Jungle Brothers

Like an early Bambaataa jam with comic timing, it starts out looser and more comradely than most rap dares any more. Then it stays that way. Crew name turns an insult around while permitting some light pan-Africanism, a Melle Mel hook, and the simple point that anywhere people get killed for the color of their skin is a jungle for sure. Samples come every which way--here Mingus, there Farfisa-cum-Hammond-B3, and over there drumbeats so offhand I'd half swear they were live. And reinforcing their professions of solidarity is the fact that they hardly boast at all--unless you're afraid claims that their jimbrowskis are seven feet tall will be taken literally by their tragically ill-informed audience. (Grade: A-)