Hip-hop hits up Tea Room

The Jurassic 5 show was somewhat live. The production was clean and polished.

The six member ensemble, known to fans as “J5,” includes MCs Chali 2na, Zaakir (Soup), Akil and Marc 7, and DJs Cut Chemist and Nu-Mark.

The place was crowded and everyone moved closer to the stage as the DJs warmed things up.

The DJs were on point. The band’s repertoire was thorough and balanced – a few tracks from Quality Control, a few from Power in Numbers and even a few older. But something was missing.

The four MCs played off each other, picking up their cues with no problem. Unlike other MC-fueled live shows, you could make out every word that was spoken, yelled or rhymed into the mics. But the show felt sterile.

One member represented Dallas with a Mavericks ball cap and Michael Finley Jersey. Whether he goes down to Houston and wears a Steve Francis jersey the following night or not, it’s nice to get some love from the West Coast crew.

The audience was given many chances to get loud for Dallas, Emmitt Smith and just for being a girl or a guy, but apparently fell short of J5’s expectations.

There was a nice DJ interlude when Cut Chemist and Nu-Mark recreated “Acetate Prophets,” the final cut on the latest album. The duo used sound effect machines as well as their turntables in their creative reproduction.

After a 40-minute first set, the band called it quits and acted as if they wouldn’t return – just a ploy to produce “woos” and “yeas” from an audience waiting out the pause before the impending encore.

“Quality Control,” the title track from their previous album, was a crowd favorite and had the mostly white crowd jumping and singing along. It was obvious that while many fans had not yet picked up Power In Numbers, they had the lyrics to Quality Control down.

J5 has great samples with well-calculated placement. The band’s rhymes are tight, well written and lack ghetto character. Many feel this is complimentary to the crew.

Instead the guys rap a lot about themselves. They spit about J5 and differences between them and some of the more cliché#233;d acts around.

With tracks like the well-mixed “Freedom,” the band attempts to create a collective consciousness. It would be nice if the guys would expand upon this notion a little more thoroughly.

Toward the end of the roughly 90-minute show, J5 decided to take pot shots at J-Lo and record industry executives that try to tell 18 to 20-year-olds what’s good music.

“One of Them” from Power In Numbers, seemed fitting to do the job and it was performed with emotion, sincerity and the help of Beatnut MC JuJu. The Beatnuts were the opening act.

The encore was more like a second set; it was probably close to 30 minutes long.