"If you listen to the first album [1994's Hand on the Torch] and then you listen to Questions, it will probably be a shock to the system," says Us3 producer/ringleader Geoff Wilkinson....

The idea of fusing jazz and rap is no longer new. Still, if it doesn't exactly break new musical ground, Hand on the Torch, the debut by Us3, manages to attain a few firsts. Never before has a group sampled so extensively, or exclusively, from the legendary Blue Note jazz catalog. The core of Us3 is two white British jazz enthusiasts, Mel Simpson and Geoff Wilkinson, who had long been active...

When US3 released their first album, Hand on the Torch, in 1993, the British acid-jazz crew – whose producer, Geoff Wilkinson, had secured the rights to sample anything from the archives of the fabled Blue Note jazz label – were hailed by some as pioneers of jazz-rap fusion. They were assailed by others for simply dressing up vintage jazz grooves as slick dancefloor hits. The reality was...