Wildchild in The Source

• James Tai
• The Source
• July 01, 2003

When Jack "Wildchild" Brown is on the mic, he likes to speak freely. Off-the-dome spontaneity is what sparks the rapid-fire, run-on-sentence style he developed as a young B-boy in the remote Southern California city of Oxnard and then skillfully executed as one-third of the Lootpack. "Back in the day, I used to break," Wildchild explains, "so I always try to put that essence in, like, if I was breaking to the beat, how would I sound?" With Madlib's raw SP-1200 instrumentals clearing the path for Wildchild's lyrical tanks, Lootpack's 1999 debut Soundpieces: Da Antidote was a relentless attack on wack MCs and their financiers. Four years later, Wildchild drops his highly anticipated solo effort, the positive, party-vibe-heavy Secondary Protocol on the renowned indie Stones Throw Records. In response to criticism of the one-track battlin' mind state on Soundpieces, Wildchild delves into personal matters, like on the ode to his seed, "Kiana." "You don't usually hear a lot of family-oriented issues in hip-hop," says the 28-year-old married father who recently began bringing his 8-year-old daughter onstage to rock with him. "But a lot of cats can relate to that."