This is the first installment in my TOP 7 RAP ALBUMS series. The series will feature the albums in chronological order by release date.
The Low End Theory, A Tribe Called Quest. (1991).
Backstory:
A Tribe Called quest were formed in the late 80s by Kamal Fareed (Stage name: Q-Tip), Malik Taylor (Stage name, Phife Dawg), Ali Shahed Muhammad, and Jarobi White as a part of the Native Tongues collective of the late 80s with fellow rap groups De La Soul, The Jungle Brothers, and Queen Latifa. In 1990. They released their first album: People’s Instinctive Travels And The Path Of Rhythm. It was rated 5 out of 5 by “The Source” Magazine and featured classics like Can I Kick It?, Bonita Applebum, and Mr. Muhammad. After the album came out, they went back to work in the studio. Unfortunately, Jarobi left a couple of weeks in and Phife was diagnosed with diabetes, something that had haunted him his whole life.
Fun Fact: This album was released the same day as Nirvana’s “Nevermind” and Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “Blood Sugar S** Magic”
Song 1: “Excursions.”
From the beginning of the song, you can hear a very funky bassline. The song is only Q-Tip, but he makes himself known with catchy lines like: “Back in the days when I was a teenager/Before I had status and before I had a pager.” And: “It’s all expected, things are for the looking/If you got the money, Quest is for the booking” it is one of the best openers I’ve ever listened to in hip-hop/rap.
Song 2: “Buggin Out”
This song is the first appearance of Phife Dawg on the album and he does not hold back, giving what I think is the greatest verse of his career (For reference, “The Source” Magazine put this verse in as the hip hop quotable of that issue) his high-pitched voice complements the low, hard-hitting beat. Q-Tip comes in with memorable lines during his two verses, but that doesn’t beat knowing a whole verse word-for-word (I’ve heard that many black households did back then with Phife’s verse). It is one of the group’s best, but it’s only the 4th best song on this album.
Song 3: “Rap Promoter”
All this song is about how labels and showrunners pay the artists for shows. If not, They’re leeeaaaviiing. I love the guitar in the background and how the drums hit with ferocity, it’s definitely one of the more energetic songs on the album.
Song 4: “Butter”
Both verses are from Phife, and he tells a story about love. The scene is set, Phife is in his senior year at his school, Garvey High. He usually just looks at girls while he is talking to Tip and Shahed, but one day he found a girl he liked named Flo. We hear that he wants a girl with relationship goals, not a girl who wants him for his money (aka a gold digger). He learns that Flo cheated on him with his friend Lucky. Before Flo, he focused on getting as many girls as possible with his motto being, “New day next hon.” After Flo, he realizes his ways are wrong and tries to find actual love. The chorus has one of the best sax samples I’ve heard since “They Reminisce Over You” by Pete Rock and Cl Smooth. I think it’s funny when Q-Tip says that Phife’s game isn’t like any knock off brand, like margarine, but just butter. The second verse details how Phife figures out that girls only want him for his fame and fortune, so he cutiques them. He says that girls buy stuff to make them look pretty, like buying hair and makeup, but are never true to their actual appearance. Calling them bionic ladies. It’s crazy how 31 years later, this sentiment is still true.
Note: the title of the album is a double entendre referring to the low end bass on the album, and on how African Americans are on the low end of the totem pole of society
Song 5: “Verses From The Abstract”
After we get a Phife solo song, we get a Tip solo song. All the song is about is
Tip having conscious thoughts that kinda seem all over the place. Probably my favorite part is the chorus, which has Vinia Mojica sing, “This ain’t an R&B song,” and more funny lines. I also have to give it up to Ron Carter, who does an awesome job playing bass on the album (Just to show how good Ron is, he used to play for Miles Davis).
Song 6: “Show Business”
This song, “Show Business” has a weird backstory. But, I don’t want to rehash what YouTuber Mic The Snare said on his Deep Discog Dive of ATCQ, so here is the link (Timestamp: 3:57). Ok, you watched that, good. So after “Georgie Porgie” was rejected, Tribe was furious about it not being on the album, so they made fun of labels. The song includes lines like, “You a million dollar man that aint got no dough” and “If you take a [poop] they want to know.” Talking about how fans will be nosy about everything you do after you become famous and how you got a big paycheck, but you only get 25% of the money (75% goes to the labels). Each verse is about a different part of the troubles of the music industry. Q-Tip about fans, Lord Jamar about labels screwing you over with money, Phife about bootleggers, Sadat X about gold diggers, and Dimond D about the downsides of fame. All of these verses come together to make a conscious, hard-hitting song about the dangers of being a musician.
Song 7: “Vibes And Stuff” (Link: Vibes and Stuff)
First things first, can we just appreciate this sample (Sample Breakdown – The Low End Theory [1991] | A Tribe Called Quest Timestamp: 0:46) next, this is pure Vibes (get it), besides that, there isn’t much to say about this song. It’s just good, that’s it.
Song 8: “The Infamous Date R****”
SKIP!!!
