Two Eleven

One of my favorite singers is back with a new album after 4 years. Brandy released Human in 2008, which I felt was a great album because it was so honest but she felt that her long time producer, Rodney Jerkins and label didn't give it the support album. After label changes , she finally got the music she wanted. But this album Two Eleven is very personal to her because her idol the great Whitney Houston died on her birthday, which is February 11. So Brandy thought that naming this Two Eleven it would be a dedication to her idol. From listening to this album Brandy didn't disappoint. 

Now we know that this industry has clearly changed since Brandy was on top of the charts, so with this album coming out I was nervous because I didn't know if the music world would accept Brandy again. Also, R&B music is not in the forefront of mainstream music anymore. As I stated before, I was nervous but Brandy brought it on this one. Now when her single "Put It Down" was released in May. I had mixed feelings but I just admired her swag on the song. After a few more listens, the swag took over and I love the song. I felt she was giving me Afrodisac era swag. I understand why this was the first single because it caters to the young music market but still the Brandy fans know B-Rocka is coming. So about 4 months later, I was on twitter and Brandy tweeted that she has a song for the fans. Then "Wildest Dreams" blasted into my headphones. Brandy's vocals is epic on this song, this is the Brandy that I have been waiting for. I started tweeting Brandy is back!. Now listening to this song everyday, Brandy tweets again "Starz I have another track for yall". Then she leaked "No Such Thing As Too Late". Brandy again amazed me again with her vocals on this mid-tempo. I tweeted "songs like this shows me why Brandy is one of my favorite singers". I knew then Brandy was NOT playing with this album.

After so many people wanted the album to leak, it finally did this Thursday. And when I tell you Brandy is back, I really mean she is back. This album is amazing and on October 16, I will be buying 3 copies. Brandy deserves to have this shining moment. 

After a little(lol) background for yall, time to talk about this AWESOME album....

The album begins with an Intro that most definitely into the album. Then the second single Wildest Dreams is the next track so epic as I explained earlier. Next song is So Sick, I remember a video on youtube when she was playing the beat for her brother Ray J. Brandy was riding this beat with her vocals, which is her specialty. Then we go into one of my highlights of the album Slower, on this song Brandy has so much swagger. I never wanted this song to end. Next is another favorite of mine, No Such Thing As Too Late. Brandy is giving me the Full Moon era with this song. I just love her vocals on this especially at the end, when she hits that note, vocal heaven. Next is the club banger, Let Me Go this song will definitely get you in the partying mood. Then Without You gives me Apart vibe from Full Moon. The vocals are great as usual it's such a laid back song. Next, is the first single Put It Down with Chris Brown, Brandy has to much swag on this. Like I said, I understand why this was the first single. Another favorite of mine is Hardly Breathing the melody and the Brandy vocals are standout outs. Next is Do You Know What You Got Have this song gives me Like This vibe from once again the Full Moon album. Very sexy vibe song. Now to my favorite song on the album, Scared of Beautiful. This song speaks to my soul, when I heard this it brought tears to my eyes. Frank Ocean murdered these words and Brandy brought those words to life. "Scared of the truth so much more than a lie" those words hit home for me. Next track, gives me the Full Moon era once again. Wish Your Love Away is a laid vibe song like Come A Little Closer from Full Moon. Paint The House & Can You Hear Me Now are good songs. Music is an anthem for me because I love the beginning "I wake up to you and go to sleep to you" and lastly "I am lost without you". This song is my life. And to close the album she has the banger What You Need. To me this song is Brandy's message to the fans telling us she has what we need, which is good music. That's what I take from the song. But she also singing this to her boo Ryan. 

