T.Q.D: T.Q.D's Corner

Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of T.Q.D’s Corner. This month, I will be speaking on the catalog of A Tribe Called Quest.   For those of you who don’t know, A Tribe Called Quest was made of 3 members: Q-Tip (emcee/producer), Phife Dawg (emcee), Ali Shaheed Mohammed (producer/DJ).  A fourth member, Jarobi, was a part-time producer, but left after the first album to pursue other non-music ventures.   A Tribe Called Quest released 5 albums in 9 years.  All of them sold well (3 platinum, 2 gold).  In 1998, they broke up due to personal and creative differences.  Before we talk further about their post-break up travels, I wanted to take a look back at their catalog.

People’s Instinctive Travels and The Paths To Rhythm (1990)

The long album title certainly is a bit strange, but had little effect on the quality.  When this album was released, it was highly acclaimed by critics.  That seems like a meaningless credit now, but was a big deal at the time.  It was given the rare and coveted (at the time) perfect 5 mic rating from The Source magazine.  Some critics feel the album sounded too immature and too experimental for such immaturity.  While there are signs of immaturity, the guys were in the 18-20 neighborhood when this was created and released, so that is to be expected   

This is not my favorite Tribe album, but it definitely still holds up.  The album tackles many social issues, some introspection, and has some mindless fun as well.  Even the serious songs, don’t come off sounding serious.  The album also boasted some popular singles that received quite a bit of airplay on MTV, which like high praise from The Source, meant a lot at the time.  The singles from the album were “Bonita Appelbum”, “I Left My Wallet In El Segundo”, and “Can I Kick It?”  Hip Hop fans not as familiar with the time period would recognize the hook to “Can I Kick It?”  It has been a staple for years at Hip Hop shows for call and response.  My two favorites on the album are “Luck Of Lucien” and “Can I Kick It?”

Even with lots of MTV/BET/radio play and high critical praise, the album didn’t sell very well at the time.  The album has since gone gold, but didn’t reach that feat until 1996.

The Low End Theory (1991)

There are many influential albums from the 1990s, but this one is often overlooked.  Regardless, the impact can’t be denied.  The influence comes from the production.  There is a very laid back jazzy feel to most of the beats, which definitely became a blueprint for producers on how to sample Jazz records to this day.  Lyrically, Q-Tip and Phife Dawg stepped their game up in a major way.  This album received almost unanimous critical praise, spawned hit singles, and sold very well.  It went gold at the time and eventually went platinum in 1995.  It also launched a career as well, but we’ll get to that in a moment.

The three singles for this album all ended up being pretty big hits.  “Check The Rhyme”, “Jazz (We’ve Got)”, and “Scenario”, which featured Leaders Of The New School.  “Scenario” was the big hit from this album and remains one of the more popular posse cuts of all time.  Busta Rhymes, who was a member of Leaders Of The New School, pretty much launched his future solo career by having one of the bigger show stealing cameos ever.

There is a bit of a debate among fans, but this is one of the two commonly thought of as their best work.  It is certainly their most influential.  I enjoy this album quite a bit.  While I like the singles, my favorite songs are a couple deep album cuts: “The Infamous Date Rape” and “Verses From The Abstract”.

Midnight Marauders (1993)

What should you do with your new album when you need to follow up what is widely considered a classic?  You make another classic.  There is quite a debate among fans whether this is/isn’t better than The Low End Theory.  While they are both classics to me, I think Midnight Marauders is easily better.  Commercially, this was very successful, going platinum pretty easily and was widely praised by critics.

The CD layout is best remembered for being made up of faces of rappers, producers, and DJs.  The album is narrated by a computerized female voice in between of the songs.  Fans unfamiliar with this album will recognize the voice, “keep bouncing”, which she says before the song “Oh My God!” has been sampled a few times over the years.

The singles from the album were “Award Tour”, “Electric Relaxation” and “Oh My God”, which featured Busta Rhymes on the hook.  My favorites from the album were “Electric Relaxation” (my favorite Tribe song) and “Midnight”.

Beats, Rhymes, & Life (1996)

Released 3 years later, this album was created during a transition period in the group.  Everything about this album is a departure.  For starters, lyrically the group had changed.  The lyrics were noticeably darker this go round.  I wouldn’t call it a downer/emo record, but it definitely tackles issues more head on than previous albums.  That can most likely be attributed to the fact that this came out during the whole East/West beef that went on at the time.  It was addressed on a few songs.

The beats follow a similar formula, but definitely take it to a new direction.  On the first 3 albums, Ali Shaheed Mohammed and Q-Tip co-produced almost everything.  This time around, they formed a production team called The Ummah: Ali Shaheed Mohammed, Q-Tip, and a young  J-Dilla (known as Jay Dee at the time).  Phife Dawg also took a back seat role, which he has since attributed to a lack of interest in the music.  Q-Tip’s young cousin Consequence (who later went on to write songs for Kanye West, in addition to solo work) was brought on board to pick up the slack.  He appeared on 6 songs.

On the strength of the hit singles “1nce Again” and “Stressed Out” featuring Faith Evans, the album was once again a commercial success.  It went gold the year it was released and platinum a couple years later.   Even with the commercial successful, many Tribe fans at the time and now are divided on this album.  Many fans (including myself) definitely view it as a step down, but nonetheless a good album.  When you make two classics in a row, anything less than another classic will seem disappointing.  There was also another faction of Tribe fans who simply didn’t like the darker direction of the album, but that seems to have softened over the years.

The Love Movement (1998)

I remember walking in to Sam Goody and going to the magazine rec.  On the shelf was the latest issue on the source magazine.  On the cover, was A Tribe Called Quest, with a blurb underneath talking about how their upcoming album will be their last one.   Looking back at the Beats, Rhymes, & Life album, you can hear the chemistry fading away, but it was still on point and few expected the announcement.  Nowadays, such a hot story would be leaked on Twitter long before a magazine write up hit the shelves.

Regardless, the album was released after the first and only single “Find A Way” hit the radio waves and MTV.  Response to the album was even more mixed than the previous album.

The sales were once good as the album went gold.  The critical response was generally positive.  Fans were/are a little more divided, but in general the album was thought of as nothing special, but nonetheless solid.  It would’ve been nice to end on a higher note, but at least it wasn’t a dud.

…and that was their catalog.  After their break up, they’ve all stayed active.  Q-Tip remains an active producer and has released three solo albums.  Phife Dawg released one solo album.  Ali Shaheed Mohammed remains and active producer and was a member of the super group Lucy Pearl (with Rafael Saadiq and Dawn Robinson from En Vogue).  The group has since reunited for occasional live performances at big festivals, but the possibility of a new album remains highly unlikely.  Regardless, their legacy is undeniable and is always worth mentioning.  

That concludes my latest edition of T.Q.D’s Corner.  Since November is almost here, I’ll have aother edition very soon.  Also, you can check me out once a month on the Jason’s Basement podcast: www.jasonsbasement.com