Y'all really like Midnight Marauders more than The Low End Theory??

[Rev]

The Low End Theory is STILL my favorite album of all-time. So it's obviously my favorite Tribe album, and they're my favorite group.

A lot of people I know who like MM better, heard MM first. And that makes sense. I started with Tribe, as a kid, with People's Instinctive Travels and I liked it, but LET was next-level to me. I've been playing that album religiously since it came out. Tip was using shyt on that album that nobody had ever touched before. Samples that became popular because of that album. And while I love MM to death, it's not as groundbreaking as LET was. It's Tip's favorite Tribe album too. And Dr. Dre's. He said it influenced him for The Chronic. It changed music.

You can't go wrong with either joint, but LET shook Hip Hop up when it dropped. If you were around, you remember how people spoke about it. We never heard anything like that back then. I never lost that feeling, and that's why it's always been my favorite album. Nothing sounds like The Low End Theory.

 

[Awesome Wells]

Low End Theory was revolutionary. It was the album that changed the way hip hop albums were produced. It ushered the jazz-rap era. It introduced the reverb effect sound into hip hop. It make people see Phife as a legit MC that can hold his own. There will NEVER be another Low End Theory. Midnight Mauaders is enjoyable and from a production standpoint is flawless, but it wasn't revolutionary. It wasn't a game changer like Low End Theory was.

Exactly.

Both are classic and timeless albums, but Low End Theory is the album that literally shifted Hip Hop and production. It was really when Phife stood up and became a serious presence, and it's also when Tip started to really dig for samples that were obscure and got into more drum programming and chopping. MM had great production too, but he said it himself, he didn't really use anything on there that hadn't been used before. He just took things and flipped them his own way. It was a cleaner album sonically, and Jive wanted more records for radio, so they gave them that, but it didn't shake the game up like LET did. I remember Lord Jamar saying that he went and bought production equipment after hearing LET for the first time in its entirety and you can hear the influence on the In God We Trust album. LET changed how people went about making beats and albums in general. Nothing is touching that album.

 

[Big Mel]

Exactly.

Both are classic and timeless albums, but Low End Theory is the album that literally shifted Hip Hop and production. It was really when Phife stood up and became a serious presence, and it's also when Tip started to really dig for samples that were obscure and got into more drum programming and chopping. MM had great production too, but he said it himself, he didn't really use anything on there that hadn't been used before. He just took things and flipped them his own way. It was a cleaner album sonically, and Jive wanted more records for radio, so they gave them that, but it didn't shake the game up like LET did. I remember Lord Jamar saying that he went and bought production equipment after hearing LET for the first time in its entirety and you can hear the influence on the In God We Trust album. LET changed how people went about making beats and albums in general. Nothing is touching that album.

You’ve made wonderful points BUT as a People’s Instinctive devotee I think the argument for it being their best is how it managed to exceed impossibly high expectations previously set by De La ( and the JB’s for the real ones) and clearly showcased Tribe as maybe the best thing in hip hop. It was either Tribe or Ice Cube. Those were THE albums.


But yeah Low End somehow managed to upend and arguably exceed ‘People’s’ so it’s always between those two IMO.

There was a bit of Tribe familiarity/fatigue by 1993 so as good as MM is it wasn’t as exciting as Black Moon, Snoop or Wu-Tang.

 

[FreedMind]

MM is clearly the more polished album, but I absolutely love how Low End Theory has been able to elude sounding dated.

It's an album that captured the early 90s NYC so perfectly, yet it's not a product that sounds constrained by the sonic limitations of yesteryear. They maximized everything at their disposal to make a creative work of art that is truly timeless.

At least that's how I still hear it when I play the record. Love it.

 

[TripleAgent]

Yes

 

[Why-Fi]

The Low End Theory ...Tip's favorite Tribe album too. And Dr. Dre's. He said it influenced him for The Chronic.

Q-Tip Recalls "Competing" With Dr. Dre On "Low End Theory"

Q-Tip has stated that NWA’s 1988 release Straight Outta Compton was a direct influence on A Tribe Called Quest’s 1991 album The Low End Theory. In turn, Dre revealed that Tribe’s project greatly inspired the Compton rapper/producer’s 1992 classic, The Chronic.

 

[Ziploc]

If LET is a wheelie,MM is a no hand wheelie.Both amazing but the production, engineering and sequencing is just better on MM imo.

