A Tribe Called Quest

August 22 - 29, 1 9 9 6 [Off the Record]

*** A Tribe Called Quest

BEATS, RHYMES AND LIFE

(enja)
As A Tribe Called Quest join De La Soul and the Jungle Brothers with a new release after three long years, partisans are ready to proclaim 1996 the year the Native Tongues came back to join the crusade to free hip-hop from the gangstas. But album four opens with a cut called "Phony Rappers" -- not to blast the powerful gat-packing infidels, but to defend the crew's professional status against attacks by unknown amateurs.
In short, they only want to keep on keepin' on. For 50 pleasurable minutes, the beats are backed by the same kind of cool jazz samples that have served them well since 1991's The Low End Theory, and the positive raps follow the balanced "middle way" prescribed in Islam, the new religion of front man Q-Tip. If a few controversial rhymes were erased at the last minute, leaving Nixon-esque blank spots in the middle of some raps, the music covers them with a flowing groove that doesn't peak until the very last cut, the gorgeous "Stressed Out." The crew may not storm Jerusalem, but just watch that single storm the charts.
-- Franklin Soults