One year after De la Soul re-drew the map for alternative rap, fellow Native Tongues brothers A Tribe Called Quest released their debut, the quiet beginning of a revolution in non-commercial hip-hop. People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm floated a few familiar hooks, but it wasn't a sampladelic record. Rappers Q-Tip and Phife Dawg dropped a few clunky rhymes, but their lyrics were packed with ideas, while their flow and interplay were among the most original in hip-hop. From the beginning, Tribe focused on intelligent message tracks but rarely sounded over-serious about them. With "Pubic Enemy," they put a humorous spin on the touchy subject of venereal disease (including a special award for the most inventive use of the classic "scratchin'" sample), and moved right into a love ap, "Bonita Applebum," which alternated a sitar sample with the type of jazzy keys often heard on later Tribe tracks. "Description of a Fool" took to task those with violent tendencies, while "Youthful Expression" spoke wisely of the power yet growing responsibility of teenagers. Next to important message tracks with great productions, A Tribe Called Quest could also be deliciously playful (or frustratingly unserious, depending on your opinion). "I Left My Wallet in El Segundo" describes a vacation gone hilariously wrong, while "Ham 'n' Eggs" may be the oddest topic for a ap track ever heard up to that point ("I don't eat no ham and eggs, cuz they're high in cholesterol"). Contrary to the message in the track titles, the opener "Push It Along" and "Rhythm (Dedicated to the Art of Moving Butts)" were fusions of atmospheric samples with tough beats, special attention being paid to a pair of later Tribe sample favorites, jazz guitar and '70s fusion synth. Restless and ceaselessly imaginative, Tribe perhaps experimented too much on their debut, but they succeeded at much of it, certainly enough to show much promise as a new decade dawned.
When people talk about monumental debuts, People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm should definitely be near the top of the list. The world was formally introduced to A Tribe Called Quest and it's not going to be easy for anyone to forget them. Right from the jump we knew we were in for a [...]
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of all the sampling that has ever been done, i believe the tribe did it best when they made this song. honestly, this sample came out of left field: lou reed being sampled by a tribe called quest? two of the greatest artists ever? hell yea. they can definitely kick it.
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Nothing beats hearing your favorite song when you are out in the real world. Part of you wants to sing along so people know you like the artist that is being played. Part of you just wants to just sit back and enjoy the music. There are times when you hear a song, and the video for it plays in your head. To me, a video can sometimes make that song so much better than when you first heard it. Ma...
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When people talk about monumental debuts, People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm should definitely be near the top of the list. The world was formally introduced to A Tribe Called Quest and it's not going to be easy for anyone to forget them. Right from the jump we knew we were in for a [...]
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For the third non consecutive week, Lil Wayne's Tha Carter III is the top selling album in America. Wayne's sixth album sold 125,000 units this week, beating out Coldplay's Vida La Viva by a slim margin of 12,000 copies. Tha Carter III is now on the verge of breaking the 2 million mark in terms of album sales.In more interesting news...Rap fans may be familiar with how Wayne's "A Milli" song to...
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Nothing beats hearing your favorite song when you are out in the real world. Part of you wants to sing along so people know you like the artist that is being played. Part of you just wants to just sit back and enjoy the music. There are times when you hear a song, and the video for it plays in your head. To me, a video can sometimes make that song so much better than when you first heard it. Ma...
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Did not listen to hip-house, I was too young at the time to know much about such a hip-hop subset. But one thing I can say is that I love this old school dance-y beat by Ali Shaheed Mohamed. It is all things great about the early native tongues movement, and it just grooves away past Q-tip's verses.Anyone else have some cool hip house out there?
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It was 1990, I think I was a freshman in high school, when I heard A Tribe Called Quest for the first time. It opened my ears up to a brand new genre of music. In predominantly white suburban Columbus,Ohio N.W.A. had finally trickled in from the west coast and hip hop in general was exploding all around me. Since most of the rock that I had access to at this time was Aerosmith and a bunch of b...
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Hello lovelies, I'm back. After experiencing some uncomfortable disenchantment, I was able to replenish my "all is right with the world" juices in California. My ipod fully loaded, I found that rather I preferred to enjoy the silence interspersed with birdsong (I was in one of those desert oases, with a couple of days in LA-LA land). My last night, which wasn't seeming to work out too well (...
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ALSO!!! The Wackness finally came out on DVD. So all of you slackers who haven't seen it yet, need to do so now.It's awesome.
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of all the sampling that has ever been done, i believe the tribe did it best when they made this song. honestly, this sample came out of left field: lou reed being sampled by a tribe called quest? two of the greatest artists ever? hell yea. they can definitely kick it.
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So there are some mashups that just destroy both (or all of) the great songs being combined... As an amateur at making them, this is what happens to me most of the time (I mean, I learned the hard way that Madonna's Like A Prayer was just never meant to have any of the backbeats from Dre's 2001 dropped in). But then, there are a few that make you wonder how these songs ever existed separate fro...
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| Title | Lyrics | Buy |
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| 1 Push It Along |
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| 2 Luck of Lucien |
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| 3 After Hours |
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| 4 Footprints |
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| 5 I Left My Wallet in el Segundo |
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| 6 Public Enemy |
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| 7 Bonita Applebum |
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| 8 Can I Kick It? |
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| 9 Youthful Expression |
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| 10 Rhythm (Devoted to the Art of Moving Butts) |
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| 11 Mr. Muhammad |
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| 12 Ham 'N' Eggs |
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| 13 Go Ahead in the Rain |
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| 14 Description of a Fool |
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Click to purchase…
© 2006-2009 Mog Inc. All Rights Reserved
 "People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm")
