Saturday, August 1, 2009

Crate Digging: Beats Rhymes and Life

by A Tribe Called Quest

I know that when this album came out, it caused a lot of controversy among Tribe fans - they didn't like the addition of the young James Yancey (Jay Dee/J Dilla) to the production team of the Ummah, and people complained about Consequence providing raps on so many tracks.

I was off of hip-hop when this dropped, and came back to it rather late, and so didn't have an opinion at the time, and my current opinion is coloured by the depth of my appreciation for Dilla. So for my money, this is one of the strongest albums from Tribe, and I think that it holds up remarkably well.

Listening to it again today, it sounds like any number of neo-soul albums. Q-Tip and Phife Dog are strong lyrically, and Consequence isn't that bad (especially compared to his solo 'Take it to the Cleaners').

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