****: JUNGLE BROTHERS: “Done by the Forces of Nature”: <i> Warner Bros.</i>

The second album from the New York rappers transcends the old boundaries of rap and moves into a largely unexplored realm of pop music, where energy comes not from louder and faster drum machines but from purity of soul and emotion.

Swinging easily between the jazzy yarns of a happy-go-lucky hipster and the more serious subjects of social consciousness and individual self-realization, the JB’s present a vision of urbanized naturalism, a subversive and funky anti-intellectualism.

The rhythmic influences are as broad and diverse as black music itself. “What U Waiting For” jumps on the disco train without any apologies. “U Make Me Sweat” tips its hat to funk godfathers Zapp and Funkadelic while discoursing on the day-to-day tribulations of a young urban dad.

But more important to the JB’s’ theology of consciousness is the group’s international vision of black unity. In a rarity for rap, “Good News Comin’ ” carries only sparse lyrics; the music mixes African high-life rhythm guitar in a contemporary Afro-pop groove. The title cut boasts some startlingly innovative rhyming over a dark, slinky rhythm, and “Black Woman” blasts hip-hop misogynists out of the water with eloquent ease.

With no egos, no Uzis and nothing to prove, the Jungle Brothers deliver a message of peace, unity, fun and knowledge. It blasts borders so successfully that it fits anywhere, but leaves no doubt that it was born straight out of the urban jungles of inner-city America.