Reviews
A Tribe Called Quest
Midnight Marauders
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Add to del.ico.us.Review Date: 2005-03-20
Most hip-hop lives and breathes on two principles, that the beat be droppin’ and of course that the rhymes be rhymin’. Yeah I can’t believe I wrote that either. Anyways the important thing is there though, there are only two elements of hip-hop as a package, the beats and the lyrics, so with all that in mind it can sometimes be understandable that you may not be able to find the total package when it comes to hip-hop artist and groups. In my opinion the challenge of rap is that in its simplicity comes the possibility that your hip-hop sounds like everyone elses. It’s a gentle balance, but one thing is for sure you need to have that mix, if you lack one or the other it does have a resounding effect on the track that you produce. A Tribe Called Quest has been a hip-hop group around for quite sometime, and one of their members has the best name for a rap artist ever, Q-tip. I think that is part of the rap appeal, the alias, to be honest it’s a neat idea to create a new persona that you get to be tagged as. However this is an idea that first started with the WWE, which is hilarious to think that wrestling and rap have ties. I suppose it’s more of a comparison, but regardless the hip-hop that the Tribe makes is something that most people on the fringe of hip-hop can get used to. So without further ado lets delve into disc that is Midnight Marauders and see if it lives up to its hype.
The intro to this CD is called “Midnight Marauders Tour Guide”, which is a neat little running theme throughout the album. It’s a female voice that basically details almost mockingly what they will do on the album. To me its just a bit entertaining, but intro’s and preludes tend to be better than having skits, I mean don’t get me wrong theres been a few hilarious skits in rap CD’s over the years but in general it should all be themed and just run with the rest of the CD.
Track two is the first real song, and its “Steve Biko (Stir it Up)”. This track features pure lyrical styling that is supreme. As I’ve said one of the more sequential elements in a hip-hop group is that of their rhymes, and they have done a fantastic job on this track. One of the lyrics it boasts is about Mugsy Bogues and how he resembles that of a hockey puck, which is quite hilarious considering he is like a 5’4” basketball player. The beat features a horn section and I always like to see a bit of new style injected into the hip-hop, I think it adds to the borders that can be associated with the genre. Basically it lets you know that you can’t pigeonhole rap into one category since it would become completely inaccurate when the emergence of a horns section appears in a song or perhaps even violin.
One of the darker sounding songs is track six, “Midnight”. To be honest this songs beat is the reason the songs tone sounds darker than the rest. The rapping is quite good but the beat is the reason I like this track. It includes weird scratches throughout the song that are almost jarring since they seem to come at strange times. Its almost as if in the background you can hear some weird chanting as the song proceeds, but its likely the way that the track was produced that it just made this unique sound. I think that also the comment that the female narrator makes on the end of this track is also kind of repellent. I mean its true I’m sure, but still I don’t want AIDS education within a rap song, but still it lets you know a bit more about what the Tribe is attempting to do with this CD as they make it abundantly clear their culture and race is discriminated against.
If I had to pick a favourite on this album it’d be track eight “Electric Relaxation”. In general I would say more of this album is low key, there won’t be any club beats found on this album but that’s because A Tribe Called Quest doesn’t produce music like that. It’s more of a chill out session when you listen to the Tribe, sure you have to listen to their lyrics, but that’s easily accomplished since the beats aren’t so extreme that you lose the vocal track in the overproduction. If you really want my opinion you’ll probably like this music after you’ve had a joint, it’d slow you down to the pace of hip-hop that you’d be ready for. I guess for me its hard to be into this type of rap at any point, it doesn’t make the Tribe bad, but I don’t know if Midnight Marauders is the best album that they’ve ever made. The only other album I’ve heard anything from is “The Love Movement” which Dan owns, it to the best of my recollection was a better album than the one I’m listening too.
Does A Tribe Called Quest’s “Midnight Marauders” album live up to the hype?
I would say that since it isn’t even the best hip-hop album that I’ve heard by this group that it can’t necessarily meet the full criteria to fill the hype. Its good, there’s nothing that can make that wrong, its just kind of slow for my liking, at least when I was listening to RunD.M.C. they had more elements of rock mixed into their music and as well the lyrics are better. How influential is this album?
I don’t think that it was, but maybe that’s because I don’t really see people do what the Tribe does, sure they have some ethnic implications as they educate the masses about the inequality that exists in the world. But I mean tons of hip-hop artists present themselves that way, its so much less about thug mentality and more to do with this political message if you ask me, because to win the war of inequality you have to use your head and not that braun bullshit that will get you killed. Just look at Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac, they were all aggressive and now they are all dead because of that thug life bullshit.
Should you buy this album?
If you are into hip-hop for the lyrics, you’ll like this album more than most, but if you want it to be laced with crazy beats that will blow your mind, then you are in for a big disappointment.
- Brandon