When De La Soul's album 3 Feet High And Rising was released, it was given the crescendo of being the ‘New Hip hop’ or preferably the ‘Daisy Age’. When A Tribe Called Quest (ATCC) entered the scene in 1991, with their classically known album The Low End Theory, they weren’t given a label. ’Old Skool’ was a vast label comprising of many artists, and ATCC needed (and still NEEDS) their own category. Comprising of three members, Q-Tip, Phife and Ali, the three took jazz and hip hop too a whole new level.

After releasing The Low End Theory (TLET), ATCC made the next in their array of great albums Midnight Marauders. As soon as it was released a battle commenced on who should get the gold medal. I stuck it out with TLET even though it was an extremely difficult choice. Choosing between the two albums was like choosing between It Takes A Nation Of A Million To Hold Us Back and Fear Of The Black Planet, In the end it comes down to personal opinion on two albums of the same caliber.

As soon as Midnight Marauders became a classic, both Q-Tip and Phife became ‘household names’ so to speak. Every rap fan knew of them and respected them, and how could you not. Even though the ’Old Skool’ was supposedly ‘dry’ and the West Coast gangster rap scene came flooding in, ATCC stuck to the jazzy, East Coast hip hop they loved the most, and were great at it! With beautiful images of experience and fun braggadocio lyrics, it seemed nothing could go wrong. And oh wait it didn’t because this is The Low End Theory.

Tracklisting
1)Excursions 4.5 Star
2)Buggin’ Out 5 Star
3)Rap Promoter 4.5 Star
4)Butter 5 Star
5)Verses From The Abstract 5 Star
6)Show Business 5 Star
7)Vibes And Stuff 4 Star
8)The Infamous Data Rape 5 Star
9)Check The Rhime 5 Star
10)Everything Is Fair 5 Star
11)Jazz (we’ve Got) 4 Star
12)Skypager 4.5 Star
13)What? 4 Star
14)Scenario 5 Star

The album begins on the right footsteps with Excursions. Over a deep chello base Q-Tip raps about hip hop and his fathers approach to it. Then mid-way through the first verse a thudding base line kicks in over the generous chello. The beat is reminds me of a solo at an underground jazz club and is wonderfully simple. Q-Tip puts the icing on the cake with fun, humorous and vivid pictures of his life and the music he has been influenced by. Never once missing a beat he sways over Ali’s production and keeps the listener wide eared for more past experiences. Q-Tips distinct voice calls over the production with gems like these:

’You could find the abstract listening to hip hop, my pops used to say, it reminded him of be-bop. I said, well daddy don't you know that things go in cycles, the way that bobby brown is just ampin like Michael’.

Mixing and matching the production side a little more Butter takes a completely different approach to the production, but does it extremely well and succeeds in being one of my favourite songs on the album. High-hated, jiggled keys storm down in the background clasped by a clapping tambourine and a soft drum loop. Instead of the simple texture as we saw on Excursions, Butter takes the more complex melodic approach but certainly never sways far from the jazz side of things. This time Phife takes the microphone and pulls out fresh, funky and laid back braggadocio and story telling that sails over the production, for a ‘Cause and Effect’ sort of motion:
’I was the b-ball playin fly rhyme sayin, fly girl gettin but never was I sweatin. Cause when it came to honeys I would go on a stroll, Until I met my match - her name was flo’.

Show business featuring Dimond D, Sadat X and Lord Jamar carries on the five star process, taking into a range of production sounds and truly dope verses. Over less of a slow/melodic production sound, Q-Tip (the first up) raps precariously over quick fired upbeat sounds of electronic keys and quick hinted snare and beautiful chorus scratching, keeping the funky atmosphere well and truly alive. All five MC’s rap gold about precisely what the track is title….show business. All taking a look on different aspects of show business, they cover all areas with a different variety for each out look. Q-Tip raps my favourite verse on the track, with the witty, soft vocabulary and GREAT flow. Every inch of his persona is covered as the kills the production. But having said that Phife proclaims one of the greatest lines ever with ’Now tell me I can't tear it up. Go get yourself some toilet paper cos your lyrics is butt’…brilliant.

