People's Instinctive Travels And The Paths Of Rhythm - Tribe Called Quest

A Tribe Called Quest made their breakthrough on the Hip Hop world as they followed closely behind De La Soul with their debut Jazz Rap offering, “People’s Instinctive Travels And Paths Of Rhythm” in 1990. It found that Phife Dawg, Q-Tip, Jarobi White and Mr. Muhammad were led (at the time) by DJ Red Alert and came with some highly-influential work which would act as a complete opposite to the rise of Gangsta rap at the time.

1. “Push ...
...lengthy track, in which they take the time to set up and establish the atmosphere for the album and give some sort of indication where they are going with it all and how it seems to conflict with all the popular sounds of the time. Q-Tip kicks the first flows here and of course it gives a great lift as you have his fresh flows that showing that they are here to represent the side which supports Afrocentricity, but does so without the militant style ... more

A Tribe Called Quest made their breakthrough on the Hip Hop world as they followed closely behind De La Soul with their debut Jazz Rap offering, “People’s Instinctive Travels And Paths Of Rhythm” in 1990. It found that Phife Dawg, Q-Tip, Jarobi White and Mr. Muhammad were led (at the time) by DJ Red Alert and came with some highly-influential work which would act as a complete opposite to the rise of Gangsta rap at the time.

1. “Push It Along”

The album begins with a lengthy track, in which they take the time to set up and establish the atmosphere for the album and give some sort of indication where they are going with it all and how it seems to conflict with all the popular sounds of the time. Q-Tip kicks the first flows here and of course it gives a great lift as you have his fresh flows that showing that they are here to represent the side which supports Afrocentricity, but does so without the militant style of Public Enemy, X-Clan and the others.

**Five Stars**

2. “Luck of Lucien”

Amongst the samples used here, you have some material from The Beatles, and personally I felt tha it was perfect in showing just how alternative they are as they jump into this popular joint where they are seen to get down to one where they make the most out of the backing production to push them along and give them guidance in how they should approach and deliver their lines in a laid-back and calming manner.

**Five Stars**

3. “After Hours”

This one takes on some classic Funk from the seventies and I felt that this was just what was needed here to guide them along as they use these as the foundations and advance on from this with their killer Hip Hop beats to show just what the East Coast was killing it with at this influential time. The rhymes are fresh and they do just what they need to in showing how they differ form others out there.

**Five Stars**

4. “Footprints”

A little Stevie Wonder is amongst the hosen samples in this composition here as they get down to one where they stick to the floaty, calm music which really takes on the sort of things which De La Soul brought, but they use it in a way which shows that they have the capabilities to tame all the experimental elements to come up with something which is bound to appeal to wider audience as it sounds much more refined.

**Five Stars**

5. “I left My Wallet In El Segundo”

This was one of the big singles from the album and it really shows just how far they sounded from the general sounds of the time as they get into a tune which takes you on a trippy journey. It is a killer cut from them and does its job well as it takes you right in and uses all its elements to compliment the strengths of Tip’s storytelling abilities and just how Slick Rick has influenced what you get here from the music.

**Five Stars**

6. “Pubic Enemy”

DJ Red Alert features in this one to add to things as they get into on which seems to move on the music a bit as they choose that its about time to try out much more experimental work and show just how creative they can be as they do things which no others in the game would have dared to have done up to that time. The flow are just too much, and show the amazing skills of the MCs in how they can work on more than one level at any one time.

**Five Stars**

7. “Bonita Applebum”
This was their debut single and a tune which is quite clearly amongst the best which they throw down on the album as they get into a laid=back one where they show how they really don’t need to put in that much effort to fill up the bars in order to come up with great results as they rhyme towards the girls who do it for them. It uses a sample which would be famously used as a hype lick on The Fugees cover of “Killing Me Softly”.

**Five Stars**

8. “Can I Kick It?”

This one is perhaps the most well-known single from the album and it sees that they kick a heavy joint which uses their jazziness to its full potential as they get down to a tune which uses all the trends of the time and does a very straigh0tforward tune which is made much more complex through the sampling and the way that Q-Tip (in particular) adapts his deliver to fit in with what the instrumentals are saying.

**Five Stars**

9. “Youthful Expression”

This is a track on the album which seems to have much more pace than it actually does as the tempo of the beats is much higher than what the MCs allow for, and it shows the strength of them as they prevent themselves from getting overly-excited by the amazing composition which they come up with in order to make for something which sounds just right here and is done to a high standard without any hints of sloppiness through the hype of the speed.

**Five Stars**

10. “Rhythm”

In addition to more alternative sampling (this time with a little from Grace Jones) this one has them taking on some of Funkadelic’s mid-seventies work and I felt that it really worked in favour of them as they went towards the type of music which people tend to expect from them to come up with a banger of a jam to liven up the listeners and show just hw well they can rock it for them. It is a heavy bumping tune here, and has them taking it back to the Old School (in spite of Hip Hop only really being ten years into its formation).

**Five Stars**

11. “Mr. Muhammad”

With this one you have a heavy cut where Mr. Muhammad gets the chance to lay down some of the grungiest work possible to guide the MCs along as they get busy on the beats and put in what they need order in order to help it out to make it as good as it possible can be. Some popular samples are used here and he takes them to another place here to show just how far ahead they are in the game.

**Five Stars**

12. “Ham ‘n’ Eggs”

More Funkadelic is used in this one, and you find that with it they take the job as they provide the main groove behind the music and provide just what you want in order to get listeners into a hype as they perform one where they show that they are letting down their guard when it comes to the flows as they takes the flows and use them to MC about food to show just how care-free their music is (when you compare it to others out there).

**Five Stars**

13. “Go Ahead In The Rain”

The Funk is brought right back with this one as it is made to be a prominent feature of the music to get the MC to a place where they can’t help but get down to some freaky rhymes. The subject of these flows aren’t really that specific, but I can’t say that this really made too much of an impact on my enjoyment of this killer jam. They do so much within this one and show more of their experimentation.

**Five Stars**

14. “Description Of A Fool”

The album ends with them kicking an album which really represents the thing in a positive way as they get into another killer tune which has them showing how well they can ride classic Funk in order to throw out something such as this. It is a fitting end and draws things to a relevant end as they do one which has them bringing lots of the early things to make what you get with this closing recording.

**Five Stars**

This is just a killer album from Tribe and I really can’t see how anyone would choose not to listen to it as you find that they drop an album which unites all music fans and has them showing how you can use just about anything to come up with up-lifitng Hip Hop material. There are no weak points at all and I can’t see how anyone could pull out a weakness within it. I have to say that I rate it much higher than De La Soul's debut and I can't see how you could see it in any other way.  

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