The Low End Theory
A Tribe Called Quest
BMG/Jive, 1991

Reviewed by Jeff Vrabel

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With their 1991 masterpiece The Low End Theory, A Tribe Called Quest both wrote and nearly closed the book on the marriage of hip-hop and jazz in the span of 14 short tracks.

Check out the groovy, key-changing bass groove buried under "Excursions." Observe the soft-swelling horn line at the front of "Check the Rhime." Listen to the three-MC call-and-response flow behind "Show Business." If your head is not bobbing, you are probably dead. Credit for that unusual feat must first be given to lead MCs Q-Tip, Phife and Ali, whose seamless flow is the group's hallmark. (The album also benefits from guest shots by possemates De La Soul and Busta Rhymes, whose random ferocity is in fine embryonic form on the MTV hit "Scenario.") To this day, Q-Tip's silky voice and vocals rank among the most distinguishable in hip-hop. Like the man says, "ladies love the voice, brothers dig the lyrics."

But this album represents so much more than that. Tip, Phife and Ali, during the crest of gangsta rap, were unusually educated and remained one of the few heads in hip-hop not toting automatic weaponry ("My aura's positive / I don't provoke no junk / See, I'm far from a bully and I ain't a punk" says Phife in "Check the Rhime"). Sure, Low End contains the usual odes to life on the streets and the supposed hardships of show business and player-haters. But for much of the album, they veer into lyrical parts unknown. "Excursions" begins the record as a paean to hip-hop's relationship to jazz ("My pops used to say it reminded him of be-bop / I said 'well daddy don't you know that things go in cycles'"). Try to imagine Dr. Dre talking about Mingus on "The Chronic." "Jazz (We've Got)" completes that cycle by giving props to the genre's benefactors. And "What" and "Buggin' Out" come in with the comedy, showcasing the group's talents in the freestyling and abstract-rhyming departments.

Still, for all the vocal prowess of its MCs, the key to the Tribe is in the beats. Many have capitalized on the potential of the fusion of jazz and hip-hop -- De La Soul, Guru, Digable Planets and the Roots being only a few examples -- but Tribe's beats are butter all the way through; never too complex, never dry, never cluttering things up with whiny G-funk effects or Timbaland-style stutter steps. With a few exceptions, Low End's tracks feature the same key ingredients: thick bass, sampled horns and groovy beats. To put it simply, Tribe had "smooth" nailed back when Carlos Santana was still classic rock and Rob Thomas even began hitting the free buffets.

Low End, almost a decade later, is a record so far ahead of its time you wonder if it's from the same genre that now produces football teams of MCs all barking in unison.

Somehow, out of a genre still in its infancy, A Tribe Called Quest managed to create one of the few albums that has equal relevance in the back seat of a jeep or as background music for a candlelight meal, pulling off a rare trifecta in hip-hop that gave name to one of their later records: beats, rhymes and life.

 

"Tribe had "smooth" nailed back when Carlos Santana was still classic rock and Rob Thomas even began hitting the free buffets."

Jeff Vrabel
- NATN
Contributor

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