Best Hip Hop album of 1991? Best Hip Hop album ever? Best album ever, plain and simple? Yes, this record is so good, it needs to be in all of those discussions.
First, the production on this project, handled mainly by Q-Tip with the help of Ali Shaheed Mohammad, is second to none. Not that it’s the first time jazz was heavily sampled, but the way the samples are flipped was unheard of. How the bass (or the low end) is put to the front and the drums kick you in the face is simply magical, thanks in part to the great work of Bob Power, the audio engineer. There’s also the chemistry between both lyricists, Q-Tip and Phife Dawg, making two totally different styles of MC merging together seamlessly, like yin and yang. It was really the coming of age for the “5 foot assassin”, being absent on most of the first LP “People’s Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm“. Some of the most memorable lines and verses in Hip Hop history are credited to him on this project. There’s also the incredible Busta Rhymes cameo on “Scenario” that really launched his career as a solo artist. And the list goes on…
Stream the album, watch the videos, catch a couple of remixes & live performances, enjoy a special mix by The RawSoul and witness the best Rap music ever created!
Full album on YouTube:
Stream on Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer & Tidal.
Playlist with the videos:
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Check The Rhime
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Jazz (We’ve Got) / Buggin’ Out
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Scenario
Playlist with remixes:
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Check The Rhime (Mr. Muhammad’s Mix)
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Jazz (We’ve Got) (Re-Recording)
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Scenario (Remix)
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Scenario (Young Nation Mix)
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Butter (Hip Hop Mix)
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Butter (Vixen Dub)
Live Performances & Interviews:
30th Anniversary Mix:
DOWNLOAD A Tribe Called Quest “The Low End Theory” 30th Anniversary Mix
Tracklist:
1.Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers – A Chant For Bu
2.A Tribe Called Quest – Excursions
3.The Last Poets – Time
4.Jack DeJohnette’s Directions – Minya’s The Mooch
5.A Tribe Called Quest – Buggin’ Out
6.Eric Mercury – Long Way Down
7.A Tribe Called Quest – Rap Promoter
9.Weather Report – Young And Fine
10.A Tribe Called Quest – Butter
11.Gary Bartz – Gentle Smiles (Saxy)
12.Heatwave – The Star Of A Story
13.A Tribe Called Quest – Verses From The Abstract
14.Ferrante & Teicher – Midnight Cowboy
15.A Tribe Called Quest – Show Business
16.Gerson King Combo – Mandamentos Black
17.Grant Green – Down Here On The Ground
18.A Tribe Called Quest – Vibes And Stuff
19.Jackie Jackson – Is It Him Or He
20.A Tribe Called Quest – The Infamous Date Rape
21.Cannonball Adderley – The Steam Drill
22.Average White Band – Love Your Life
23.A Tribe Called Quest – Check The Rhime
24.Minnie Riperton – Baby, This Love I Have
25.Funkadelic – Let’s Take It To The People
26.A Tribe Called Quest – Everything Is Fair
27.Willis “Gator Tail” Jackson – Don’t Knock My Love
28.A Tribe Called Quest – Jazz (We’ve Got) (Re-Recording)
29.Jimmy McGriff – Green Dolphin Street
30.A Tribe Called Quest – Jazz (We’ve Got)
31.5 Stairsteps & Cubie – Don’t Change Your Love
32.A Tribe Called Quest – Skypager
33.Eric Dolphy – 17 West
34.A Tribe Called Quest – What?
35.Paul Humphrey – Uncle Willie’s Dream
35.Brother Jack McDuff – Oblighetto
36.A Tribe Called Quest – Scenario
37.Kool And The Gang – Soul Vibrations
38.A Tribe Called Quest – Scenario (Remix)
39.A Tribe Called Quest – Hot Sex
