Low End Theory

Product Information

to further blur the line between jazz and hip-hop in an even more organic way than in the early '90s. Q-Tip often layered drum sounds on the album, using as many as three snare drums or bass drums to create a single sound. The rapping by Q-Tip and Phife Dawg could be the smoothest of any rap record ever heard; the pair are so in tune with each other, they sound like flip sides of the same personality, fluidly trading off on rhymes, with the former earning his nickname (the Abstract) and Phife concerning himself with the more concrete issues of being young, gifted, and black. With the album, the group is credited for showcasing how hip-hop was made before commercial success influenced many rappers' creativity, and for challenging the "macho posturing" of hardcore and gangsta rap.

To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average.I'm not certain if the reissue LP's were cut using the original analog masters or if digital masters were used.

Like its predecessor it combined humour with insight to show the world that 'rap' needn't be equated with the worst aspects of the American dream.The Low End Theory took Tribe to that fabled "next level" hip hop acts always bang on about by performing the trick every authenticity-obsessed artist most dearly wants to execute. The group wanted to begin recording the album shortly after the completion of People's Instinctive Travels, for which they still had to tour and film music videos. The Low End Theory is an unqualified success, the perfect marriage of intelligent, flowing raps to nuanced, groove-centered productions. The Jungle Brothers' Done by the Forces of Nature is my personal favorite album from the Native Tongues era. I have them both on CD and am not interested in making a straight-up nostalgia purchase if it turns out these records sound like complete crap.