Beats, Rhymes and Life

VINYL FORMAT. "Beats, Rhymes & Life, released in 1996, came after what some consider Tribe's best output, Midnight Marauders, released in 1993. Before Marauders, came another classic in 1991, The Low End Theory, which was way ahead of its time. If you asked a Tribe fan to point you to the best album they made I think the majority would chose Midnight Marauders, it was their best selling, and fastest selling album, going platinum in 1995. I can't argue, Midnight Marauders is one of my favorite hip hop albums of all time, and an extremely close second to my favorite hip hop album of all time, Tribe's Beats Rhymes & Life. For Beats, Tribe brought on a young producer Q-Tip was introduced to named Jay Dee, who would later be known as J Dilla. He is credited for most of his Tribe work as The Ummah, and produced most if not all of Beats Rhymes & Life. Bringing on Jay Dee to produce these beats was the number one factor in creating their best album in my opinion. These beats had that classic Dilla feel, laid back, mellow sounds over head bobbing beats, perfect production and sampling.

For me this album reminds me of the summer I graduated from High School. Every pool party and 'my parents are out of town, let's wreck my house' party that summer, I brought along Beats Rhymes & Life with me, and crammed it into every CD player I could gain access to. It worked then for the same reason it works today. Anybody with a soul, and a sense of rhythm finds it immediately appealing, and it doesn't offend the masses with a bunch of guns and pimpin garbage. I thought about listing all my favorite tracks from this album, but that would basically be just an album track list. There are maybe one or two tracks on this entire album I wouldn't consider classics." - The Giant Panther