Take five

Of all the times to interview Jurassic 5, maybe this is not the best. As the band reach the end of a hugely successful European tour in support of last year’s Power In Numbers album, their spirits are visibly starting to fray. To DJ Nu-Mark and the other members of band and crew, their Dublin show is one final hurdle before climbing on a 6.30am flight the next morning home to their families. Anything else really is just a fairly unwelcome distraction and, although he is reasonably engaged by the process, this interview is clearly not top of his to do list right now.

His reasons, though, are understandable.

“We came really close to cancelling these shows because they were starting to shut down areas of Los Angeles airport and we didn’t want to get stuck out here, as has happened to some groups in the past,” he explains. “In the end we thought we’d stick it out because we’re the kind of band who should do that”.

It’s a far cry from the days when you genuinely felt the music could effect change.

“There’s definitely not as much political stuff”, Nu-Mark agrees. “We sprinkle a few things in our music but we don’t want to become preachy. We grew up in that era but we more adore the time for the blooming of hip hop, when it was about rocking the party and giving everybody a good time. We’re based off of that kind of foundation. There are things in the rhymes, because when things are going on you’ve got to say something, but that’s not what we’re using our voice for”.

Despite this, Jurassic 5 are a far weightier prospect than many give them credit for, both musically and lyrically. They may have been lauded as the new De La Soul in the light of the infectious ‘Concrete Schoolyard’, but the band have developed a multi-faceted approach which has culminated with Power In Numbers.

“You grow as a band,” Nu-Mark observes. “I think people thought we were just an old school group and ignored things like ‘Lesson 6’ which was way more advanced than simply old school, something you’ve never heard and will probably never hear again. They seem to ignore a lot of the stage things that are going on. J5 is a culmination of the old and the new, but a lot of people want to staple us to the old because it hasn’t been done in a long time. On this album we attributed more of our focus to some of the deeper stuff but we kept the roots of the funk and the soul.”

A lot of the problem is that people seem unable to recognise that there can be any middle ground between the thugs and gangsters and the lightweight rap clogging up the pop charts.

“Right, we keep getting labelled as positive hip hop but that’s not really us. Just because there aren’t enough people like us in the underground, you automatically get labelled positive just because you’re not slapping a bitch or talking about shooting people. That doesn’t necessarily make you positive. It makes you sound like Christian rap or something. We’re just doing the true school”.

Does he get frustrated at some of the acts who have taken the easy route, using people’s genuine misery and despair as a licence to print money and sell records?

“Only when I hear that they have the number one record and they can’t sell out a show. That throws up question marks in my head. I believe in being a full, well-rounded artist, with the word artist underlined. I believe that you should take what you do seriously. I wish my shit was being played on the radio, straight up, but I wouldn’t trade my career with any of those people because I know I can sell out venues anywhere in the world right now and enjoy what I do from the heart”.