Brandy with this album has proved why she is and should be forced in this game. This is such an awesome album. She gave us the classic R&B from the first album, Brandy. She gave us the pop appeal from the second album, Never Say Never. The epic vocals from Full Moon she was SANGING on this album. She was giving us the swag from Afrodisiac with songs like Slower, So Sick, and What You Need. And lastly, this album is as honest as Human with songs like Scared of Beautiful and Hardly Breathing. With all that, Brandy didn't lose herself on this album and I want her to win on this. 9.5/10

STANDOUT TRACKS

Wildest Dreams

Slower

No Such Thing As Too Late

Scared of Beautiful

What You Need

Songs For Moment...Just A Feeling Part 8

Tears of Joy-Faith Evans

When I heard this song I fell in love with it. Now Claude Kelly used the sample from Aretha Franklin's "Baby Baby Baby". I wanted Mary J. Blige to remake this song so bad but Faith beat her to the punch. Faith did an awesome job with this song, it's so soulful and it's my favorite song right now. I listen to it everyday. I told Claude Kelly on twitter, thank you for this song. 

Listen to this EPIC song

Sample from Aretha

Where's The Fun In Forever-Miguel & Alicia Keys

Miguel's Kaleidoscope Dream is a good album. He most definitely gives you the Prince vibe. I like the whole album but this "Where's The Fun In Forever" is such a stand out for me. The song is musically epic with the drums and A Keys playing the piano. EPIC! (Go get this dude's album)

Listen to this great musical collabo

No Such Thing As Too Late- Brandy

Now Brandy new album Two Eleven is coming out in about 2 weeks and she has been leaking music. When I hear Put It Down, I said  "Brandy is coming with the swag". Then she came with Wildest Dreams, I said Brandy is not playing with us with this new album. The 2 days ago she leaked "No Such Thing As Too Late" I was in music heaven. Even tho Rico Love isn't one of my favorite producers because he recycles alot of his songs. But this song him and Brandy's collabo was epic. Brandy brought it with the vocals....OMG

Vibe with B rocka on this

 

Utah & The Drifters

The Drifters

About a week ago, I was listening to The Drifters' greatest hits and it brought back memories of the magic moment I was introduced to them. So, as a result, I felt that I had to write about that moment so vibe with me as I take you through that moment.

By now you know, I have gotten my musical taste from my mother. And during our South Carolina days, my mother use to listen to oldies and as soon as she started playing them, I used to run in my room and play Super Nintendo. During that time I didn't want to listen to that. I wanted to listen to Mary J. Blige, Jodeci, and some hip-hop. But as I would run away she would tell me "When you get older you are going to love this music, because that's what happened to me". I never wanted to understand what she meant, but today I get it. My friends and family know that oldies are my favorite.

Now this Drifters story starts during my families' South Carolina days when music played a big part of our lives. See my mother was going to college and my father was a truck driver. So sometimes my mother and I would go on trips with him. But this particular time he had this trip going to Utah. At first my mother was little concerned about it because she didn't want me to be out of school too long. But my mother knew I could handle it. As a result, Utah here we come. (Don't want to showoff but I was really smart kid, honor roll all the time. I would have like 25-30 days out of school and still got awesome grades....WELL enough about my grades back to the story....lol)  

The journey to Utah begins and my mother puts on a cassette (funny right). And this song comes out of the speakers.

This Magic Moment

Sound so good didn't it? I didn't feel that way then. I wanted my mother to turn it off. Now I couldn't run so I had to deal with it. I looked at my dad and my mother had him so gone with soul music he was vibing to it. Even if he didn't like it, he wouldn't say anything because he didn't want to hear her mouth. But me "mom please turn this old stuff off". But of course she didn't pay me any attention. So, the album continued to play and the more it continued the more I started to like it. Seeing that we had a long trip and my mother wasn't listening to me, I felt I was forced into liking it. As the album kept playing, two songs came on that I actually knew 'On Broadway' & 'Spanish Harlem'. The reason for me knowing these songs because the jazz legend George Benson remade 'On Broadway' and the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin remade 'Spanish Harlem' Check out each version

