The Jungle Brothers - The Arts Centre

It’s a school night at Norwich Arts Centre but there’s still quite a crowd here, up for seeing some classic hip hop. The audience is very mixed; not so many recognisable hip hop heads, but quite a lot of young teenagers and also balding 40 year olds, which is nice. Support comes from C.O.L.L, a Norwich based young rapper who does his best to encourage some crowd participation even though the room is pretty empty. We have to wait some time for the Jungle Brothers to turn up, but when they do appear, it’s with fanfares and jumping around and loud noises, which the crowd go wild to. Despite now being pretty much middle aged, the trio (Sammy on the decks and Mike and Bam leaping about on stage) seem to be full of beans and delighted to be there. They run through a wide range of their tracks including the house/hip hop classic I’ll House You, the laid back Brain and hectic On The Run. Bam goes almost through the whole gig wearing a jacket and shades. God he looks cool. There’s a cheer when he eventually takes it off after a sweaty and dancey 40 minutes, and a bit of accapella rapping takes place. The crowd are totally down with it. The highlight of the night is the classic True Blue Brother (my favourite), done in a drum ‘n’ bass style; when this remix came out originally, it did better than the original track, so it was great to hear it loud and live. Bam ends up joining us in the audience, and promptly disappears, leaving Mike to continue on his own for the final few minutes. Their voices are superfine, the rapping beautifully rhythmic and syncopated, and the flow smooth and confident. Thanks JB’s. You housed us good.