Now we come to the looked upon and rightly so CLASSIC on the album, The Infamous Date Rape. Over the distorted voice of Q-Tip, ebbed scratching reiterates four or five times before being overflowed by chimed keys, and a light drum hook. The production actually isn’t the best on the album, but what makes this song so famous and looked upon it’s Common type metaphor for hip hop. Q-Tip and Phife both talk in an extended metaphor of how the hip hop industry is like date rape. So ANYONE who ever judged their lyricism can listen to this and say, ‘Ok so they may not be Ras Kass, but this is a clever, entertaining and witty song. Whenever you are in the mood for a melodic, deep and clever song put this on because it simply NEVER fails….beautiful!

’Listen to the rhyme, it's a black date fact, percentile rate of date rape is fat. This is all true to the reason of the skeezin, you got the right picking but you're in the wrong season. If you're in the wrong season, that means you gotta break, especially if a squad tries to cry out rape’.

After the ‘Classic’ the album just seems to get better with my second favourite song on the album Everything Is Fair. Taking the George Clinton sample from the Funkadelic’s song Lets Take It To The People, for the chorus. As soon as you hear the first scratched sample of this on the song you know it’s going to be a killer. Here Q-Tip tells the story of life in the urban city, and really any city about the crime and murder. This is a great change from the fun braggadocio that can get a bit tiring and shows any doubter out their that Q-Tip is a VERY able lyricist. As he is accompanied by a light snare, electric keys and a instrumental/jazzy background her kicks this:

’Queen of the feats, thrive to compete, love the funky beats while she drive down the street. She was justified, couldn't get a job, had to feed her family, so she had to play, then rob, pulling out the ooh wop, listening to doo-wop’….GREAT!

The most bizarre track on the album HAS to be Skypager. Over the sound of a phone dial tone and skipped drum loop calls through the background accompanied by keys. It’s a very Instrumental track as the keys pound and the raw drum beats. Here both Q-Tip and Phife rap about situations they have gotten into with SkyPager’s. Once again they resort to laid back, relaxed verbal word-play and continue to take hip hop to new boundaries with chilled beautiful situational braggadocio. The instruments flex lightly over the top of their lyrics and push there unique diversity forward. This certainly, no question is the most bizarre (but nice) track on the album.

So ANOTHER album that has my favourite song until last, Scenario is nothing less than a full blown CLASSIC. Taking on the appearance of Busta Rhymes, Charlie Brown and Dinco D, Q-Tip truly shows what he’s all about. Over atmospheric creeping, trumpets and keys a tapping triangle tingles in the background, and then WOW! You get a full blown chorus from everyone of ’Hey yo, what’s the scenario’. The creeping keys are perfect with each MC’s lyrics as they battle pure flames, with the jazz credentials falling short behind them:

’Aiyyo bo knows this (what?) and bo knows that (what?), but bo don't know jack, cause bo can't rap. Well whaddya know, the di-dawg, is first up to bat, no batteries included, and no strings attached.’-Phife

’I could give a damn about a ill subliminal, stay away from crime cause I ain't no criminal. I love my young nation, groovy sensation, no time for hibernation, only elation.’-Q-Tip

’Watch, as I combine all the juice from the mind, heel up, reel up, bring it back, come rewind. Powerful impact boom! from the cannon, not braggin, try to read my mind just imagine.’-Busta

EVERYONE performs amazingly on here but I like Q-Tip’s verse as his vocabulary is truly shinning! I can’t explain the magic of this song, CLASSIC.

The bring fourth all the aspects, when you look at The Low End Theory it has everything a rap album should contain. The production is unbelievably unique comprising itself of lovely instrumentals snares, and jazz samples. The lyricism is laid back and relaxing, kicking fun witty braggadocio but at the same time taking on some more serious subject matters. There aren’t too many guest appearances but the few that are there are golden, either taking mainly producers (i.e.Dimond D) and letting them have the light, or taking new MC’s (i.e.Busta Rhymes) and propelling them to stardom. Also the content and feel of this album is just incredible. Never once reiterating the same subject matter and always entertaining this album never grows tiring. When an album is stamped with the label ‘Classic’ you know it has lived up to it, when you can listen to it ten years later and it sounds as fresh as the day it was released. Well this album certainly does that and more, worthy in EVERY music fans collection.

Overall Rating
5 Stars CLASSIC


Recommended: Yes

Great Music to Play While: Hanging With Friends