But more than any other Tribe album, a slight malaise settles in to BEATS, RHYMES AND LIFE, feeling just not quite as inspired as the rest of their discography. There were still fun tracks, there was still radical experimentation yielding solid beats. I don’t know if I could accurately describe BEATS as an immensely “darker” album, but something was definitely off. What that meant, specifically for BEATS, was what many critics described as a darker sound and deeper lyrics that weren’t quite as freewheeling as they were on the preceding releases. The Q-Tip-centric production shifted to the realm of The Ummah, a production team consisting of Q-Tip himself, Ali Shaheed, and Jay Dee/J Dilla, as well as Raphael Saadiq and D’Angelo at times. Tribe’s fourth album was a marked change after the build of their first three. Though there's no shortage of Phife Dawg gems here, few can top this boast from "Oh My God": "Mr.BEATS, RHYMES AND LIFE is not the best of the best, however. But the album's most iconic lines were giddy fun that set them apart. The group continued the conscious streak that made them rap legends: "Sucka Nigga" is rapper Q-Tip's complicated thesis on the politics of using the N-word, which had been going through the process of being reclaimed by fellow rappers. Hit singles like "Electric Relaxation" and "Award Tour" (the group's highest charting song to date) represent the album's commitment to calm demeanors, rugged beats, and pop savvy. Tribe’s melodies still chilled in that mellow nexus of ’70s jazz, funk, and soul-think Roy Ayers, George Duke, Minnie Riperton, and Weldon Irvine-but their drums cracked and knocked like they were made to blow headphone speakers. Released the same year as Wu-Tang Clan's Enter the Wu-Tang, KRS-One's Return of the Boom Bap, and Black Moon's Enta Da Stage, the album was perhaps the lushest and funkiest in a movement of technically proficient, rhythmically propulsive, purist-friendly rap music taking the art form back to its hard-hitting New York roots. A Tribe Called Quest helped give rap music a new sound and attitude on albums like 1990's People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm and 1991's The Low End Theory, where the quartet's casual cool, jazz-heavy sample crate, and free-wheeling experimentation contributed to the nascent movement eventually dubbed "alternative hip-hop." Their third album, 1993's Midnight Marauders, may not be as influential, but it could be their most beloved.
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