Happy 35th Anniversary to the Jungle Brothers second studio album Done By The Forces Of Nature, originally released November 7, 1989.
The Jungle Brothers were always the spine of the Native Tongues collective. During a period of hyper-aggressive lyricists, political statesmen, and gangstas, they released quirky hip-hop that oozed creativity and also strove to educate. The group laid the foundation upon which the crew built its legacy. Made up of Nathaniel “Afrika Baby Bam” Hall and Michael “Mike G” Small, along with DJ Sammy “B” Burnwell, the trio released the first official Native Tongues album with Straight Out The Jungle (1988) and set the “agenda” for the other members of the collective to follow.
The group took their music to a higher level with Done By The Forces Of Nature, both in terms of musical construction and subject matter. With Done By The Forces, the Jungle Brothers turned up the volume on everything they had done before. Production-wise, lyrically, and conceptually, the album felt like a bigger undertaking. And as a result, the album is…a lot. More so than even 3 Feet High And Rising (1989), De La Soul’s busy debut offering from earlier in the year. And I mean this in the best way possible.
Done By The Forces is an ambitious album, appealing to the audience’s intellect, pleasure centers, spiritual convictions, and the deep-seated desire to get down. Like their previous album, the group continues to commit to the “junglistic” imagery that their name connotes, but nothing ever feels forced.
Much of the album is focused on getting listeners to get on up and dance. The Jungle Brothers taking this tack isn’t especially surprising, considering the massive success of their single “I’ll House You.” Fortunately for me, the ubiquity of “I’ll House You” did not lead to the recording of an album’s worth of copycat tracks on Done By The Forces.
Yes, the Jungle Brothers certainly lean into creating dance music, but this time drawing their influences from funk and disco of the 1970s and ’80s. The production, handled by the group itself, is most often uptempo, often topping 110 beats per minute, which was as rare during the late ’80s as it would be in the late 2010s. Furthermore, the JBs are often apt to create beats from a collage of samples, often making for a dense sonic backdrop that lies somewhere in-between the Bomb Squad’s “wall of sound” production technique for Public Enemy and the Dust Brothers’ approach on the Beastie Boys’ Paul’s Boutique (1989).
The album-opening “Beyond This World,” which is also the album’s first single, typifies the group’s revised approach to conveying their message. Fashioning themselves as otherworldly beings who have journeyed to Earth to educate the masses, they meld the musical pastiches of old school hip-hop, disco, and even early electronic dance music. The track pulses at a near 120 beats per minute, with the pair trading verses about the mission to enlighten this planet, with Mike G rapping, “You see some listen but still don't hear / Some seem far but are real near / I climb a mountain to reach a kingdom / And if they’re willing, sure I'll bring them.”
Songs like “What You Waitin’ 4?” and “J Beez Comin’ Through” are dance-oriented jams. “What You Waitin’ 4?”, the album’s second single, definitely evokes the sweaty grooves of late ’70s episodes of Soul Train, with Afrika and Mike G set on keeping the party hype as they rap over the keyboard intro to People’s Choice’s “Do It Any Way You Wanna.” “J Beez Comin’ Through,” which was the B-side to the “What You Waitin’ 4?” single, is another uniquely unruly Native Tongues track, with the Jungle Brothers pumping out “5,000 booming watts,” while the track contrasts the classical stylings of the piano breakdown from Jimmy Castor’s “Return of Leroy” with the thunderous horns from Sly and The Family Stone’s “Sing a Simple Song.”
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They continue to rely on the dance-heavy vibes for songs like “U Make Me Sweat,” the pair’s tale of obsession with the objects of their affection. It features the best use of Zapp’s “Dance Floor,” sampling it years before it became a staple of mid ‘90s gangsta rap tracks. “Belly Dancin’ Dina,” while extremely funky and entertaining, has a very strange idea of how belly dancers operate, in this case conflating them with the cartoonish portrayals of Indian Snake Charmers. Still, the song features a sultry groove and has one of the strongest and earliest uses of The Ohio Players’ “Funky Worm” sample.
