Jungle Brothers

New York based hip-hop trio Jungle Brothers consists of Mike Gee (Michael Small), Afrika Baby Bam (Nathaniel Hall) and DJ Sammy B (Sammy Burwell) with roots hailing from Harlem and Brooklyn.

Jungle Brothers are often underappreciated rap pioneering group that emerged on the hip-hop scene in the late 80’s with the Native Tongues collective and bearing the same afrocentric consciousness as their rap predecessors: Afrika Bambaata and the Universal Zulu Naion. The Native Tongues included a conscious wave of emcees and rap groups: Queen Latifah, De La Soul and Tribe Called Quest. The latter, on the other hand, were able to win the favor of rap fans and mainstream audiences by incorporating jazz instrumentation and styles into their rap patterns and delivery. The Jungle Brothers did not have genre consistency like their peer group counterparts and often experimented with varied musical styles that included – house, funk, jazz, soul and African music.

The group’s first studio album, Straight Out the Jungle (1988), released under independent label Warlock was not well received. The group released the single, “I’ll House You” the album featured two tracks with rapper/producer Q-Tip from A Tribe Called Quest. In 1989, Jungle Brothers released their sophomore album, Done by the Forces of Nature which featured singles “What U Waitin' 4?” and guest appearances from Monie Love, De La Soul and ATCQ who were all part of the Native Tongues posse. Despite the album being critically acclaimed and featured production from Mike Gee’s uncle the legendary Kool DJ Red Alert. The outcome was the same as the previous. In June 1993, Jungle Bros released their third album, “J Beez with the Remedy” the group experimented once again on this project and encountered many difficulties and objections from Warner Bros.

The trio received marginal success and released subsequent albums after: Raw Deluxe (1997), DJ Sammy B departed from the group soon after the release of the album. V.I.P. (2000), All That We Do (2002), You in My Hut Now (2003), This Is…(2005) compilation album of greatest hits and I Got You (2006).