‘Lausd’ Jurassic 5|2000

THE title -- the acronym for the Los Angeles Unified School District -- suggests educational intent, but the shedding of capitalization and punctuation signals that the schooling here is from the streets. The teachers at the mike are Jurassic 5, the five-man hip-hop collective at the heart of the West Coast alternative hip-hop scene of the 1990s.

Instead of gunplay, J5 put the emphasis on old-school wordplay, especially when the rhymes were socially relevant. This song puts the dangers of L.A. as fame factory in its sights, and Chali 2na, the J5’s strongest voice, has some of the most memorable lines:

The city of angel’s wings represents people’s hopes and dreams

And the evil that men do that live life close to kings.

Another one:

The smog covers the city like a tablecloth

Is it fame at fault? Entertainers labeled soft

The place where people come to lose their train of thought.

2na was born in Chicago (as Charles Stewart), but he raised a son here and he’s watched enough crash-and-burn stories to feel like a native. “People come here and they can be caught in these snares and traps, all the smoke screens and camera tricks, y’know. They have to be careful. And we wanted a song about the good and the bad of this place that we care about so much.”

The four MCs don’t, however, advertise themselves as prophets.

Don’t judge us by bank accounts and big cars No matter how bright we shine we’re far from being stars.

About that title, Chali chuckled when asked if it was picked because the song is a textbook to life. “Well, the real thing is, if you say all those letters out loud, they sound like ‘lost.’ Which is what happens to some people here.”

-- Geoff Boucher