For the 3rd rate we will be rating A Tribe Called Quest's discography!

The Lesson Rates A Tribe Called Quest, Google Form: https://forms.gle/Kh7RyJAdSEUaZYv68

* You will need a Google login (to ensure no duplicate entries) but I am NOT collecting email addresses. Also, I left it so responses can be edited after submission.

This rate includes rating all of Tribe's albums and selecting your favorite song from each. Optionally, you can rate each of Q-Tip's solo albums.

Finally select up to 3 artist's discographies you'd like to see rated in the future. Based on that feedback I'll drop a schedule of the next 3-5 rates when I post the final results.

This can be as quick or time-consuming as you want. You can open the form now and submit your ratings or spend a little more time re-listening to some of the albums to refresh your memory/rating. As mentioned above, answers are not final until I close the form, so feel free to go back and update your submissions.

https://digife.com

Man, Tribe was so incredible.

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Falcons, Braves, Bulldogs and Hawks

Geto Boys, Poison Clan, UGK, Eightball & MJG, OutKast, Goodie Mob

I'm a Marauders guy myself, but I expect it to be very close.

https://digife.com

Since most responses are giving the same score for each album, feel free to go back and pick which of those two you prefer.

My cousin and I have this argument all the time. I've got him by 2 years, so Low End hit me in high school, and Midnight hit him when he got to high school. I concede to him all the time MM is probably the better album on many metrics (lyrics, production), but Low End is always gonna be my favorite, not because of the hit singles, but because how and when the album hit me.

<-- Dave Thomas knows what's up...
__________________________

Jay: Look here homie, any nigga can get a hit record. This here is about respect.
Game: Like Gladys Knight.
Jay: Aretha Franklin.
Game: Word, I like her too.
Jay: Nigga...

MM dropped when I was a freshman in HS.
I then went BACK and listened to LET.
That definitely will frame how you see/hear both records.

https://digife.com

My timeline (born 1988):

- Discovered Tribe in either 2005 or 2006, Jr/Sr year of HS. Bought The Low End Theory. Didn't really hit me. Though I always loved Excursions from day 1.

- Bought Midnight Marauders a year later and really liked it but again wasn't wowed.

- Throughout college I became more and more appreciative and a fan of both albums, though MM was always my favorite of the two.

- Maybe 5 years ago or so LET finally *clicked* and jumped to my favorite of theirs and top 5 favorite albums period.

- More recently MM has climbed back up my personal favorite rankings and thought LET is still my pick it's probably the closest 1-2 punch of any artists discography, meaning most of my other favorite artists I have a clear #1 album but with Tribe I can easily see MM jumping LET in the future and back and forth they'll go after that.

To me MM is for sure the best of their albums. I would say People's is closer to LET than LET is to MM. I am tempted to score them 9, 9, 10 but a case can be made for all three being 10s.

Pretty much all of MM could be on a best of Tribe mix. It has basically my all time favorite tribe songs, People's has the second most of my favorite tribes songs then LET. I do think People's has the lowest lows of the three but the highs are higher than LET's high, except for Scenario.

I think I would take Luck of Lucien, I Left My Wallet in El Segundo, Bonita Applebum and Can I Kick It? over anything not named Scenario from LET. Excursions and Check the Rhime are right there though.

That said LET doesn't really have lows. I'd have to stretch to say Rap Promoter, Show Business and Skypager are lows.

I don't know if any of that make sense. It's really nitpicking but that's the point of this post right?

For the record I didn't get into Tribe until like 2002 so I listened to all their music to that point at once and lived with it all since.

When Phife is just rapping over the bass line to start the 2nd verse >>>>>>

Definitely agree with your People's highs, those are for sure my favorites, but I don't really listen to much else from that album. My listen a few weeks ago was my first full listen of that album in a long, long time.

Just put it on shuffle and jam out. I think the only song I'd be tempted to skip would be Ham 'N' Eggs but I've heard people say they love it.

The Love Movement maybe could hide in there but I think it does deserve it's spot below the rest.

Scarface talking about how much he loves Tribe and their first album will always stand out to me as a dope moment of one legend appreciating other legends, while the music they make is in completely different lanes. Feel like this video needs to be posted in this thread, because it fits what we’re talking about so perfectly.

https://youtu.be/0XTG_vu0Yzg

Didn't see it as an option for favorite song (not my pick). I know the Limited Edition songs aren't included.

I know I've rated the previous rounds the highest
But so far, we're literally doing discogs from my favorite groups
I suspect my ratings will be highest again
I didn't see any missteps from Tribe until the love movement
I think most will agree, and I don't think any of their albums are overrated
They are what they are and people were spot on in real time IMO

ATCQ is an interesting case study in my fandom
Somewhere around beats rhymes and life we started to hear rumblings of discord
Obviously, The Love Movement suffered
But I can't even rate the Q-Tip albums
The breakup pissed me off to the point...I've never heard them.