Drifters version of On Broadway

George Benson version of On Broadway

Drifters version of Spanish Harlem

Aretha Franklin version of Spanish Harlem

Epic right?? Aww man the original was great but even the remakes were great too. Aretha and George made those Drifters classics their own. So I asked my mom "so the Drifters made these songs first"?  She said "yea George and Aretha were not the first to make those, so many different artists back then remade the Drifters records". With me taking a liking to this, I wanted my mother to continue to keep playing it. By the time we got to Utah, I knew all the words to the songs. Sometimes my mother, dad, and I would sing the songs together. Awesome family moment! The song I can remember us singing together was 'Save The Last Dance For Me'. My mother would always sing lead because OF COURSE she knew all the words and me and pops were the background singers. (Doo wop pop pop in my Tamar Braxton voice) 

Save The Last Dance For Me

Aww listening to that brings tears to my eyes because I can feel that moment with me and my family singing this in my pops truck on the way to Utah. What a magical moment!

Fast forwarding to last week, I was on amazon and I was looking for music to buy and I came across "The Very Best of the Drifters" I knew I had to buy it because these guys played a big part of why I love oldies because of that magical ride to Utah.

Here are other Drifters classics

Up On The Roof

Under The Boardwalk

Fools Fall In Love

There Goes My Baby

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE DRIFTERS CLASSIC?? 

11 Years Later: World Trade Center Attacks

2 Albums/Music That Kept Me Sane During Trying Time:

Wow, I can't believe it's been 11 years since the World Trade attacks happened. September 11, 2001 is a day I will never forget. It one of the days that you don't like to remember, for example the day Michael Jackson died or the day The Notorious B.I.G passed. You will always remember the things you were doing on those days. But I am glad that two albums got me through those tragic times, Mary J. Blige's No More Drama and Jay-Z's The Blueprint. And with both artists being from NY, it felt good that we New Yorkers had to our home artists to listen to help us through the pain.

Now September 11, started out as any normal day. I remember waking up with me and moms still talking about the Janet Jackson "All For You" concert that we attended about 3 weeks prior. Her and I was reminiscing about the concert and it was the last time we heard Aaliyah before she died. So I finally left the house walking to the bus stop, listening to Mary J. Blige's No More Drama album. The album was released about 2 weeks ago, with me with me being a big Mary fan I was playing it non-stop. So, I get to school and first period began and my Electronics teacher, Mr Delfino always played the news. But this day, I actually paid attention to it and I heard the newscaster say "Oh my God that plane just crashed into the World Trade Center".  Now with the class at full attention, the newscaster says again "Oh my GOD another plane went into the second building". Now the classroom was so quiet you could hear a pin dropped. My instructor kept the TV on the whole class, we didn't even do anything for the rest of class. My instructor and I were from NY, so most of the people in the class couldn't understand what we felt. After the attacks, I felt empty so I took out my cd player and just played track 6, from Mary's album which was the title song "No More Drama". The song during this time had so much more meaning. While listening to the song, I was just thinking how blessed I am because 3 months prior my Electronics class went to the World Trade Center to check out the wiring of the building. Furthermore, my grandma just retired from AT&T after 30 years which was near the World Trade Center. I just started praying and thanking GOD that my family wasn't affected by it. but I prayed for the people that were.

So, the  school day ended and I remember getting home and my mother called me and said "Get some clothes for you and me and get to grandma's house, I will meet you there" Meanwhile, I had the No More Drama album blasting while I getting ready, by this time the album had so much more meaning. But these three songs were more meaningful during this:

No More Drama

Testimony

Destiny

As my mother got to my grandma's house, my family kept the news on and I stayed on the computer for updates. Then I realized Jay-Z's The Blueprint was just released. I went to cdnow.com and previewed the album. After previewing it I knew I had to get it. So I downloaded it. Alot of the songs had that soulful spirit what soothed my soul. (Yea I used Napster at the time. but I brought that Friday though lol) But during this time, three songs stood out:

Heart Of The City

 

Never Change

All I Need

These songs to me were uplifting to me because I needed music to escape what tragic was going on in the world. As a result, the whole week No More Drama & The Blueprint were the only two albums I was listening to. Furthermore, I want to think Mary & Jay-Z for releasing these albums at that time because it became food for thought for me. 

