0674. Jungle Brothers
Done By The Forces Of Nature

This entry is probably as afrocentric the list will ever be. The Jungle Brothers' second album is a nowadays seldom trodden path into a jungle, analogous with the city of course, where everything turns up blacker than black and it's all good.
At times it gets almost too much like nationalism, but stays within the community esteem-buildingmarkers.

With samples from Grandmaster Melle Mel to that three-note angel chorus Sadly it's a bit tainted by the hip-house trend that flourished at the time (worst offender: What U Waitin' 4), but luckily not a stereotypical house-piano within earshot.

Done By The Forces Of Nature still kicks it twenty-three years on, and I still remember how embarrased I got listening to the moaning in Belly Dancin' Dina (seriously, a kid going through puberty can't be expected to handle it any other way).

The most Motherland-yearning part of the Native Tongues collective delivers an album that's both rooted in its era and funky enough to survive the ages.