Quest for hip-hop started with ‘The Low End Theory’

Spencer Patterson

Friday, June 20, 2003 | 9:26 a.m.

Artist: A Tribe Called Quest.

Title: "The Low End Theory."

Year of release: 1991 (Jive).

Tracklisting: "Excursions," "Buggin' Out," "Rap Promoter," "Butter," "Verses From the Abstract," "Show Business," "Vibes and Stuff," "The Infamous Date Rape," "Check the Rhime," "Everything is Fair," "Jazz (We've Got)," "Skypager," "What?," "Scenario."

A few Run-D.M.C. and Public Enemy songs aside, the world of hip-hop didn't really click for me until the fall of 1991.

That's when my college roommate brought home a shiny green disc by a group called A Tribe Called Quest. It didn't take more than one or two spins before I realized rap music might appeal to me after all.

Everything about "The Low End Theory" immediately intrigued me: the music's laid back vibe; the contrast between New York rappers Q-Tip and Phife Dawg; and lyrical content that ranges from pure silliness to social consciousness.

Beginning with the scratchy, bass intro to opening track "Excursions," the album successfully incorporates elements of jazz, both sampled sounds and actual instrumentation. One-time Miles Davis bassist Ron Carter even plays on one track.

Few discs start stronger. "The Low End Theory" begins with three of its best cuts: "Excursions," "Buggin' Out" and "Rap Promoter." The songs quickly establish Q-Tip -- known as "The Abstract" for his cerebral rhymes -- as a counter to the goofier, yet slightly harder, Phife.

A sample Q-Tip lyric: "All it is is the code of the streets / So listen to the knowledge being dropped over beats / Beats that are hard, beats that are funky / It could get you hooked like a crackhead junkie / What you gotta do is know the Tribe is in the sphere / The abstract poet prominent like Shakespeare."

The album's second half spawned two significant party anthems, "Check the Rhime" and "Scenario." On the latter, Tribe teams up with the Leaders of the New School, a short-lived New York group whose membership included Busta Rhymes. His contribution caps off the CD in unforgettable fashion.

The disc is also loaded with early '90s pop culture references, including Phife's famed jab at two-sport star Bo Jackson: "Bo knows this / And Bo knows that / But Bo don't know jack / 'Cause Bo can't rap."

Twelve years after its release, "The Low End Theory" still rarely spends more than a month at a time outside my CD changer.

If you're already a fan of rap music, you can't be without it. And if you're on the fence about hip-hop, A Tribe Called Quest's 1991 classic should push you right over.