WHEN YOU TURNED ON THE RADIO THESE SONGS WERE ON 24/7 DURING THIS TRAGIC TIME:

Whitney Houston's National Anthem

Various Artists-What's Going On

Marvin Gaye-What's Going On

Bruce Springsteen-Born In the USA

WHAT SONGS ON MUSIC WERE YOU LISTENING THROUGH THESE TRYING TIMES??

My Top Three Soundtracks of all time

On August 17, the remake of Sparkle is being released featuring the late Whitney Houston. This was the last performance from Whitney Houston before her death. But if you are familiar with the original Sparkle, that included Irene Cara and Phillip Michael Thomas, it was known for the music. The soundtrack was done by the "Queen of Soul" Aretha Franklin and produced by the late great Curtis Mayfield. But I will discuss the background about Sparkle as this blog progress. I decided to do this blog because I saw an article about top soundtracks and three soundtracks weren't one it. So as a music lover, I felt it was my duty to write about them. As you can see my favorite 3 soundtracks are Claudine, Sparkle, and Waiting To Exhale. These three soundtracks displays soul and passion at it's finest.

3. Waiting To Exhale

This Babyface produced album is legendary. This album can be called the "women's soundtrack" because with this album all songs were sung by women. In my opinion, the soundtrack fits the movie. The movie was about 4 women that go through heartbreak and how they conquered. And the soundtrack does the movie so much justice. But the funny thing about this album is that women SANG all the songs but a man wrote all the songs. Babyface might have gone through this situations because he wrote great songs. Nevertheless, this shows that men can also relate to this soundtrack because men experience heartbreak as well. 

Now I knew about this soundtrack because this album has hits but I never fully listen to the album, I only knew the singles. Finally, one of my classmates in college was saying that the Waiting To Exhale is the best soundtrack of all time, I knew then I had to listen to it. The following Saturday came, and I had nothing to do, so I went to the store and brought me a bottle of a certain "spirit" and figured I would listen to this album. I think that was the best and the worse thing I could have done. This album was emotional so when you are full of the "spirit" it makes you think about your situation that you are dealing with. So, as epic as the album was I was in my dormroom crying on certain songs. But that crying show me that if a soundtrack can bring me to tears, it has to be epic. I was "Sittin Up In My Room" (dormroom that is) reminiscing. In addition, what I like is Babyface wrote each song for the right person, which the artist made the song theirs. From this album there are 5 songs that I always have to hear:

Aretha Franklin -It Hurts Like Hell

Whitney Houston- Why Does It Hurt So Bad

Mary J. Blige- Not Gon' Cry

Shanna- How Could You Call Her Baby

Whitney Houston/CeCe Winans - Count On Me

Now after listening to all these songs, they basically tells the story of the movie. The characters go through heartbreak and at the end they realize they could count on with other to get through it. I must say if you want an epic soundtrack this has to be in your collection. 

2. Sparkle

This album takes me back every time I see it the cover. This album was the first 8 track that I pick out of my grandparents wall unit when my mother and I moved back north from her finishing her college education. Now this was the time I started falling in love with soul music. So, me as a 10 year old kid goes to this wall unit and see all these big cassettes and ask my mother "what are these big cassettes?". My mother responds as she laughs, "I am getting old but those are 8 tracks!" So, I see Aretha Franklin and pull that 8 track out and it's  "Sparkle". So, I started asking my mother about this album and she explains this is the soundtrack to a 70s movie titled Sparkle. She then explains that Aretha's "Sparkle" was already done before the movie was done. Of course, I never saw the movie so I started asking questions. As a result, my mother rents the movie but I love Aretha's version so much more. I am not bashing the movie, because it's a classic but Aretha's version to me was more soulful than the movies version. And with Curtis Mayfield's legendary producing this album this album is legendary. Even though, I love all the songs on the album there are 3 songs that are my favorites. Even though there is 8 songs on the cd:

Look Into Your Heart 

Hooked On Your Love

Jump

Now Aretha was SANGING on this album, I know you probably saying why was't "Something He Can Feel" on his favorite list. See I already knew about this song so when I finally heard the album these three songs became my favorites. But as I stated before I love the whole album. Now this leads me to the remake of Sparkle, I was a little nervous when I heard that Whitney Houston was remaking Sparkle back in 1999. I was thinking that this album and movie is tough to remake so if Whitney was going to do it she had to do it right. Then I found out Aaliyah was going to play Sparkle, I figured the movie was be fine but the soundtrack still worried me. But when Aaliyah passed, the movie was put on hold. Then in 2012 it was said that the movie started production with Jordin Sparks as Sparkle. After I heard that I said, well she does remind you of Irene Cara, so I said it could work. Then I said the only person that could produce the soundtrack to get that soul vibe is R. Kelly, because he is the closest to Curtis Mayfield we are going to get today. Next week, it's said R. Kelly was producing the soundtrack. I knew then that this can be a great remake like Dreamgirls. I haven't heard the soundtrack yet but with Curtis and Aretha leaving that legendary, R. Kelly has some big shoes to fill. But the original has to be in your soundtrack collection. 

1. Claudine

Another Curtis Mayfield produced album, this soundtrack is my favorite soundtrack of all time. Not just because Gladys Knight is my favorite singer but with this album all the songs are my favorite. I remembering being 10 years old and first hearing this album I was floored. As I stated, me and mother moved back north after she graduated college and we used to listen to old soul and we couldn't find cassette with old music. As a result, someone told my mother about a guy that sells old music in Brooklyn on Belmont Ave. On Saturday, my family decided to take a ride out to Brooklyn so we can to go meet this guy. So, we went to Belmont Ave and we saw this brown van with this older guy. When we get up to the van, he opens up the van we see all these cassettes that included Tyrone Davis, Sam Cooke, Bobby Womack, etc. Me and my mother felt like we were in heaven. So my mother decided to get two cassettes "Claudine Soundtrack" & "Sparkle". When mom popped that cassette in I fell in love with this album at 10 years old and I still play it at 26. Gladys' voice on this album is just legendary. Since I have pick favorites I will chose 4 songs:

To Be Invisible

The Makings Of You

Hold On

Makes Your A Happy Home

Well I hope yall enjoyed my music journey through my favorite soundtracks, these albums in my opinion define soul at it's finest. Hopefully if you don't have these soundtracks, then maybe this blog can get you add them to your collection.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE SOUNDTRACK?

A Message From A Soul Brother:

 I have to bring a message to y'all about how I feel about the state of soul music.

R. Kelly "Write Me Back" was leaked last week, when I heard it, I fell in love with it just like I did with his previous album "Love Letter". With these two albums R. Kelly is taking a more sensual approach to his music. R. Kelly is known for making those sexual bedroom songs like 'Sex Me Part 1&2', 'Half On A Baby' and 'Feeling On Your Booty'. So, I took to twitter to explain my opinion on this awesome album because of it's soulfulness. "Write Me Back" would make soul artist like Tyrone Davis and Marvin Gaye proud because he took more 70s approach on this one. On his last effort, "Love Letter" he took more of a 60s soul approach that reminded you of Sam Cooke and Otis Redding. As I stated, I took to twitter to tell all my followers about this soulful album and to see their opinions, people said this album sucks and R. Kelly needs to go back to the freaky songs. Those statements bothered me and I knew I had to write something about it.

Now I have been a fan of R. Kelly since 1993. Even though he was with Public Announcement in 1991, but it wasnt until his solo debut, "12 Play" where I became a big fan. This album is most definitely a hip-hop soul classic that included a lot of bedroom songs but on this album my favorite two songs were his remake of the Spinners classic 'Sadie' and the sensual 'For You'. The way he did these two songs were very soulful, which showed he was not just a sexual artist. But R. Kelly knew that sexual songs were what the fans wanted. So, as his career continued he kept making those sexual songs but you can't forget about those soul ballads that included 'If I Can Turn Back The Hands Of Time', 'Bad Man', 'When A Woman's Fed Up', and the classic 'I Believe I Can Fly'. These songs were not sexual songs but they were all very soulful, which songs like these he is giving you on "Write Me Back". In addition, R. Kelly always appealed to the older generation with songs like 'Step In The Name of Love', 'Happy People', and 'Red Carpet (Pause, Flash)'. He made these songs for "The Steppers" that includes my grandparents era. So, R. Kelly has always had that 60-70s soulful sound. 

