VJQC Score: N/A
Artist: TRIBE CALLED QUEST
Album Name: LOW END THEORY
Record Label: JIVE
Genre: R&B
Format: VINYL LP
Release Date: 11/12/1996
de la Soul are remembered as the premier Native Tongues posse, those rappers who got low-key, self-consciously thoughtful, and jazzy in the face of gangsta's hardcore threats. But A Tribe Called Quest may have been even stronger, especially on their excellent second album, the bass-thumping, heavily jazz-sampled the Low End Theory. According to the opening ''Excursions,'' rapper Q-Tip's old man says the disc's jazz-rap ''reminded him of bebop,'' and Q calls himself ''prominent like Shakespeare.'' But if Charlie Parker had ever written poetic couplets and backed them with funky-drummer and Ron Carter-on-bass grooves this irresistible, he might have been as big as the Bard and Brother James combined. - David Cantwell.