Song 9: “Check The Rhime”
Here we are, the arguable best song on the album. It is the closest thing to hip-hop perfection. From the drums, the trumpets, the bass, and an amazing video. Do you know what’s better than the song in the studio? The song with a live band. The classic, “You on point Phife,” “All the time Tip” call and response between the two rappers is great (they rehashed the lines for their song 1nce again). And verses that could be considered as their best all combine to make something that is on some lists for top 5 songs of the genre. Fun fact: this video marks the first time a basketball jersey was worn in a hip-hop video.
Song 10: Everything is Fair (Link: Everything Is Fair)
Funny moment: I listened to this song for the first time on vinyl, so the first time I heard the lopping, “Everything is fair when you’re living in the city,” I thought it was a broken record situation. I do love how the instrumental expands, showing each instrument before the drums come in and Tip starts his verse. The story is about a girl who has gone through a lot of tough things, so she joins the mob. Tip describes it as, “Pulling out the ou op while listening to doo op.” Which follows with a doo op song playing with gunshots after to end the verse.
Song 11: Jazz (We’ve Got) (Ignore the buggin’ out video, for some reason they mixed them together)
Amazing, from the sax and bass on the chorus, and to Phife’s excellent verse (Tip’s is also good). I quote the chorus all the time whenever I hear a rap/jazz song. There’s a reason that this is one of the best songs in their catalog. Whenever I need a chill song to relax in the hip-hop stratosphere, I will always pick this (Tonights da Night is also a great pick).
Song 12: Skypager (Link: Skypager)
A tribute to a foreign piece of technology. Imagine in 2050, we talk about the importance of a smartphone. That would be weird. This is 100% something all 90s kids would revisit time after time to remember the past.
Song 13: What?
What is Clark Kent without a phone booth? What is channel 9 without Arsenio? And, what is an MC if he doesn’t have stamina? This song asks those questions with a fast-paced instrumental and with leading into the next song.
Song 14: Scenario (feat. Leaders Of The New School)
Get ready for a page long essay on just this song alone. You ready? Good. This song not only describes hip-hop as a genre, but its long-standing reign as a genre of party anthems. From the hard-hitting drums to the great sample, this song is a masterclass in beat making. Yet we are only scratching the surface of what makes this song great. The video is directed by academy award winner and longtime Knicks fan Spike Lee (who also directed the video for Fight the Power). Every verse is amazing. Not mediocre, not good, not ok, and not even great. IT’S AMAZING. I will rank the verses in order + give them a score out of 100:
Charlie Brown – 89/100 – has great one liners but is nothing special compared to the others
Q-Tip – 91/100 – I love how the other members ad lib the verse, especially when he lets the other members say criminal instead of him. Really good.
Dinco D – 93/100 – Word play and rhyming is on point here. My favorite part of the verse is when Dinco just says random words that rhyme then says: “Yo, how’d that sound?.”
Phife Dawg – 98/100 – The prime examples are why openers are important in songs with 4 or more people (“posse cuts”). You can’t go wrong with a verse that has call and response, references to football players and Taco Bell, and bragging that you’re 5 ‘3 but still handsome. You already know this is a classic.
Busta Rhymes – 1,000,000/100 – A contender not just for my favorite Busta verse ever, but for my favorite verse in music ever (Rivaled with the first verse of Happy Birthday for the 8th spot). On the show Hip-Hop Evolution, Busta recalled this verse, saying “Q-Tip set me up like it was a alley oop, so I had to grab and dunk that s**t.” Also, I have never seen someone who has a lyric that says “Raw raw like a dungeon dragon” and not get laughed at, so props to him there.
This song gave Busta Rhymes a platform that he used very well. Here is a list of hit songs he’s made before and after Scenario: Case of the P.T.A, Woo-Hah (Got You All In Check), Turn it Up, Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Could See, Party Is Goin’ On Over Here, I Know What You Want, Break Ya Neck, Pass The Courvoisier Pt. II, What It Is, Touch It, Ante Up (Remix), Flava In Ya Ear (Remix), Look At Me Now, And most recently: Slap. Here’s one moment that solidifies Busta’s greatness. When Wyclef Jean was performing at Verzuz, he brought out Busta to do Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Could See. After the performance, Busta said, “Find me a worthy Verzuz opponent. KRS, I’ll see you tomorrow.” After he said that, multiple people asked multiple artists if they wanted to challenge him. All of them said no. Last fun fact about this song: the group Coast Contra made a freestyle to the instrumental and it is amazing.
Summary:
Story time. My best friend never listened to hip-hop except for one song: Scenario. He even knew some of Phife’s verse, but I said, “I’ll take it from here,” and sang/rapped the rest. We are planning a visit to the Basketball Hall of Fame and I really want him to listen to “Low End Theory” on the car ride there. I really thought he wouldn’t listen to any albums, but I was wrong as he listened to Kendrick’s “Mr. Morale and The Big Steppers,” He who shall not be named’s 5th album, and 2pac’s “All Eyez On Me.” This got me really stoked and excited for him to listen to it even more than before.
I own this album’s original pressing on vinyl with a messed up cover (luckily they just repressed it), it is one of the only 5 albums that I have downloaded in its entirety (a fancy way of saying that it has no skips). If this album didn’t exist, there would be no jazz rap (no TBAB) and Tribe wouldn’t be as nearly as big as they are today. But they would still have…
The Music In My Mind 
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