R. Kelly is now a 45 year old man his mind is not in the same place it was in 1993. Now he is not talking about bumping & grinding anymore he is making songs like 'Lost In Your Love'. In addition, he was going through a divorce with his wife after 10 years, he is not in that place to talk about the bedroom. I felt that "Love Letter" & "Write Me Back" are dedications to his ex-wife. In my opinion, these albums are just like Marvin Gaye's "Here My Dear" album. This underrated album was dedicated to his ex-wife Anna Gordy. This show me that R. Kelly can make GREAT albums without sexual songs but the songs being sensual. In addition, R. Kelly pay tribute to his musical heroes.

Fast Forward, Brian McKnight is talking the approach that R. Kelly did in 1993 making songs that are very sexual . McKnight has a song entitled 'Let Me Show You How Your P---- Works'. Brian McKnight is not known for songs like that, he is know for ballads like 'One Last Cry', 'Anytime', and 'Back At One'. Now McKnight and Kelly are in the same age category, fans of McKnight are angry because they feel that he should not be making sexual songs like this. What about R. Kelly then? I'm sorry I don't want R. Kelly to make another 12 Play album now because in my opinion, he can't be talking like that. Wait! R. Kelly tried to do that with "Untitled" and the fans didn't like because they felt R. Kelly is not in that age anymore to talk about sex and the album didn't perform well. We had new artists like Trey Songz and Chris Brown having that sexual style that R. Kelly mastered after Marvin Gaye.

During the "Love Letter" era, R. Kelly performed at the 2010 Soul Train Awards during this performance he performed 'My Body Callin', 'When A Woman's Fed Up', 'Happy People', 'When A Woman Loves'. He prepared you to let you know where he is today with his music. So, when you hear "Love Letter" & "Write Me Back" you shouldn't be surprised. So, when "fans" say we want the OLD R. Kelly back it shows that you don't want your artist to grow musically. Perfect example, Beyonce's latest album "4" was her best album musically but it didn't sell as much as "I Am...Sasha Fierce" which included the female anthem 'Single Ladies'. People didn't like the album because she went back to her R&B roots that didn't include pop anthems. Beyonce even said that the "4" album she will look back on and be proud of it. Now, that album didn't sell as  much as her previous efforts, but now she wants to make pop anthems like 'Single Ladies' again. Again, I feel like fans don't want their favorite artists to grow musically. But the same people that are hating on R&B based albums are complaining that R&B is dying.

R. Kelly in my opinion has always been soulful and with albums "Love Letter" & "Write Me Back" he is keeping the soul music alive since in this era we are so pop/dance based. In addition, when you have new school artist like Trey Songz and Chris Brown making sexual explicit songs, R. Kelly passed the torch and now he can make more classy and sensual songs. There are only a few R&B artists that are mainstream that are trying to keep R&B a float that include Mary J. Blige, Jill Scott, and R. Kelly. Artist like Anthony Hamilton, Calvin Richardson, and Kelly Price are not as mainstream as the others but they are making soulful music. Above all, I am glad R. Kelly made "Love Letter" and "Write Me Back" because it shows that R. Kelly feels the same way about soul music as me and feels it needs to come back into the mainstream because the pop/dance music is getting to much to handle. 

Check The Rhime

A Tribe Called Quest

A Tribe Called Quest is my 2nd favorite group of all time, but my favorite hiphop group. These dudes brought the real hip-hop. It was not about gimmicks with them, that's why their music will last for a lifetime. A Tribe needs to be put in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on the 25th year in the music business. With songs like Check The Rhime, Award Tour, & Can I Kick It they are considered rap classics. Let's rock to the music for a minute

Check The Rhime

Bonita Applebum

OKAY YALL FEELING ME NOW!!

