Rap Thread: A Tribe Called Quest's Final Album
faux_rillz
14,343 Posts
Can anyone sell me on this? My Dilla stans perhaps?
I was listening to it this morning and wondering why I had hung onto it for 12 years. I could find very little to like about it beyond "Find a Way," which I have as a 12"
I also revisited the preceding album which, while I still think marks a distinct falloff, sounds much better than I remembered. It's still got some of the classic Quest vibe, but also takes it in a new direction.
There's very little of what I liked about Quest left on The Bowel Movement and in retrospect it seems clear that the group had already pretty much broken up by the time the cobbled together.
I was listening to it this morning and wondering why I had hung onto it for 12 years. I could find very little to like about it beyond "Find a Way," which I have as a 12"
I also revisited the preceding album which, while I still think marks a distinct falloff, sounds much better than I remembered. It's still got some of the classic Quest vibe, but also takes it in a new direction.
There's very little of what I liked about Quest left on The Bowel Movement and in retrospect it seems clear that the group had already pretty much broken up by the time the cobbled together.
Comments
I can't believe it, but I actually agree with your thoughts on the final two ATCQ albums. I never thought we could ever agree on a rap-related topic
Peace,
Big Stacks from Kakalak
Simple, no?
Hey Herm,
As much as I absolutely love ATCQ (one of my favorite rap groups ever), I never liked the last two LPs very much. The problem simply is that they set a really high bar with their first 3 LPs, and the last two joints just didn't live up to the standard. I wouldn't say Dilla had anything to do with it, but instead, the group members seemed to grow apart.
Peace,
Big Stacks from Kakalak
No, I do not "just want to hate"--if I did, there are certainly much more interesting targets than a 12-year-old album that everyone agreed upon release was the group's worst
I am genuinely curious if anyone can offer an alternative perspective on it
If you don't have anything to contribute, then don't clutter up the thread
At one time, this was a board where people were not hostile to the very idea of discussing music, and it's sad that that's mostly been lost
2 "Find a Way" - classic
3 "Da Booty" - yes
4 "Steppin' It Up" - cool
5 "Like It like That" - cool
6 "Common Ground (Get It Goin' On)" - cool
7 "4 Moms" - yes
8 "His Name Is Mutty Ranks" - alright
9 "Give Me" - Hells to the yeah
10 "Pad & Pen" - ehh
11 "Busta's Lament" - cool
12 "Hot 4 U" - nah
13 "Against the World" - alright
14 "The Love" - yes
15 "Rock Rock Y'all" - cool
Not a GREAT album but above average.....7.5
Massive fail for adding those older hits to the CD.
Sorry Stacks! My comment wasn't directed at you. I was just calling out Faux on his "sincere" attempt to have a site full of "little dudes" help change his mind on an album he doesn't like.
For what it's worth, I agree with you on those albums.
Carry on.
The production was EXTRA clean, but that seemed to be just what the style was in '98.
Translation: "I've been dying to use that Bowel Movement joke I thought of!"
Whatever though...I'll bow out. Hopefully Deej or somebody can convince you that it's worthy enough to keep!
Can you explain what you like about the 'alright' to 'cool' tracks?
Hey Herm,
It's all good, mane, you know how we do. And what do you mean "sincere"? Fauxy is always sincere ;-) .
Peace,
Big Stacks from Kakalak
I didn't think of that joke--a lot of people were calling the album that within a few years of its release.
Again, Herm: if you don't like the idea of people debating music, what are you doing on this board? And if you feel that way about my thread, why are you even in it?
Something personal maybe?
Buster's Lament iirc was the Instrumental joint which was a nice "change" within the album.
i dont have it in front of me to really breekdown, but i never hatted the mediocre/filler joints on the album.
I was happy to get a grown Tribe instaed of the 90's AirMax Tribe that they moved away from.
Slicker sound w/ some Grown Man Raps.
I played alot of that album out when it dropped. And shit worked on the dancefloor or whatever the mood was.
Nice big clean sound.
What about the nore verse, that shit's classic. If I'm remembering correctly, he REALLY got his bus' on..
I don't really hear it as 'slicker' or 'clean'
It was sparse, definitely, but a lot of it strikes me as sloppy: the rhyming but, especially, the way the rhyming doesn't seem to gel with the production.
I am curious to know what you thought of Amplified which a lot of people hated on, but which I think successfully recaptured some of the Tribe aesthetic.
I appreciated it conceptually as a somewhat unexpected collaboration, but didn't think it really worked.
Of course not! I don't even know you like that. I just have a bad habit of calling people who are always calling other people out out. (That made sense in my head.) Plus you're ALWAYS giving people shit - I'm pretty sure most would agree that's a fact - so I just give it back to you. Last time I did this though a good 'Strut friend got mad at me so I'm trying to get better.
I still don't think anybody can say anything to change your mind about this album and I think you knew that when you started this thread.
Nevermind that, though. Onwards to mass debation!
I don't know why--I've changed my mind about lots of rap-related things through kicking them around on message boards. One example: I've come to view BR&L differently as a partial result of things Jake One poasted about it.
In any case, the point of the thread is not whether or not anybody is ultimately successful in changing my mind--it's to give me and anyone else who reads/contributes to it something to think about.
Why?
Weve discussed Amplified before. Its my shit, and is better than Love movement.
But I dont really wanna connect the two. Muhhamad probably had some input on Love and other Tribe albums. AMP was Q-Tip.
Ill say that the rhyming was a half steps behind the production but it wasnt that much of deal breaker to me.
Phife wasnt that same hype man anymore. Dude had lost some zest....IMO.
Hated the single, previewed other tracks off the album when it came out and found myself not interested in it AT ALL. And that's coming from someone who LOVED Tribe and even liked Beats, Rhymes & Life quite a bit.
He fell off hard--not just his rhyming, but something in his voice changed, maybe related to his medical issues.
Listening to it now, I have the distinct sense that him and Tip weren't even speaking to each other
In contrast, I liked TLM better when it first came out and every subsequent listen has made it less and less compelling (which is to say that it went from a B to a C or lower).
Personally, I thought "Busta's Lament" had good production, as did "LIke It Like That" and "Find a Way" (I used to be more enamored of the beat on "Rock Rock Ya'll" until I heard Craig G's "Take the Bait" and realized it sonned the shit out of Tribe's flip of the same Watts 103rd track). But TLM, like BRL, both lack any common consistency that drew the album together as a whole.
I wouldn't sell my copy of the LP but it's not exactly "most favored status" either.
I don't think consistency is either album's problem. If anything, I think they're too consistent. Especially BRL which I think is cool taken as a whole, but I can't name a single song off it other then the ones with the R&B hooks--they just all blend together to me.
Why hang onto an album that you grade a "C"? Pure completionism? At one point Tribe was my favorite group--they're still up there--and getting rid of one of their albums would have been unthinkable to me. Is that it?
I don't have a logical explanation. Especially during this "purge" phase, most of my decisions are being made on emotional/gut level rather than anything really thought out. I don't dislike the BRL LP enough to get rid of it and it only takes up a 1/3 of an inch of space (of course, multiple the same thinking x 1000...)
Re: consistency. TLM is a hodge-podge of different styles (musically) and whatever remaining chemistry between TIp and Phife existed seems pretty far gone by this point. BRL is more consistent overall but the song that fall flat really really fall flat to me, rather than a consistent "decent" sound the whole way through.
don't discard
lack of charisma
or lack of a more palpable relationship between phife and tip
or any other perceived weaknesses
didn't damn this album
but did result in a somewhat wet sparkler
4/1
and less like
3/2