Released in 1991, A Tribe Called Quest’s album The Low End Theory is widely regarded as a classic, and for good reason. This album was groundbreaking and genre bending in many ways. For one, it is a rap album that firmly rejected the “ganster rap” tendencies of the time. While Dr. Dre and NWA were releasing violent albums full of aggression and depictions of life in the projects, the group’s MC’s, Q-Tip and Phife Dawg, released an album with barely any curse words and little in the way of violence at all. In fact, most of the tracks on here focus on lyrical wordplay rather than trying to convey any kind of cohesive message.
Perhaps most significantly, The Low End Theory also differs from the other rap music of the time sonically. While rap albums of the time focused on up tempo, drum heavy beats, A Tribe Called Quest took a vastly different approach. The Low End Theory is an album heavily influenced by Jazz music, with a laid back vibe. Many of the tracks on this album feature noticeably slow tempos. Trumpets and piano feature heavily on here alongside classic hip hop drums to help keep tempo. The juxtaposition of laid back sounding jazz instruments with snappy and rigid hip hop drums makes for a really interesting listen. There is also a good reason that this album is called “The Low End Theory,” as most of the tracks feature some kind of prominent, buttery smooth and heavy bass line that gives the songs on here a very mellow and smooth feeling. The Low End Theory is what happens when hip hop and jazz get combined in the best possible way.
The album artwork on The Low End Theory is worthy of mention as well. Widely regarded as one of the best album covers in hip hop, it is much more toned down and reserved than many of the album covers of its day. The contrasting red and green of the figure leap off of the black background in the same way that the drums on this album stand out layered on top of the smooth jazz background. I actually liked this album cover so much that I bought the record without even having a record player.
Highlights
Excursions
Excursions is the lead single on The Low End Theory, and starts the record off strong. The looping and heavy bass line of this song make it clear that “Excursions” is a good name for this song, as the bass-line especially conveys a dynamic feeling to the listener. The Jazz influence on this album shines through in this song as well, with trumpet samples cropping up at various intervals within the song.
Buggin’ out
“Buggin’ out” starts with one of the best opening lines of the album (Microphone check one two, what is this/the five foot assassin with the roughneck business), and the wordplay doesn’t let up throughout the song. Lines like “Refuse to compete with bs competition/your name ain’t Special Ed) make this song a rather engaging listen. The instrumental on this song is again worthy of note. The heavy low end on this track is a little more up tempo than on previous tracks, and sets the tone for the song perfectly.
Jazz (We’ve Got)
“Jazz (We’ve Got)” is widely regarded as the quintessential jazz rap song. Probably the most mellow song on this album, this track features a mellow and reverberating piano sample that gives the song a sense of expansiveness and airiness. The jazz influence on this song is also clearly prevalent through the melancholy trumpet sample that is tastefully placed throughout the song. Snappy snare drums successfully lend this song some structure and tempo for Q-Tip and Phife Dawg to rap to without compromising the laid back feeling of the song.
Scenario
Featuring one line that most people probably know from this album (Here we go yo, here we go yo/so what’s so what’s so what’s the scenario), “Scenario” is undoubtedly the most up tempo song on the record. The upbeat and snappy drums complement the up lively vocal performances on this track, and make for a good song to play in the car.
Lowlights
Show Business
“Show Business” one of the other few up tempo tracks on this record, but it comes across much less effectively than “Scenario.” The song details all of the ugly side of show business with all of its pitfalls, and narratively, it does this rather effectively. However, the song is undone by the complicated and hectic sounding beat, as well as the almost corny sounding guitar riffs that come in from time to time.
What?
“What?” is a song with a fairly basic song structure. It essentially consists of a series of statements along the lines of “What is a party if it doesn’t really rock?” and so on and so forth. While occasionally one of these lines is kinda funny (What’s a fat man without food in his gut?), on the whole the song just doesn’t really come off for me and gets far too repetitive.
Conclusion
The Low End Theory is an album that every fan of hip hop should listen through at some point or another. While the repetitive drum loops and relatively rigid flows employed here will immediately sound antiquated to many listeners, especially those who have only listened to post-2010 hip hop, it is worth giving this album a full listen. The nuance of the instrumentation and excellent chemistry between Q-Tip and Phife Dawg ensure that this album gets better with each listen, and cement The Low End Theory’s place in hip hop’s pantheon of classic albums.
Rating: 9/10
pzh5181
I really liked that you review the album, instead of just talking about it, like with the rating at the end. I especially liked that you wrote a short opinion of each song as well. It clearly showed a lot of time and effort went into your post. The only critic I have is to maybe give a little more background on the artists at the beginning. I personally had never heard of them, so it would have been helpful to know a little bit more about them, like their past work for example. Also, try to stay consistent with your use of parentheses and quotations around the song lyrics. Overall, I think this was very well thought-out, and your passion for this topic clearly shows through.
Morgan
Throughout this post, you make claims and point out lyrics in different songs from “The Low End Theory.” I think this is a great strategy to build your ethos on the topic at hand. Without directly stating that you’ve listened to the whole album, you make it clear to the audience that you are an experienced listener. To improve upon the readability of your post, I would recommend being a bit less repetitive in the phrases you use to describe different songs and other aspects of the album. For example, maybe avoid saying “this song” more than once in a sentence. Aside from this, I thought this post was a great read. I have never listened to this album, but your description of the songs and style of the artists allows for readers to engage through imagination and hear the songs without actually listening to them. Great job!
lmc6127
I really enjoyed the highlights/lowlights section because I like to know what songs I should listen to first off an album. I also liked how you rated it yourself. The personal parts are what makes this really cool and more personable. Also, I thought the mention of the album art was interesting. Good job! P.S. I love the song Can I kick it?