#81

Always loved this one

Edit - this is a fairly crap rip - beat is buried quite a bit. Definitely worth checking out from a better source tho’!

1 Like
#82

Yeah, same. Love when this one switches to Buggin Out.

3 Likes
#83

Not got a lot to add, but they’re on of the acts I’ve been looking forward to most on this and the thread’s delivering. 5 of course.

#84

When I did my year studying in the US I bought so many rap cds (they worked out at less than a third of the price of buying them in the UK) that I got stopped at the airport coming back

#85

easy 5

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#86

When We Got It From Here dropped, I noticed something about the guests chosen. There was the guys that are essential to a Tribe album (Busta Rhymes, Consequence) and some surprise names. Then there was also the likes of Andre 3000, Kanye, Kendrick, Anderson Paak. Not just big names (in the case of the first three, monumental ones), but ones who wouldn’t exist without Tribe’s influence. With probably their last statement, they were tracing a lineage through generations of hip hop, of music that was steeped in black tradition, yet forward thinking and exploratory, of songs that were socially conscious without being preachy, intelligent without being condescending. They’re not just important musicians, they’re part of the Tribe by association.

Alongside those big names is Q-Tip. Not necessarily always mentioned in the same breath as those first three, but arguably the greatest producer-rapper of all time. People’s Instinctive Travels is probably the earliest classic rap album that stands up unquestionably for me, that hasn’t dated at all (beyond a few outdated social views that the members grew beyond). Put any of those first three Tribe albums out now and they’d still stand out as quirky, individual, immaculately produced hip hop music. The rapping is still brilliant. They’re versatile. Throw them on while chilling, while partying, lend your ears to them for deep headphone listening in the early hours. They lend themselves to repeated listens, over years and years. For me they never grow old.

Ultimately, Tribe are responsible for and represent so much of what I love in music. So glad that their final statement showed that their approach to hip hop music was completely ageless, because so much of the music people love today wouldn’t exist otherwise. It’s a 5, obviously.

18 Likes
#87

etta and otis also 5s

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#88

Its great, doesn’t paint Q Tip in a great light IIRC

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#89

What an easy 5 - I love them. Really wish I got the chance to see them live.

#90

Yeah - he comes across kinda badly in parts. Not bad enough to taint your opinion of Tribe, but bad enough to almost make me wish I hadn’t watched it

1 Like
#91

Pretty much a flawless catalogue if not for that album. I forget it exists half the time. You can see the roots of that Soulquarian’s type neo-soul sound of the early 00s but it’s a sound in transition/not quite there (same with Amplified even though that’s a notch or two better). Had they kept it together maybe they could have made a great album in that mould.

1 Like
#92

Am I the only one who has Woo Hah! come into his head every time Wuhan is mentioned on the news (something which has happened quite often over the last year or so)?

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#93

Possibly, but not anymore!

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#94

nope

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#95

105/5

here’s a few of my fave rarer tunes

from the time when a remix also meant re-delivery and new verses:

that fucking woody woodpecker sample haha. great raps though

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#96

This one is special for me. I was first introduced to ATCQ in late 2015, when I had returned to #Guildfordchat on medical leave from university for depression. Separated from my partner (who’d eventually become my wife) by the Atlantic due to visa issues, I was living with my parents and working full time in a local Starbucks to try to prove to myself that I was good enough to do anything, and it wasn’t a particularly great period in my life. One of the few glimmers in that period was taking some of my wage to the local HMV and buying classic albums on the cheap, one of which was Midnight Marauders. I still remember very vividly taking it to the counter and the salesperson just gushing about it and then debating with himself whether my money would be better spent on MM or The Low End Theory. I eventually persisted with MM, and it became one of my great saviours during that period.

Whilst other albums I learned on in that time, like The Fragile, comforted me with feelings I could relate to, MM reminded me that it also wasn’t a crime to take joy in life, that the world could produce amazing happy things as well as great works born out of the sadness and shitness of life. It’s just so playful and commanding. I would listen to it constantly on the drive to and from work, on my IPod on lunch breaks, whilst swimming. Aside from Kendrick Lamar’s GKMC and Public Enemy’s It Takes
 it was the best, most complete hip-hop album I’d ever heard by that point, possibly even more so than those two. I don’t think there’s another 4 track run that I enjoy more than Sucka N***a, Night, We Can Get Down, and Electric Relaxation. Genuinely life-changing and, whilst I do love all of the first 3 albums and the comeback album, it’s still my favourite Tribe album.

Their catalogue is not all perfect, even in the glory years. The Infamous Date Rape is just about as bad as the title suggests and really kills TLET’s stride. Plus, only two tracks before I can’t dissociate Show Business from its existence as a bitter riposte to “meddling” label heads who were so bold as to refuse them including a truly awful homophobic rant called Georgie Porgie being included on the album.

So, like so many artists on this list, I have a complicated relationship with Tribe. But there was far more good than those few (albeit very serious) awful moments and their music did help me through one of the darkest periods of my life. For that it’ll likely always hold a very special part in my heart

12 Likes
#97

The background of the Midnight Marauders cover is so joyous, I’m gonna make it my cover photo on here

image
image750×380 64.1 KB

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#98

Oh yeah, don’t think I have a “cover photo” any more. Oh well

#99

Last year I really tried with ‘Low End Theory’ but it just didn’t grab me the way other albums of that ilk did (Black Moons ‘Enta Da Stage’ and Mobb Deep’s ‘The Infamous’ properly got their hooks in). Couldn’t really find anything wrong with it tbh, maybe I just like stuff a bit harder hitting? Reckon it would sound good in the background at a party but when actively listening it all just seemed a bit one note.

I’m going to give ‘Midnight Marauders’ a listen today and see if something clicks.

#100

i’d like to see your face in there

3 Likes