Jungle Brothers

Although they predated the jazz-rap innovations of De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, and Digable Planets, The Jungle Brothers were never able to score with either rap fans or mainstream audiences, perhaps due to their embrace of a range of styles -- including house music, Afrocentric philosophy, a James Brown fixation, and of course, the use of jazz samples -- each of which has been the sole basis for the start-up of a rap act. Signed to a major label for 1989's Done By The Forces Of Nature, The Jb's failed to connect on that album -- hailed by some as an ignored classic -- or the follow-up, J Beez Wit the Remedy.