682. A Tribe Called Quest - People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm (1990)

















Track Listing

1. Push It Along
2. Luck Of Lucien
3. After Hours
4. Footprints
5. I Left My Wallet In El Segundo
6. Public Enemy
7. Bonita Applebum
8. Can I Kick It
9. Youthful Expression
10. Rhythm (Devoted To The Art Of Moving Butts)
11. Mr Muhammad
12. Ham 'n' Eggs
13. Go Ahead In The Rain
14. Description Of A Fool

Review

Another great hip-hop album coming out of the Native Tongues Collective. Honestly of the three greats of that collective - De La Soul, Jungle Brothers and Tribe Called Quest - Tribe is definitely the best, particularly in the way that they could sustain more than one great album.

De La Soul's 3 Feet High and Rising is a masterpiece but it is their only masterpiece. This album, however is one of the masterpieces by Tribe. All of the bad ideas usually associated with hip-hop are completely disproven by this album, it isn't aggressive, no one shoot or wants to shoot anyone else, women aren't called bitches, the writing is in no way childish. In fact this album and the next Tribe one can stand proudly next to De La Soul's début and Public Enemy's amazing albums as true works of art.

The use of samples reveals a deep knowledge of music with a use of Jazz samples that is peerless and would influence the whole Chillout scene of the late 90s. Samples also range from the Beatles to Lou Reed and Mariachi music. Then the lyrics are the smartest and funniest of any hip-hop group around at the time. It is just pretty much near perfect, the only fault is the idea that they are maybe experimenting a bit too much here, some more focus would have made it even better, but they fix that in their next album.

Track Highlights

1. Can I Kick It?
2. I Left My Wallet In El Segundo
3. Bonita Applebum
4. Luck Of Lucien

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm is the debut album by the alternative hip hop group A Tribe Called Quest, released April 17, 1990 on Jive Records. Though the album was well-received critically, it had little mainstream appeal. The album did earn the band a devoted following, however, within the alternative hip hop community. People's Instinctive Travels was praised for its lyrical inventiveness and bizarre sense of humor, mixed with socially aware and literate message tracks. It is one of three A Tribe Called Quest albums included in The Source's list of 100 best Hip-Hop/Rap Albums of All Time. It also was certified gold by the RIAA on January 19, 1996.

Can I Kick It?: