Jurassic 5 "Power in Numbers" [2002]

If it seems as first that Jurassic 5 is merely hawking the hip-hop gimmick of doing it "old school," think again; these dudes ain't faking it -- they're all really that old. They think what they're doing is fresh, the way Dad still sports that silk shirt un-ironically. On "Power in Numbers" (referring, again, to their advanced ages), J-5 is bringing us "back to the days of yes y'allin'"... 15 full years after Chuck D wrote that shit off as passe. Some people never seem to learn. Meanwhile, J-5 spends most of "Power in Numbers" pretending like they're taking us all to school because each of this crew's rappers -- basso cartoon character Chali 2na and bippity-boppity Zaakir in particular -- keep confusing "age" with "wisdom." The only way this album could be worse is if DJ Cut Chemist dug into the tired, dusty catalog of Marley Marl the way the rappers keep hitting up the tired, dusty Treacherous 3. And just in case their prehistoric hip-hop schtick is still somehow lost on anybody, they fly in audio from old B&W instructional films and bring back Big Daddy Kane from complete obscurity. And for all the media push, "Power in Numbers" still didn't sell shit. Basically, the good thing about dinosaur poop is that you might be able to generate a small out of energy from it, but the bad thing is it's bound to pollute your immediate environment. Even most hip-hop fans are smart enough to recognize that.