A Look At A Tribe Called Quest’s Best Album: ‘Midnight Marauders’

10/13/11 | By | 7 Comments

a tribe called quest bw A Look At A Tribe Called Quests Best Album: Midnight Marauders

In honor of the DVD/Blu-ray release A Tribe Called Quest’s Beats Rhymes & Life on Oct. 18, I want to take a second to discuss my and our Facebook fans‘ favorite A Tribe Called Quest record, 1993′s Midnight Marauders. Personally, I’m a sucker for really well executed concept albums and Midnight Marauders is obviously no exception. Beyond the sonic and lyrical themes — and the rad computerized guide — you can’t really argue against what Q-Tip, Phife Dawg, Ali Shaheed Muhammad, and (sometimes) Jarobi did on there.

Hit the skip to keep reading and be sure to take part in our contest. One fan will win a RDH-GTK1i Hi-Fi Music System while another fan will take home a Muteki™ Hi-Fi Music System! These are only available to our Twitter followers, so be sure to tweet with the hashtag #BeatsRhymesLife in order to qualify.

Do I even have to mention that “Electric Relaxation” is one of the best hip-hop tracks ever? And what about “Award Tour”?! That joint remains one of the best party joints of the Golden Era. Seriously, play it this weekend around your friends and watch everyone go nuts. Not only that, but the album featured absolutely killer guest appearances from a then-young Busta Rhymes, fellow Native Tongue member Dave (of De la Soul), NYC master Large Pro, and soulman Raphael Saadiq.

As I stated earlier, I’m not the only one feeling this way. Along with our Facebook fans, millions of folks turned out to cop the album. It was their fastest-selling release as it went platinum in two years’ time. Not bad for a moody, artistic excursion (pun intended) through boom-bap, right? Midnight Marauders also went on to land on a slew of lists indicating that it is indeed one of the best records of our time. Pitchfork ranked it at #75 on their top 100 albums of the ’90s list while it landed at #2 on Ego Trip’s top albums of ’93 list.

Perfection, thy name is Midnight Marauders. For similar reading on other Tribe records, head to OkayPlayer and Get Right Music.

Speaking of Tribe, I wanted to refer back to Michael Rapaport’s documentary on A Tribe Called Quest, Beats Rhymes & Life. It was a film that stirred up the emotions of everyone involved, particularly Q-Tip and Phife Dawg, the latter of whom apparently wept after seeing it at Sundance earlier this year. It also just made us all wish these guys would get together and record one last project together, if only because their live shows are still so incredible. Watch the documentary’s trailer below. Keep up with the contest and additional movie updates by following @ATCQMovie and @MichaelRapaport on Twitter. Contest ends Oct. 25.

(This is a sponsored post.)

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  • Osman Ahmed

    I still like Low End Theory more…

  • http://twitter.com/alexmartinsek alex martinsek

    Marauders over Low End Theory. Always.

  • http://marinatemedia.tumblr.com S-Dot

    All about Low End Theory

  • D.L. Chandler

    I have to say, this debate has been going on with my friends and I for years and we’re always deadlocked on which is the better album. I’m a Midnight Marauders fan while Low End Theory continues to be the tops for most of my people. I will say that with each album, I was in a particular place when they were released. When LET dropped, I was in the last years of my teens. When MM came out, I was so-called settled into my adulthood and the like. LET gave me a vision of the future while MM confirmed it for me. Both albums have resonance with me….I almost like to pretend they exist as one long album.

  • Choco

    This is a tough one – as I feel Midnight Marauders has better individual tracks like “Electric Relaxation,” but overall Low End Theory is probably the better album when you’re talking about complete albums.

  • Bill Sharp

    Low End Theory >>>>>

  • http://twitter.com/meenAfresH morgaN freezemaN

    Midnight Marauders is the first album I experienced. I had heard other music before this dropped but I never experienced it until ATCQ came into my life full-time. Midnight Marauders made me who I am today, or at the very least has played a huge roll in my musical taste throughout my life.