Jurassic 5: Lesson 4: The Radio
From Unified Rebolution EP (1994)
Jurassic 5: Concrete Schoolyard (original mix – edited)
From S/T EP (Rumble, 1997)
Jurassic 5’s “yellow EP” version of “Unified Rebolution” came out a year before the picture cover version (on Blunt Recordings). While both EP’s had the title track included – the hit that first put J5 on the map for many – the original Yellow EP was special because it included Cut Chemist’s “Lesson 4: The Radio,” an homage to Double Dee and Steinski’s cut-n-paste “Lessons” series on Disconet (then Tommy Boy). Cut’s “Lesson 4” is fantastic, giving it up to all the key radio players through the years, with a big fat shout to KDAY in Los Angeles. However, unbeknownest to Cut, DJ Shadow had already recorded a “Lesson 4,” himself but that appeared on a promo-only Hollywood Basic 12″ that few had heard of, let alone owned. (Truth be told, Cut’s song is the better of the two though it’s not as if Shadow was slacking on his “Lesson 4.”)
This version of “Concrete Schoolyard” should be familiar to the group’s core fans, who all would have picked up their independently released EP when it came out on Rumble in 1997. This was before their Interscope deal and back when sample clearance wasn’t a real issue. However, when Interscope released this EP as an LP the following year, Akil found out that they couldn’t get clearance for his special verse at the end of the song. It’s a damn shame since it was one of the EP’s highlights – Akil ripping rhymes over a rolling bassline lifted from Ramsey Lewis’ cover of “Summer Breeze.” Subsequent versions of the song cut off before Akil’s portion kicks in. I edited the song here to get you to that verse faster.
chatter