Covering Chris Brown or every step of this lengthy beef between Rick Ross and 50 cent isn't really my style. The only thing new with me and Hip-Hop is I've been listening to the 4th Tribe Edition lately and I got to think about why I dismissed it as bad at first and why I like it so much now.
Why I Originally Didn't Like it: I Didn't really give it a chance to be honest with you. Being born in 88' I was 2 when People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm dropped and I was more "Sheltered" from rap music than I am now. So after I listed to the first 3 albums in about a week, I decided to move on to The Love Movement, which was conveniently located in my brothers CD collection. I didn't like the love movement and I still don't, besides maybe a few choice songs ex: "find a way". The fact that I heard Beats Rhymes And Life was similar in critic reception by the fans probably made me tune the greatness of this album out.
Why I Like It Now: The album starts with "Phony Rappers" which quickly becomes boring rhymes over a boring beat. This sets a bad precedent. We are introduced to Q-Tips cousin, rapper Consequence who makes 6 appearances on the album. Q-Tip has 5! solo songs and Phife has one.
When I first got into Tribe I always wondered why Q-Tip was so famous while Phife was on the milk carton, because Phife always had some slick rhymes or would say something to make you laugh on the first 3 albums, though his influence grew greater after People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm. It's clear on this album, Phife is beginning to slack on the rhyme and the addition of Consquence should be welcomed by Tribe fans as he provides great verses on just about every song he's on.
Q-Tip does well with his solo songs. "Crew" is smoothly delivered over some nice keys while Tip raps about altercation. "What really goes on" will get you saying to yourself "We got the bump-da-bump-da-bump bump" for the rest of the week, but hopefully listeners won't ignore the knowledge kicked in the verses. "Get a Hold" provides smooth lyrics over an awesome J-Dilla* beat that no fan of either the rapper or producer can miss. "Seperate/together" and "Keep it moving" are okay songs, but hold no special place on this album. The same can be said for "Baby Phife's Return", which sadly is Phife Dawg's only real place to try to get some shine on the album.
The crew gets together for the smooth "Motivators" which features Tip, Phife and Cons trading verses and is followed up with the same formula on "Jam" which features the best baseball organs I have ever heard on a record. "1nce again", "Mind Power" "The Hop" and "Word Play" all feature variations of the crew and will be well recieved by fan's of the group or hip hop in general. The album closes out with Consequence, Q-Tip and Faith Evans on "Stressed Out" which sets a good tone for the quality of this album, though it carries a softer feel than most of the songs Check it out
*Note: J-Dilla fans, get this album as well.
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