Midnight Marauders – A Tribe Called Quest

The three brothers from Queens are back with their third and arguably their best work yet. Midnight Marauders is a non-stop barrage of funky, jazzy hip-hop. that no-one has seen the likes of before. Quest blazed new trails in hip-hop with their first two albums Peoples Instinctive Travels and Low End Theory, which were the straight up bomb! This time out, Ali Shaheed Muhammad, The Abstract Poet Q-Tip, and The five Foot Assassin Phife Dawg have come to 'maraud for ears.' The meaning of the title of the album is summed-up by these famous words from the album, "Since 7 times out of 10 people listen to music at night... and maraud means to loot."

It's not easy to come out with an album that's 'the joint' and then follow-up with better product but, Quest has the formula. They get better with each album. There is something about those jazzy beats that Ali comes up with that have you fiendin' for more. Although every cut is a gem in itself, my personal favorite is "Electric Relaxation". This is a jazzy laid back track that comes off lovely, with Phife and Q-Tip trading lyrics about their plans with certain females over a tight soothing bass-line. The lyrics are on point. Peep the line, " I'll have you weak in the knees that you can hardly speek/ or we can do like uncle L and swing an ep in my jeep/ I keep it on the down low I keep it discrete/ See I'm not the kind of kid to have my biz in the street." Put your CDs on repeat for this one! The Dove from De La appears on "Award Tour" and The Large Professor aka The Extra 'P' appears on the track he produced,"Keep it rollin'". Yet another phat track where Extra P tosses in a comment in reference to his bitter-split with "those two DJ's from that other group." Make sure you check out "Sucka Nigga", "Lyrics to go" and "God lives through."  Ta' hell wit it... just peep the whole thing!  This is another all time great from A Tribe Called Quest.