616 Hello The Jungle Brothers* - I'll House You

(* Richie  Rich  Meets..... )

Chart  entered : 22  October  1988

Chart  peak : 22

Number  of  hits : 11

This  seems  like  a  turning  point. I recall  the  name  of  the  act  but  this  is  the  first  time since  Joan  Regan  back  in  1953  that  I've  looked  down  the  list  of  hits  and  not  recognised  any  of  them. It's  a  sign  we've  reached  the  point  where  I  started  to  disengage  from  the  charts. I  think  I  mentioned  on  Popular that  I   didn't  welcome  the  switch  in  1987  from  announcing  the  chart  on  a  Tuesday  lunchtime  to  a  Sunday  teatime. I  enjoyed  listening  to  the  old  chart  show  knowing  exactly  what  would  be  played  and  when  ( particularly  useful  in  the  seventies  when  I  was  taping  from  the  radio )  and  the  potential  excitement of  the  new  uncertainty  was  killed  stone  dead  by  the  ridiculous  way  in  which  Bruno  Brookes  presented  the  show  i.e. pretending  the  chart  was  still  being  compiled  while  the  show  was  on  air. It  would  be  mathematically  impossible  to  calculate  what  was  number  40  before  the  number  one  and  to  say  otherwise  was  just  infantile.

The  Jungle  Brothers  came  together  in  New York  in  1986  and  were  set  up  in  the  same  way  as  Salt  'n'  Pepa  with  two  rappers,  Michael  "Mike  Gee " Small ,  Nathaniel  "Afrika  Baby  Bam"  Hall   who  were  friends  at  high  school  and  a   DJ,  Sammy  ( DJ  Sammy  B )  Burwell. They  had  a  more  optimistic,  Afrocentric  approach  than  the  likes  of  Public  Enemy.

Their  first  single  was  a  double  A-side  "Jimbrowski / Bragging   and  Boasting"  on  the  small  Idlers  label  in  the  US  only  in  1987. "Jimbrowski"  is  the  more  inventive  of  the  two  tracks  utilising  samples  from  Tom  Browne's  Funkin  For  Jamaica  on  an  ode  to  the  male  member. "Bragging  and  Boasting"  does  what  it  says  on  the  tin  and  is  a  plodding  bore  but  the  self-aware  title  suggests  there  might  be  some  irony  involved. Both  tracks  have  a  somewhat  offbeat  feel  compared  to  the  Def  Jam  acts.

The  next  single  "Because  I  Got  It  Like  That"  was  also  released  in  the  UK  on  the  Ton Son Ton  label.  It's  based  on  a  riff  sampled  from  You  Can  Make  It  If  You  Try  by  Sly  and  the  Family  Stone  and  since  the  rap  is  about  being  effortlessly  talented  it  again  shows  a  sense  of  irony. It  goes  on  far  too  long  though.

 The  third  single  "On  The  Run "  makes  effective  use  of  brass  and  backing  vocal  samples  for  an  urgent  rap  about  being  a  fugitive  and  unlike  its  predecessors  doesn't  outstay  its  welcome.

All  these  singles  were  compiled  on  their  first  album  "Straight  Out  The  Jungle" . "I'll  House  You"  was  a  late  addition  to  the  album.  The  band  wanted   to  give  their  fairly  mindless  rap  about  bopping  to  house  music  an  appropriate  musical  setting  and  they  had  the  right  music  to  hand  ,   house  producer  Todd  Terry's  Can  You  Party    under  the  name  Royal  House  which  was  already  in  the  UK  charts  at  the  time  (  and  probably  depressed  this  record's  chart  performance) .  Terry  was  happy  enough  with  his  producer  credit  but  Champion  Records  who  held  the  licence  for  Can  You  Party   were  not  and  objected  to  the  single's  release   on  the  Gee  Street  label .  As   a  result  the  label's  owner, another  house  producer  Richie  Rich ,  gave  out  that  he  had  re-recorded  the  backing  track  hence  his  credit. Whether  he  actually  did  anything  is  open  to  conjecture.  As  a  cross  genre  standard  it  has  undoubted  significance  but  it  doesn't  do  anything  for  me.