Justice System - Summer in the City / Take it to the Stage

One of the unheralded classics of the 90's A dope band who assimilated live instruments into their music.
year: 1994

POP BRIEFS
By MICHAEL E. ROSS
Published: December 25, 1994

Justice System: 'Rooftop Sound Check' MCA; CD and cassette.

With its debut album, Justice System, a six-member rap group and fixture of the Manhattan downtown club scene, reflects the genre's gradual growth beyond its outlaw traditions.

Like Digable Planets and US 3, Justice System displays a willingness to focus on musicianship instead of the samples and scratches that much of rap relies on. "Rooftop Sound Check" offers a polished blend of swagger and melodies that draw on pop, jazz and funk. It is perhaps the most fully realized of rap's declarations of independence from its customary misogyny.

The group brings tuneful humor to rap's dour conventions. "Dedication to Bambaataa," for example, is a bumptious, good-natured tribute to Afrika Bambaataa, one of rap's eldest statesmen. "Summer in the City" is a soulful street-corner song breezily punctuated by Alex Auld's saxophone and the boisterous interplay of the band's singers, Folex and Jahbaz.

"Rooftop Sound Check" delivers a sound that borrows from other styles while fiercely remaining its own. Justice System offers a glimpse of what may be rap's future and takes a subversive glee in overturning its past. MICHAEL E. ROSS

Category:

Music

Tags:

• hip-hop
• rap
• jazz
• Justice
• System
• Summer
• City

[bojadzijevski]

Justice system is too shame that they aint got any more good shits like this...i like this music this should be example to kids now days that think they are good lyrcist and rapers

[mazeone1]

NIce!..and here i thought i heard it all....lol

[MrPloxDa3rd]

It makes my mind blow why they didn't get the respect they deserved...

[MrJeffreyromain]

Pure hip-hop reminiscent of Organix by The Roots. These guys are not only deeply creative, but they also keep it positive which is what the world so desperately needs right about now. Peace & Love

[nissanmini91]

@bojadzijevski RAPEr's eh?...... gee now i thought they were RAPPERS...

[derwenni]

have this album since ages... and love it since ever...

does anyone know more stuff like this... hard to find...

cheers

[Digital8011]

Love this track... Have it on wax when music factory sent it to me with turntables back in 96... anyone remember the double l track title that was hot back then?

[doctorhossa]

absolutly underrated

[mcgekko]

Absolutely mad that these guys havent gotten any more attention:).. Love the album, soundtrack to my summer;)

[poetoftime]

Dedication to Bambaataa is CLASSIC - don't sleep.