The JBs also strived to describe the positivity in their lives within their communities in a way that was always soulful and funky, but never corny. For my money, “Feelin’ Alright” is one of the best “feel good” songs of all time. Like Earth, Wind & Fire’s “September,” I can never listen to it without a big grin appearing on my face.
Much of my love for “Feelin’ Alright” has to with the production, as the song incorporates the drums and guitar from Cameo’s P-Funk soundalike song “Rigor Mortis,” and adds a thumping bassline. And much of it has to do with the subject matter, as Afrika and Mike G muse on enjoying their lives, reminiscing about driving aimlessly through the New York streets or hanging with friends or just sitting back and listening to music. And like Baby Bam, I still dream of my boss giving me a large raise and a 60-day vacation without prompting. However, I will also admit that I’ll never be nearly as good at scatting as either Afrika or Mike G are throughout the song.
While “Feelin’ All Right” basks in its carefree vibe, “Sunshine” is optimistic, and the pair predict the birth of a better world for the Black population in the United States. Both emcees speak metaphorically of the sun as being a source of hope and inspiration, signaling better things to come. As Mike G raps, “Knowledge stands upright, fear has no height / Work towards the star that gives off the brightest light / J Beez moving in a bright direction / Free of injury or evil infection.”
On songs like “Acknowledge Your Own History” both Afrika and Mike G seek to educate their listeners about the lost and forgotten history and ancestry of African American citizens. They encourage Black Americans to study their past and to dig deeper beyond what’s taught in high schools. “Only history we make is if we kill somebody,” Afrika laments. “Rape somebody, but other than that we’re nobody.”
The group later addresses their responsibility to educate and make the world a better place on “Beads On a String,” which is one of the album’s best songs. It’s all about the juxtaposition and different grooves in the production, as Afrika and Mike G rap over the pounding drum intro from Black Sabbath’s “Beyond the Wall of Sleep” with the surreal chants from the Undisputed Truth’s “Earthquake Shake.” On the mic, Afrika and Mike G trade lines, often rhyming simultaneously, announcing, “The vibe has no color, just a cause and a tempo / Hold on tight, ’cause we can’t help if you let go.”
And yet, Done By The Forces also has an apocalyptic bent. Afrika and Mike G frequently allude to a forthcoming reckoning and an end of the world. “In Dayz To Come” is centered on the pair warning listeners to get themselves right spiritually, as the Rapture is soon at hand. Furthermore, at the halfway point of the mostly instrumental “Good Newz Comin’,” a busy collage of musical and vocal samples, a disembodied voice rejoices that “the final days have finally come” and “We must prepare ourselves, for the supreme being awaits us!”
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The Native Tongues collective makes their appearance on “Doin’ Our Own Dang,” featuring contributions by De La Soul, Q-Tip, Monie Love, and Queen Latifah (who croons on the chorus). It’s an upbeat ode to the crew carving out its own niche in hip-hop music and dismissing those who copy their style. Baby Bam sounds particularly irked as he raps, “Tribes like us always open doors, but what for, so you can get yours?” Truthfully, I prefer the “JB’s Mix” of the track, which was released as the single, which again leans into the group’s disco-influenced sensibilities.
As much as an artistic triumph as Done By The Forces was for the Jungle Brothers, it was also their high water mark. It would be more than three-and-a-half years before the group would release J. Beez Wit the Remedy (1993), a full-on experimental hip-hop album where they left behind the soulful tracks and embraced the often abrasive, glitchy, electronic chaos. It was also during this period that the Native Tongues went on hiatus, due to fractured friendships and what seemed like an out-of-control swelling of the collective’s ranks.
Hip-Hop still aches for the balance that groups like the Jungle Brothers so effortlessly provide with Done By The Forces Of Nature. It balances its serious content with the desire to create music that could fill a dance floor, without selling out any of its goals. It’s one of the best “positive” albums to be released during the era and a reminder that it was possible to elevate listeners’ minds while also moving their asses.
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Editor's note: this anniversary tribute was originally published in 2019 and has since been edited for accuracy and timeliness.