Jurassic 5 Interview

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Currently touring around Australia, we catch up with Courtenay Henderson (Zaakir a.k.a Soup) of Jurassic 5 to find out a bit more about what they’ve been up to, and why they decided to do it all again after a seven-year break. You can catch the formidable Hip Hop collective at this year’s Bluesfest.

Hi Courtenay!

How are you? Where are you speaking to us from?
I’m in Port Stephens, Australia. It’s nice, it’s sunny, it’s a beach resort, so I have a view of the pool, so that’s cool, so it’s alright, I can’t complain!

And you’re not homesick?
No, no, no, no, tonight is the first show so if I’m homesick already I probably need to stop doing this. [Laughs]. I’ve only been away from home for two days, so if I can’t handle it now, something’s wrong.

How do you find the fans in Australia?
They’re great actually, really great. Enthusiastic, they have open arms to us, especially as we haven’t been around for a while, so it’s a testament that we’ve done our due diligence as far as entertaining, and people want to see us years later, so it’s kinda cool.

So you disbanded in 2007 and reformed last year releasing ‘They Way We Do It’, what made you want to do it all again?
Well, somebody brought it to our attention about maybe doing a reunion show for Coachella, and we did the first ever Coachella, if I’m not mistaken. The first ever, ever Coachella, we were on that one. So we got offered the main stage for the reunion show and then all the guys sat down and said, “You know that would be a good look.” And then from there it just snowballed into us just continuing to do shows. So that’s how it actually got started back.

And how have you found it being back and doing it all again?
Well, it’s definitely different. As far as the climate of the music business, it’s definitely different. As far as the shows, that’s something that we’ve always prided ourselves on… but it’s also kinda good to see the people that remember you, then them bringing people who have no idea who we were because they wasn’t born, or they was too young, so it’s kinda cool to do that. You know, but that’s about it.

I’m a huge fan, and ‘Concrete Schoolyard’ is pretty high on the soundtrack to me and my friends’ teen years and parties, how does it feel to be part of such memorable music?
Oh ok, right [Laughs] that’s really cool! Well you know what, when you’re doing it, you don’t really have time to sit back and think about it, when you’re in the moment. Having time to reflect is still kinda, I don’t know how I take it actually. When people say they enjoy something that you’ve done, I don’t know, you just kind of take it in your stride. I’m still yet to sit back and pat myself on the back. I guess when I get old to when I can’t really do it anymore then I’ll sit back and really reflect, but right now, I don’t know, I appreciate it though. I just feel blessed to have a situation happen like that.

Your music always maintains great instrumentality, as opposed to electronica, what are the J5 influences?
Well, when we were doing it we wanted to keep the elements of what Hip Hop was – which was the turntables and the mics, and we evolved and wanted to be a bit more creative. That’s why the DJ’s would do the routines they would do, and bring out, kinda abstract toys to play, and we brought out kazoos, and wind whistles, just to keep the crowd entertained and guessing, so we just used to pull out anything. But the focal point is still the turntables and the mic and the records – but every now and then you gotta spice it up, so that’s all we did. We was just spicin’ it up as much as possible. Giving people as good of a time as they could imagine.

Travel to Western Australia

Obviously you’ve all got great talents and work/sound incredible together, how did it all happen?
It was through this place called the Good Life Café. That was monumental for a lot of up and coming talent back then. And it was a Thursday night thing, it was actually a health food store [by day], but every Thursday night they would have an open mic and that’s where we met the other fellas at. It was two separate groups and we met up there. We wanted to go up to the Good Life as it became super popular, and we wanted to perform there and get props amongst our peers. And it snowballed into Jurassic 5.

Your music has more of a social conscious than a lot of Hip Hop and Rap, why is this important to J5?
Well you know what, growing up I was in a black student union. I was the vice president of what we called The Black Student Union when I was in high school, so just knowing who and where I came from – an African American male – my heritage, my people, an understanding of the contribution we gave to the United States, and around the world basically, so when we got into music, other guys were conscious like that too. I don’t necessarily like the conscious label because it’s hard, because you gotta do it in a way that’s not preachy and telling people off. I think a lot of people fall victim to that. Public Enemy to me was the best ‘cause they were able to make it funky. You still wanted to listen to it and you still got a message out of it. I don’t think we were that good, but at the time when we came out Gangster rap from the West Coast was prominent. So I think us just not doing it, set us apart. Whether we were being conscious or not, I don’t know, but just the fact that we weren’t talking about the gang thing, people kind of gravitated toward us.

So the question is what’s next for Jurassic 5?
We have a couple of things that we’re doing over in Europe and that’s it right now. I don’t know if any music will be made, let’s just say that hasn’t been on the agenda. So I don’t know what may pan out, and I really don’t have time to think about it, as there’s just too many people in the group. If people want to do it then fine, and if people want to do it then that’s fine too. It’s just grown men, and grown men have to make decisions. If they do they do, and if they don’t, they don’t.

Any new releases?
Yeah mmhmm, actually Marc 7 has something out right now, it’s called ‘When Sound Attacks, volume 1’ he put it out this month actually so people should look out for that, definitely! The other guys have other stuff, but for right now Marc 7 has that out RIGHT now. I got something I just finished, an EP of mine, so I’m just going through some business decisions on what I want to do with it and where I want it to go and that’s it!

By Hannah Shakir
@hanshak

JURASSIC 5 Tour Dates
Panthers, Newcastle – THU 26 MAR 2015
Waves, Wollongong NSW – FRI 27 MAR 2015
Enmore Theatre, Sydney – SAT 28 MAR 2015
West Coast Blues & Roots Festival, Perth – SUN 29 MAR 2015
Festival Hall, Melbourne – WED 1 APR 2015
Tivoli, Brisbane- SAT 4 APR 2015
& Bluesfest, Byron Bay

Visit www.bluesfest.com.au for more info.

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