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If you can't understand it without an explanation

you can't understand it with an explanation

Their albums are rated properly.

Q-Tip’s - The Renaissance is one of my favorite albums since 2000.

I really dug that Kamaal the Abstract project.

But Amplified & The Renaissance are really really good.
As far as Tribe albums, they're both MUCH better than The Love Movement and We Got It From Here.

https://digife.com

i thought his first two albums we're unreleased and that the MP3s i have are demos. i know i liked kamaal a lot but i also looked at it as unfinished. i dont even remember that it was officially released later. i think if i heard about it i figured i already had it so didn't bother.

i did go ahead and re-listen to all three last week. i like a lot on amplified but it did have some filler for a lack of a better word. it wasnt bad but i dont think i would say essential listening. kamaal and the renaissance though are both great. it seems we disagree on amplied and kamaal. over all i say they are worth checking out.

we got it from here is great too so i wouldnt say they're much better than it.

Wait Up
Higher
Breathe And Stop

Those three songs together are killer.

Even though Let's Ride is solo Q-Tip, I'd name it as a top 10 Tribe song.

So yeah, I mess with Amplified a lot.

https://digife.com

classics - for me it comes down more to personal choice and memories connected. you could argue for all of them to be a perfect 10

To people like US, a record is a piece of history. A moment in time.
Most people don't get it.

My least favorite song on their albums is Ham n Eggs but it's not a bad song. I could definitely listen to all their songs without skipping. I think The Love Movement is the only one that isn't near a 10.

For me the order is:
Midnight Marauders
We Got It From Here
The Low End Theory

People's Instinctive Travels
Beats, Rhymes & Life


The Love Movement

I went ahead and made a playlist of my favorite tribe songs while revisiting the albums, it has 61 songs lol

This group deserves every single accolade it has and then some.

I think Love Movement is probably underrated. A ton of people shitted on it when it came out and, while it's not as cohesive as prior work and you could feel the divide between Phife and Tip, it was much better than people gave it credit for.

Beats Rhymes Life is even more interesting. Time was kinder to this one, as it was NOT received that well initially but now is held in high regard. My gut is Dilla may have played a role in both initial and current reception, but that's a longer post. I dug it when it dropped, even if the sound and feel wasn't quite what was expected.

<-- Dave Thomas knows what's up...
__________________________

Jay: Look here homie, any nigga can get a hit record. This here is about respect.
Game: Like Gladys Knight.
Jay: Aretha Franklin.
Game: Word, I like her too.
Jay: Nigga...

Results should be posted on Friday.

In total we had 31 people rate A Tribe Called Quest’s discography (a new high!)
Overall we collectively gave an average rating of 8.51 (also a new high!)

Results Sheet: https://tinyurl.com/tribesheet
Full Analytics: https://tinyurl.com/tribeanalytics


Discography Rank:

1. Midnight Marauders - 9.94
2. The Low End Theory - 8.87
3. People’s Instinctive Travels… - 8.42
4. We Got it From Here… - 8.16
5. Beats, Rhymes and Life - 7.71
6. The Love Movement - 6.97


Most Underrated: (tie) People’s Instinctive Travels… and We Got It from Here... (7 votes)
Most Overrated: Beats, Rhymes and Life (16 votes)


The Low End Theory v. Midnight Marauders *

Midnight Marauders - 12
The Low End Theory - 10

* I added this question in after we already got a lot of responses and not everyone went back and updated their response with this question.


Top 3 Songs by Album:

People’s Instinctive Travels… - 1. Footprints, 2. Bonita Applebum, 3. Luck of Lucien
The Low End Theory - 1t. Check the Rhime, 1t. Excursions, 3. Jazz (We’ve Got)
Midnight Marauders - 1. Electric Relaxation, 2. Lyrics to Go, 3. The Chase, Part II
Beats, Rhymes and Life - 1. Get a Hold, 2. The Hop, 3t. Word Play, 3t. 1nce Again
The Love Movement - 1. Find a Way, 2. Like it Like That, 3. The Love
We Got it From Here… - 1. Dis Generation, 2. The Space Program, 3. We the People…


Q-Tip Solo Albums Rank:

1. The Renaissance - 8.52
2. Amplified - 7.30
3. Kamaal the Abstract - 7.15


OKPs Who Rated Tribe’s Discog the Highest:

1. agentzero - 9.50
1. IslaSoul - 9.50
3. bentagain - 9.33
3. slackergoose - 9.33
5. blueeclipse - 9.17
5. Garhart Poppwell - 9.17
5. mista k5 - 9.17
8. Original Juice - 9.00
9. Mignight Maruder - 8.83
10. DJR - 8.67


The next Lesson Rates will be… Gang Starr!

