW

For JURASSIC 5 fans who’ve been patiently awaiting a new album from the critically acclaimed Los Angeles group, the wait is finally over.

Power In Numbers–the second full-length album from Jurassic 5 and their first since 2000’s critically acclaimed QUALITY CONTROL–is set for an October 8 release on Interscope Records. The album’s first single, the funky and proudly defiant “What’s Golden,” is already spinning at Top 40/Rhythmic (KPWR/LA, XHTZ/San Diego, KUBE/Seattle, KBOS/Fresno, WPOW/Miami, KIKI/Honolulu, KCAQ/Ventura & WNVZ/Norfolk) and Modern Rock (KROQ/LA, WNNX/Atlanta, WZZN/Chicago, KITS/San Francisco & WHFS/Washington) stations. The video, directed by Logan (Chris Isaak, No Doubt, Money Mark), was already added to MTV as a “Buzzworthy” clip. In addition, J5 will launch a month-long national tour October 9 in their Los Angeles hometown at the House of Blues. Prior to the trek, the group will perform on both LATE NIGHT WITH CONAN O’BRIEN (October 3) and the LATE LATE SHOW WITH CRAIG KILBORN (TBA).

Jurassic 5–MCs Chali 2na, Zaakir (Soup), Akil and Marc 7 and DJs Cut Chemist and Nu-Mark–conjure an energy that recalls a throwback era in hip-hop, when the only thing that seemed to matter was the music and having fun. It was a time of park jams and block parties, of willful braggadocio and stylish wordplay, of crafty disc jockeys and handclap beats. J5 have always displayed characteristics of those back-in-the-day jams, like their powerful vocal harmonizing and amplified funk beats, but what the group embody more than stylistic flourishes is that era’s spirit: making good music that connects with the people.

That sentiment is especially true on Power In Numbers, which the group describes as an altogether different sounding album but one that still is very much a part of the Jurassic 5 tradition. “We were kind of starting from scratch with no regard to what we had done before, experimenting with technique and sound,” explains Cut Chemist.

Jurassic 5 are using their skills to be deft cultural commentators while still rocking the party. “What means the world to me is being free/Live and let live and just let it be/Love, peace and harmony one universal family,” Akil says on “Freedom,” and his words echo the sentiment of the entire group.

Elsewhere, the new sounds abound. “One of Them” questions the motives of some of their peers, a vindictive edge to the group many haven’t seen. “Hey,” meanwhile, is a refined, mellow excursion into mood music, its soulful melody and soft organ touches making it a defiantly new style for the group. “Thin Line” fits in the same category, featuring the talented, sinewy vocals of singing sensation (and J5 fan) Nelly Furtado, who helps create an infectious pop song contemplating relationships between men and women.

“I never thought that we could do a song like that,” admits Cut Chemist. “But I’m listening to it and I’m thinking, ‘This is a really good SONG,’ a pop song when it was healthy to do good pop songs.”

Power In Numbers features a little bit of everything. “Break” could be described as a classic J5 song with its metered beats and lyrical playfulness, but its heavier sound makes it bounce harder. “A Day At The Races” features classic lyricists Percee P and Big Daddy Kane as guest MCs. The song is based on a beat Cut Chemist created 10 years ago, his homage to “fast-rap” artists like Kane and Kool G Rap. “That was a dream come true, to work with the two of them,” says Marc 7.

J5 included new producers on their album, including JuJu from the Beatnuts (“If You Only Knew,” “One of Them”) and Sledge and Omas (“Hey”). However, the bedrock of the J5 sound lies with Cut Chemist and Nu-Mark, both of whom relished the opportunity to create a new palette of sounds for the new album. Their ingenuity in mining new sounds out of old records is unparalleled in hip-hop–almost a lost art considering the sparse minimalism dominating hip-hop music these days–and Nu-Mark’s fetish for exotic instruments always adds another layer to the group’s sound. This time around, the album was recorded entirely at Nu-Mark’s new home studio in Los Angeles.

The preliminary tour dates are as follows:

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