The Low End Theory

The tracks are all decent but it's kind of the same thing over and over again.

"Hip hop is living, can't yank the plug / If you do the result, will end up kind of bugged"

I'm a Big fan of ATCQ, and this is an album that I'm already very familiar with, and it's one of their stronger albums (though I prefer midnight marauders). The Low End Theory provides rhythmic, rhyming, stripped-down, jazzy, and catchy hip hop beats throughout the album, and has multiple stand-out singles with high replayability- such as: Excursions, Buggin' Out, Butter, Show Business, Check the Rhyme, Jazz (We've Got), and Scenario. Due to its funky rhythm and captivating lyrics, "Jazz (We've Got)" will be added to the playlist.

With a 50% hit rate on this album, I can't justify any rating lower than 4-stars. But because the album feels very repetitive (due to the same stripped-down bass, drums, vocals only that give it charm), it won't be receiving a 5-star rating.

4/5

Old school hip-hop. Rhyming is life!

I really like the Native Tongues—their clever beats, their proud African-ness, and overall the joy present throughout their music. This album is so solid throughout, and the second half in particular is excellent. I like the jazz-hiphop fusion going on in this record and the Busta Rhymes feature is amazing. Though some of the song structure seems simplistic by modern standards, I have nothing to complain about. And having read about the influence this album had on countless artists later on, I feel inclined to bump it up from 4 stars to 5.

Love this album

All-time classic and pinnacle of hip-hop.

I mean… wow. Sonically, this album feels so full to the ear, from the heavy basslines, the sampled drums & other beats, and perfectly placed vocal flows that I find it impossible to not enjoy this album from that standpoint alone, but...

Look, if Run-DMC made commercially viable mainstream hip-hop possible, and N.W.A. gave rap the blueprint to have the amount of edge you’d find in albums to come, this album is the perfect melding of both – the commercially acceptable sounds of jazz and great sampling that others would continue to try and refine throughout the decade, mixed with the type of vocal flow to appease the holdovers from the Sugarhill Gang-era who couldn’t quite get behind Dr. Dre & company, with a lot of bones thrown in for the N.W.A.-adjacent crowd. Don't even get me started on the ripple effects this album must have had on R&B for the decade and beyond too.

For my money’s worth, this is the best album I've listened to so far. It is easily the most deserved 5 I've given, and if we were going by 10, I’d genuinely give it at least a 9.75/10, if not an outright 10. I think, for my sensibilities, it's basically a perfect album, and I am a complete moron for not listening to it beforehand.

This is a nice album. It’s funny to hear, in a way, because it seems so anachronistic it’s almost sweet. It was a very different time in hip hop, the early 90s, and as the antithesis to “gangsta rap,” this is on the “conscious rap” Mount Rushmore.

That said, nostalgia aside, I think the chances of me choosing to put this in my current listening rotation is slim to none. It’s a nice trip down memory lane, but I’ll take my feel good dopamine hit and move on to the next. 3.5 stars, if it were possible.

*note: Busta Rhymes star-creating bars are always welcome in these ears!

Hadn't heard before, but really enjoyed. More "chilling on a beach in the sun" trip-hop than I'M VERY ANGRY AND GOING TO KILL EVERYONE MUTHAS

Halfway between Def Jam and De La Soul.

It feels quite samey all the way through, but it's pretty listenable.

I've been interested in this one, considering it's believed to be up there as one of the hip-hop greats, and it was certainly good, but I did expect a bit more. For instance, this is labeled Jazz-Rap, but I feel the jazz influences are very light, due to the simplified production. You won't be finding any interesting jazz riffs save for one or two. Q-Tip's voice and flow is still super tight though, and I really recommend you walk with earbuds whilst listening, and you'll get pretty into it. This one may grow on me in future listens, but for now, while I get the praise, I don't think I can put it way up there.

Cool grooves, but a little repetitious. I like the chill rapping style. Favorite tracks: Show Business, Jazz (We've Got), Scenario.

Almost unbelievable that this is already over 30 years old and still sounds fresh.
Relaxed and Jazzy HipHop, where the flow of the songs into each other is only rivaled by the flow of Q-Tip himself.

Dit album onderscheidt zich van stamalbum. Er is een professionaliseringsslag gemaakt. Alles is in balans. De rap is bijna meer een instrument dan een tekst. Daardoor prikkelt het wat minder. Het album kabbelt vooral lekker door. Het wordt achtergrond-rap. Lekker om bij te werken. Maar stiekem vind ik het eerdere, waarschijnlijk minder uitgedachte album fijner om naar te luisteren.

Didn't know about this album, first glance at the artwork, I was already impressed. Enjoyed this way more than I'd expected to.

Definitely my favorite Tribe album. I really miss this era of jazz heavy hip hop. As I continued to listen, it went from a 4 to a 5 cause it just flows. It's like butter baby.

All time great hip hop album, an absolute masterpiece

Another one of my favourite albums, and one of the best hip hop albums ever in my opinion. The instrumentals and samples throughout this album are flawless, particularly the bass and drums. Love the live jazz feel! The rapping is great also, and has a lot of variety between Q-Tip and Phife Dawg sharing tracks, and also the several guests featuring here and there. There are a few lyrics that haven't aged well, but not as many as other albums from the same era. The "gold digger" trope rears its head a bit in a few songs, and "Infamous Date Rape" starts off very well but loses its way a bit towards the end. Maybe men weren't really ready to talk about menstruation in 1991? At least they tried, I guess. On another note, "Skypager" aged poorly in an amusing way. Kids listening today probably have no idea what's going on with that track.

Overall though, there's fantastic songs all over this album, and it's both relaxing and fun to listen to. In my opinion it's the best hip hop album from this scene, and it's interesting to follow this branch of the hip hop tree as it grew throughout the 90s and 00s.

Butter is the first song that really grabbed me this morning. Their instrumentation and sampling is almost jazz like. I don't really care about their lyrics, a lot of them feel very static, with sort of dead end end rhyming schemes.