The original Jurassic 5 crew reunited for a global tour last year, including a recent tour of Australia, but now their reunion begins in earnest with the release of their first new music together since 2006 album Feedback.
Though it features a posthumous production job from Heavy D (who passed away in 2011), the most distinctive hook of J5’s first new track in 8 years, ‘The Way We Do It’, is the familiar sample it gravitates around – The White Stripes ‘My Bell’ from 2005’s Get Behind Me Satan.
Centered around Meg’s snappy drums and Jack’s ivory and vocal riffs, ‘The Way We Do It’ is an old-school hip hop joint in the way you remember J5 doing them on previous hits like ‘What’s Golden’ and ‘Quality Control’. The mic-hopping verses give each MC – Chali 2NA, Akil, Zaakir, Mark 7, and Soup – a turn in the spotlight, along with flourishes from DJs Cut Chemist and Nu-Mark.
The new White Stripes-sampling single arrives as Jurassic 5 make their way to the UK to continue their live comeback in shows that have seen the six-strong ensemble draw deep from their back catalogue, just as they did on their tour of Australia in March. Their career-spanning setlist in Adelaide had our Tone Deaf reviewer glowing; “for the fans who have supported J5 for the last 20 years, this was most definitely a gig to remember the group by.”
