Quality Control
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Album Summary
Quality Control came roaring out of Los Angeles in 2000 on Interscope Records, and baby, it was something special — Jurassic 5's major label debut, a full-length testament to everything these cats had been building since their early independent releases. Produced largely in-house by the group's own members and production collective, with Cut Chemist and DJ Nu-Mark laying down the sonic foundation, the album captured that warm, boom-bap soul that felt like it was beamed in straight from 1974 and rebuilt for the new millennium. Recorded in Los Angeles during a moment when the West Coast underground was clawing its way into the national conversation, Quality Control represented Jurassic 5 — Chali 2na, Akil, Marc 7even, Zaakir, Cut Chemist, and DJ Nu-Mark — stepping onto the big stage without surrendering one single ounce of who they were.
Reception
- Quality Control received widespread critical acclaim from hip-hop publications and mainstream outlets alike, with reviewers consistently praising the group's extraordinary vocal interplay, harmonic layering, and the album's richly textured, jazz-influenced production.
- The album was recognized as one of the defining hip-hop releases of 2000, earning the group a devoted following that stretched well beyond the underground circuits where they had originally built their reputation.
Significance
- Quality Control stood as a cornerstone of the West Coast underground hip-hop renaissance, fusing old-school boom-bap production values with a collective MC approach that felt both deeply rooted in hip-hop's foundational traditions and entirely fresh for the new decade.
- The album showcased Jurassic 5's signature six-man interplay — four MCs and two DJs operating as one unified organism — and that model of complementary voices and shared lyricism left a lasting imprint on how collective rap groups conceived of themselves and their craft.
- Quality Control proved with authority that sample-based, lyrically intelligent hip-hop could find a home on a major label without being watered down, offering a blueprint for conscious hip-hop artists who came after them.
Tracklist
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A1 How We Get Along 101
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A2 The Influence 99
3:57
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A3 Great Expectations 193
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A4 Quality (Intro) —
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A5 Quality Control 176
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B1 Contact 96
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B2 Lausd —
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B3 World Of Entertainment (Woe Is Me) —
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B4 Monkey Bars 100
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C1 Jurass Finish First 100
4:36
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C2 Contribution 95
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C3 Twelve 92
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D1 The Game 99
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D2 Improvise 102
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D3 Swing Set 104
Artist Details
Jurassic 5 is a Los Angeles hip-hop collective that came together in the mid-1990s, blending the raw spirit of old-school rap with smooth harmonized vocals and jazz-tinged production that felt like a love letter to the golden era of the culture. These cats — MCs Chali 2na, Akil, Marc 7, and Zaakir alongside DJs Nu-Mark and Cut Chemist — dropped their self-titled EP in 1997 and their debut album in 1999, earning a devoted following by swimming against the tide of gangsta rap and commercial gloss with something genuine and soulful. Their significance runs deep because they helped keep the communal, conscious, and purely musical roots of hip-hop alive during a time when the art form was pulling hard in other directions, reminding the world that rap, at its heart, was always about the groove and the message working together in beautiful harmony.