 

[The War Report]

Their first album is their best album. That shyt was recorded in 89 and it still doesn’t sound dated. Musically, it’s their best album. That shyt was so ahead of its time.

 

[Rekkapryde]

To me those 1st 3 Tribe albums are all equally dope. Q-Tip said that choosing between them is like trying to choose your favourite child.

yeah. the sound of the 1st probably hasn't aged as well, but it's still dope and deserved it's rating at the time. First 3 albums shoulda been 5.

 

[Sankofa Alwayz]

Q-Tip Recalls "Competing" With Dr. Dre On "Low End Theory"

That’s some GOAT shyt right there

 

[Atsym Sknyfs]

Was this thread re-upped because of the Talib/Diamond Drink Champs interview

 

[Awesome Wells]

You’ve made wonderful points BUT as a People’s Instinctive devotee I think the argument for it being their best is how it managed to exceed impossibly high expectations previously set by De La ( and the JB’s for the real ones) and clearly showcased Tribe as maybe the best thing in hip hop. It was either Tribe or Ice Cube. Those were THE albums.

But yeah Low End somehow managed to upend and arguably exceed ‘People’s’ so it’s always between those two IMO.

There was a bit of Tribe familiarity/fatigue by 1993 so as good as MM is it wasn’t as exciting as Black Moon, Snoop or Wu-Tang.

I loved People's Instinctive too, as a kid. I went crazy for that album. Still play it all the time. And like you said, at the time, it was really all about Tribe and Cube.

LET was just a much harder and rawer album for me. The loops and drums that Tip was using on that blew my mind! I never heard anything like that, at the time. And you made a good point, by the time MM dropped, you kinda knew what to expect from them. It was definitely less exciting.

So I had Enta Da Stage, '93 'til Infinity, Doggystyle, 36 Chambers, No Need for Alarm, Slaughtahouse, Buhloone Mindstate, Bacdafucup, and mad other albums that dropped around that time and played them all equally, for the most part. But when LET dropped, I could barely get away from that one to even focus on other shyt, with the exception of maybe Death Certificate.

 

[Rev]

Was this thread re-upped because of the Talib/Diamond Drink Champs interview

yep

 

[gluvnast]

Exactly.

Both are classic and timeless albums, but Low End Theory is the album that literally shifted Hip Hop and production. It was really when Phife stood up and became a serious presence, and it's also when Tip started to really dig for samples that were obscure and got into more drum programming and chopping. MM had great production too, but he said it himself, he didn't really use anything on there that hadn't been used before. He just took things and flipped them his own way. It was a cleaner album sonically, and Jive wanted more records for radio, so they gave them that, but it didn't shake the game up like LET did. I remember Lord Jamar saying that he went and bought production equipment after hearing LET for the first time in its entirety and you can hear the influence on the In God We Trust album. LET changed how people went about making beats and albums in general. Nothing is touching that album.

Right. Even little shyt like slowing down the BPMs, because before that, rap music was all uptempo shyt. In fact THIS WAS THE ALBUM THAT KILLED THAT NEW JACK SWING shyt, which possibly added fuel to the rift between Wreckx-N-Effect and Tribe along with Phife's sneak diss. in 1991, that New Jack Swing shyt was still going hard.... then Tribe changed the music, the tempo and dissing the new jack shyt and in 1992, that shyt was completely DEAD.

 

[Tribal Outkast]

You’ve made wonderful points BUT as a People’s Instinctive devotee I think the argument for it being their best is how it managed to exceed impossibly high expectations previously set by De La ( and the JB’s for the real ones) and clearly showcased Tribe as maybe the best thing in hip hop. It was either Tribe or Ice Cube. Those were THE albums.


But yeah Low End somehow managed to upend and arguably exceed ‘People’s’ so it’s always between those two IMO.

There was a bit of Tribe familiarity/fatigue by 1993 so as good as MM is it wasn’t as exciting as Black Moon, Snoop or Wu-Tang.

I agree with this. Low End was the continuation but People’s Instinctive had me like I don’t know who these cats are but they’re dope. And that was big for a cat from the south. We didn’t have a lot of hiphop shows back then. Fox was a station that barely came in. It was hard to make out what you were watching but I remember seeing the El Segundo video on Pump it Up with Dee Barnes and I was hooked. Then when Low End dropped it was over! The whole native tongues was killing shyt back then for me.