Get To Know H.E.R.

It’s been a long time, I shouldn’t have left you..without a strong rhyme to step to. Seriously though, apologies all around for the long ass hiatus but I’ve been busy as hell lately with school starting up again and whatnot. But I’m back, and I’ll try not to go on such a dragged out break ever again (no promises though). I’ve also decided to change the format of this whole thing a bit more. I’ll have three categories: hits, balls and strikes. Under hits will be reasons that I believe you should absolutely pick up this album. Strikes are the reasons that may cause you to want to avoid the album in question. Balls are the things that are totally up in the air and are ultimately up to the reader to decided whether it’s a good thing or not.

Anyways, to pick up right where I left off, Beats Rhymes and Life is the fourth album by A Tribe Called Quest and comes a full three years after the bonafide classic of an album, Midnight Marauders. With the Tribe’s first three albums having received the enormous amount of critical acclaim that they did, they had a lot to live upto and most likely felt a lot of pressure throughout the recording sessions. As such, Beats Rhymes and Life sounds a bit darker than all of it’s predecessors. Some other things were changed from the tried and true Tribe formula of the late80s/early90s albums, but I’ll get into that as the review continues.

Hits:

1. It’s Tribe. I mean, if you’d read my last three reviews and have gone out and listened to those masterpieces, you should’ve already hunted this shit down and listened to it.

2. Some people are bound to disagree with me on this but fuck it. Tribe’s fourth album was the first to feature production from the super production group The Ummah, which consisted of Ali Shaheed, Q-Tip, and J Dilla. There are a good number of Tribe fans who argue that Jay Dee’s inclusion into the production led to a change in sound that ultimately led to Tribe’s work being of a subpar quality. Fuck that. The beats on this album are actually pretty damn good except maybe the ones for Baby Phife’s Return and Word Play. They’re different, I’ll give them that, but in no way are they subpar. I’ll say it again, The Ummah did not ruin A Tribe Called Quest.

3. This album is really the last time you’ll hear such great chemistry between our two lead rappers as the next album is…well, we’ll get to that when we get to that I guess. But the point here is, appreciate as much of it as you can while it’s there.

4. These are the tracks that I’ve picked out to be good: Phony Rappers, Get A Hold, Motivators, Jam, The Pressure, 1nce Again, Mind Power, The Hop, Keep It Movin, What Really Goes On, Stressed Out. Out of those, The Pressure and What Really Goes On are really the stand out tracks. Seriously, What Really Goes On is a damn monster of a track.

Strikes:

3 words. Lack Of Phife. Since People’s, Phife Dawg has steadily evolved from throwaway sidekick rapper to an integral part of the team. On Midnight Marauders the man was on all but 2 of the tracks (not including the intro) and he ripped it up. I mean, Midnight Marauders has some of the illest shit ever spit by dude and he outshone his partner Tip on a good number of tracks. You would think that this album would make more use of him but on the contrary he’s missing on more than a third of the album. Hell, he only has three more tracks than Consequence who’s not even an official member of the fucking group. As much as I love Tip, I love it even more when the two of them work together. That’s it for strikes really. There were no tracks that really jumped out at me as bad.

Balls:

1. The frequent appearance of Consequence was a puzzler to me. For those who don’t know, Consequence is Q-Tip’s cousin and the average rap fan today probably only knows him because of Kanye West. Anyways, the man is featured on a total of six tracks throughout and led lots of people (including myself) to think that he was soon to be an official member of the Tribe (kinda like Cappa and the Wu). We know now that that didn’t happen, but regardless ‘quence pops up again and again throughout Beats, Rhymes and Life. He’s actually not bad at rapping and holds his own on the tracks, but ultimately his presence is offsetting. Awkward if you will.

2. The sequencing of the tracks, specifically of the first, could’ve been better. Phony Rappers is a good track no doubt, but it sounds strange and really abrupt as a first track. I honestly believe that Pressure, with it’s mini Tribe Called Quest medley intro or 1nce Again, with it’s throwback to Check The Rhime, should’ve been the first track and have helped ease the fans into the newer sound.

3. These are the tracks that I thought were just alright: Crew, Baby Phife’s Return, Separate/Together, Word Play

Final Thoughts:

Beats Rhymes and Life is a seriously underrated album when it comes to A Tribe Called Quest. Most people dismissed it because it didn’t live up to the standards of Midnight Marauders and A Low End Theory, but honestly, nothing is fucking with those two. Besides, this album is pretty darn great in its own right (I would actually place it on par with People’s, which I think is a slightly overrated album) and the edgier, darker sound isn’t as different as a lot of people think and would have probably ended up doing great things for the group if The Love Movement hadn’t happened. Overall, I would recommend that you do yourself a favor and check it out