A Tribe Called Quest….it’s like A Pimp Named Slickback, you say the whole thing! Before Outkast there was ATCQ making damn near perfect albums. Fewer of the quirks or outlandishness of say De La Soul (the former) or Ultramagnetic MC’s (the latter), Tribe were the true masters of their domain.

Their debut, “People’s Instinctive Travels and Damn This Was A Long Title That Wouldn’t Have Sold An Album In The New ADHD Ritalin Addled Hip Hop Scene” was one of the first five-mic albums in the Source when five mics actually MEANT something. They followed it up with ANOTHER Five Mic album “The Low End Theory”. Then they went and followed THAT up with “Midnight Marauders” and I don’t give a damn WHAT the Source or anyone else says, that is their best album.

Then in the summer of 1996, the summer of follow ups that either had to grow on people (Outkasts “Atliens” for non-ATL natives) or were just plain disappointing (Nas’s “It Was Written”), ATCQ released “Beats, Rhymes, and Life” to a generally underwhelmed hip hop populace (of course these were just the appetizer to the TRUE disappointment, Snoop’s “Tha Doggfather”, but that’s for another day).

No matter how you slice it, “Beats, Rhymes, and Life” just was not the album Tribe fans were looking for after “Midnight Marauders”. It still isn’t, but what is honestly? They could have released Lupe Fiasco’s “The Cool” and it would have disappointed everyone. And so the album found it’s way onto shelfs and the backs of Case Logic CD books and gathered dust, sans the faithful few who would tout it’s underratedness.

On a whim, while in a musical feeding frenzy I snatched this album from a friend and decided today while making a powerpoint presentation to give it one more hard listen. Not only is it “not bad” it’s actually pretty close to great. There are a few “oops” moments such as:

(Will y’all fall off?) Will Laura fuck Urkel?

Well…uhhh…yeah and yeah! Unfortunately! Tribe won’t ever be known as soothsayers, their par excellence was speaking on the contemporary and well, they did that very well.

On second listen the album sounds like a continuation of Midnight Marauders, which probably contributed to the initial reaction to it. With a few years and the dreck we get handed today however, the album was quality. Just goes to show you that sometimes it’s not all about the first impression, especially when you take expectations into consideration.