After that, the next 6 will be a random order of:
Common
De La Soul *
Jay-Z
MF DOOM
Nas
Wu-Tang: Wave 1

* De La Soul was the most voted on artist (by a wide margin), however I would like to wait a little bit to see if their catalog finally hits streaming in the coming months and do it simultaneously with that event.

I think tribe definitely has the best overall catalog of the one's we've done so far. I think they will be hard to beat.

Only beef with the discog rank is BR&L having such a low score. Seeing as it has so many overrated votes I guess it checks out though. I do wonder how many went back to listen to it for this.

Top 3 songs per album, I think only The Low End Theory matches mine. The rest might have one song that is in my top 3 for the album and some of the other songs listed might not be in the top half for me. There really isn't a lot of distance between their best and worst songs though.

I have been wanting to go back and revisit Gang Starr so this will be great.

Good call on De La Soul. I think we should keep waiting until it is on streaming unless we get word it wont happen or a lot of time passes.

Good to see you are breaking up Wu. They're overwhelming for me so I probably would skip it if we did everything.

Edit: 1nce Again, thanks for taking the time to do these.

>Only beef with the discog rank is BR&L having such a low
>score. Seeing as it has so many overrated votes I guess it
>checks out though. I do wonder how many went back to listen to
>it for this.

I suspect overrated/underrated would be different if we had the results first and voted on overrated/underrated after the fact.

For example, I voted undun as The Roots most overrated but after the results, seeing the average rating was lower than I assumed I wouldn't call it overrated if we were to vote again.

This time around I voted BR&L as underrated and given the results my vote doesn't change.

Should be:

Most Underrated: Beats, Rhymes and Life (16 votes)
Most Overrated: (tie) People’s Instinctive Travels… and We Got It from Here... (7 votes)

aw that makes much more sense. thank you

They seem to spark discussion and nostalgia. Seems to be the sweet spot for posts here on this board over the last number of years.

I'm a little surprised that Midnight Mauraders came out as the group's top album. I personally prefer MM but for a while Low End Theory was my favorite. And it is probably the more culturally significant album in the scope of hip hop.

As far as the favorite songs rankings, only a couple of my favorite songs made the list. I guess I have ultra-OKPery tastes. LOL

But the songs listed generally don't surprise me. That Dis Generation was the favorite song from Thank you 4 your service... was a bit stunning as was the absence of Award Tour and Excursions ranking so high on LET.

As far as the overrated label, I guess one album (or two) had to come out on top. But I don't think of any Tribe album as overrated in the traditional sense.

Even though People's Instinctive Travels was my selection, I can't think of it as overrated by Tribe fans in the sense of say, All Eyez on Me or Life After Death. I've never heard a Tribe fan consider the first album as a classic in the sense that the following two are. So, since fans don't hype PIT as a classic, it never seemed overrated.

Thanks again and I'm looking forward to revisiting GangStarr. I've always liked them but didn't come along to Premier until long after the group's dissolution. So, it'll be nice to get a chance to appreciate his and Guru's growth over the years.

<--- Me when my head hits the pillow

I still think it's an age component at play, but it's impossible to go wrong with either album, honestly. That said, I've got issue with anyone that said LET is overrated. Y'all have to explain that one. For me, I ranked People's Instinctive Travels overrated only because I only found it alright when it dropped and people rank it alongside LET and MM, which, let's be real, it isn't. Not overrated in a bad sense, but something had to go there, and it fit in that space for me.

Really looking forward to the Gang Starr rankings. My personal favorite group of all time. I've had those albums ranked already, but want to see what the split is on their #1 and #2 album and why.

Good call on holding off on De La. I had most on CD already, and copped the mp3 drop they did years ago when they said 'F it' and posted everything online. Wish they did AOI #3, but that will wait...

<-- Dave Thomas knows what's up...
__________________________

Jay: Look here homie, any nigga can get a hit record. This here is about respect.
Game: Like Gladys Knight.
Jay: Aretha Franklin.
Game: Word, I like her too.
Jay: Nigga...

because I'm not the Tribe fanatic that a lot of yall are.

And even then, deciding between LET and MM was close to impossible and I spent the last few weeks listening and trying to decide. Gun to my head, I'd go LET though. For whatever that's worth, which isn't much.

Underrated...I'd go BR&L based on the amount of hate/dislike I've seen over the years.

Overrated...We Got It From Here...**ducks**...I just didn't hear what a lot of folks heard I guess. And Busta these days?....I'll stop.

and we're *here* regarding We Got It From Here.

Midnight Marauders was my first Tribe album so I will probably always place it about LET, but you can't go wrong with either