I was inspired to write about my favorite hip-hop group after I saw the documentary done by Michael Rapport, Beats Rhymes & Life: The Travels of the Tribe Called Quest of the high and lows of the Quest, what the group was called before they decided to call themselves A Tribe Called Quest. The group consist of Q-Tip, Phife, Ali, and Jabori. This group came through a time when hip-hop was trying to become mainstream. During this time, the only rapper that was "claiming" hip-hop was pop was MC Hammer. But in Q-Tip's lyric from Check the Rhime, inform the world and Hammer "rap is NOT pop if you call it that then STOP". This group was just real and musically awesome. The Tribe incorporated soul, jazz & hip-hop and made it sound so perfect.

Now I was introduced to A Tribe Called Quest in 1993, with "Award Tour". As you know from reading this blog, I am a SOUL/R&B head, so if I like a hip-hop song it had to be great. Music stayed on in my house so the radio would always be playing and I remember one day coming home from school hearing this song. I feel in love with it. I used to go to school singing "We on the award tour with Muhammad my man". Now vibe to this classic.

DON'T THAT REAL HIP-HOP FEEL GOOD!!

About two years later I was introduced to the Tribe again, everyone watched The Wayans Brothers. The theme of the show was "Electric Relaxation". The song is so smooth because the group added jazz into the song, which made the song so epic. Now I know the show was funny, but I used to just watch for the show to hear theme because I liked this song so much. Check it out!

Theme to The Wayans Brothers

Awesome, nah I can't let yall get just a snippet, here's the full song...rock with me 

After this I was not introduced to A Tribe Called Quest until college. My homeboy Sheldon is a big hip-hop fan. So I saw that he had two cd's from the Tribe. I asked him if I can get those so I can listen to it because I next heard a full album from the Tribe. Sheldon is a type of dude that he wants you to hear the REAL hip-hop because he feels that hip-hop is not as real as it used to be. He gave me the The Low End Theory & The Midnight Marauders. From that day, I haven't stop playing these albums. The Low End Theory has became my 4th best hip-hop album of all time. (Oh Sheldon I know it's been 5 years I owe you those albums back, lol.)

The Low End Theory musically was epic. They incorporated jazz with hip-hop which sounded like a perfect marriage. From this album, I learned who Phife really was because I always knew Q-Tip, this was Phife coming out album because lyrically he was awesome. "Yo microphone check 1 2 what is this"....(yall know the rest)

Buggin' Out

Yall can't tell me Phife didn't murder his first vibe, even on the documentary Q-Tip said "when Phife walked out of the booth, they looked at him and said, THAT WAS FIRE!" Of course "Check The Rhime" was a classic, but the musically "Jazz (We Got)" was a masterpiece. The smoothness of the song made you want to listen to what they were saying lyrically.

Jazz

The last song on the album is a collaboration classic that included a young Busta Rhymes that was part of the Leaders of the New School, everybody remembers "as I combine all the juice from the mind". Rock to the first "Touch It Remix"

Scenario (Video)

 

THIS WAS HIP-HOP!!!

After listening to The Low End Theory I thought that these guys are not going to deliver another great album. So, I expected The Midnight Marauders to be disappointing. Now even though, I don't think it better than The Low End Theory but the Tribe delivered with hits like "Award Tour", "Electric Relaxation", and my favorite artist Mary J. Blige sample this song for her hit "Love At First Sight"

Hot Sex

I KNOW YOU HAVE TO BE BUMPING RIGHT NOW!!

Now The Tribe have so much more hits, but I felt from watching the documentary I inspired to write about them. During the documentary, I discovered that Q-Tip produced a lot of the Tribe's music. He grew up with that old soul and jazz and it reminded me of myself because I raised with that old soul. In all, this documentary made me respect and love them more. And that's why they are my favorite hip-hop group of all time.

More Tribe Bangers 

Can I Kick It

With The Zu Nation/Native Tongues: Buddy

Stressed Out

MUST WATCH DOCUMENTARY

WHATS YOUR FAVORITE JOINT FROM TRIBE? WHY?

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