Final Cut: The Fugees Vs. A Tribe Called Quest
July 27, 2009
You're flying across the Atlantic. Row 55 in the back of Being 757. Knees are sore from sitting in a seat in which no normal being fits comfortably. Some god-awful film has just started playing mid-flight, and you have a wait of about forty more rows until the stewardess arrives at your seat with that glorious bag of pretzels.
The year is 1996 and you own a fresh Sony Walkman accompanied by two albums: Midnight Marauders from A Tribe Called Quest and The Score from The Fugees. The girl who looks startlingly like Kelly Kopawksi from Saved By The Bell asks if she could borrow one of the albums to listen to during the flight. You couldn't be more stoked that she is absurdly attractive, listens to great music but at the same time...you're faced with a dilemma. Which album do you give up?
The Tribe or The Fugees? Who reigns supreme across the musical landscape if you could only chose one group?
Ali, Phife, and Q-Tip. A Tribe Called Quest.
Q-Tip, Phife, and Ali Shaheed Muhammad dropped sixty-four minuets of crisply bouncing, sample driven, oven baked hip-hop in 1990 in the form of People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm. Critically acclaimed from their first album, the Tribe's feel good brand of socially aware lyrics coupled with some of the best production of the 90's quite literally set the stage for their take over of the decade.
By the time Quest dropped the certified classic Low End Theory in 1991 their genius could not be denied. Rumblings of deep sampled bass strings contrasted with soaring jazz horns as Q-Tip and Phife light-heartedly threw boasts and brags back in fourth in such a familiar manner that you felt like you could hop on the track anytime you want and add your own two cents. On Midnight Marauders Tip and Phife fly back and fourth over tracks, trading lines and verses with reckless abandon and utter disregard for the fulfilling anyone but their own vision of what rap should sound like.
A perfect blend of intellectual prowess and street visions, the Tribe were as Tip stated, "Black intellects but unrefined." They seemed to be just as comfortable riding over bouncing drums telling the story of a road trip gone wrong on El Segundo as bragging about their exploits on Electric Relaxation. Classic track after classic track emerged from the Tribe camp from Theory to Beats Rhymes and Life.
The 90's were the veritable canvas upon which the Tribe exposed their genius in broad, and vibrant strokes coated in brilliant colors of soul samples and drums that kicked in ways that can really only be described as perfect. Their brand of hip-hop was completely new, completely original but at the same time somehow immediately familiar. There is something so positively right about dropping a needle onto a Tribe record and listening to the dense jungle of noise emerge fourth and surround your being. That feeling is what made Tribe so different and so special. However, you cannot talk about music creating feeling without talking about their counterparts of that generation, the Fugees take center-stage...
Wyclef Jean, Lauryn Hill, and Pras. The Fugees.
Children of immigrants born and bred in my home-state of New Jersey, Wyclef, Pras, and Lauryn Hill emerged from near obscurity in a flash of musical genius and mastery now known to the world as 1996's The Score. Combining everything from Roberta Flack & Bob Marley covers to hilarious hood-Chinese take out skits The Fugees crafted one of the best selling hip-hop albums of all time and received world wide exposure for their unique blend of lyrical content and soaring vocals courtesy of Wyclef and Hill.
The Fugees cannot be discounted. To this day you can drop Killing Me Softly at any party and watch the place exploded into awkward two steps and karokee-esq sing-a-long antics. The group constructed 16 tracks that are almost all nearly perfect.
Wyclef seemingly sits down in front of the listener on No Woman No Cry and pleads the case of every poor Haitian child in the world to the point that the song causes emotion to rise with every single listen. Possibly the best cover of Marley as far as capturing the same emotion of the original artist.
You cannot mention The Score without acknowledging the eery almost disturbing quality of Ready or Not . This is Lauryn Hill at her finest. Her pained vocals wane over the background 'hums' of a track that is impressive in its powerful presentation in every single verse. Even Pras does not disappoint on this definitive Fugee's track. As far as arising emotion, it doesn't really get better than this from the Beatles to Busta Rhymes. The track speaks volumes without every raising its voice, an exercise in artfully crafted music. Fu-Gee-La is amazing. I'm not even going to go about trying to capture that one in words.
The Fugees are acclaimed across the world for their mastery of the genre. Once again- the group was completely original in their construction. Their brand of island influenced hip-hop translated the plight of their immigrant families perfectly all while being intensely listenable and immediate for any listener regardless of their own background. Not to mention the fact that a certain young lady named Lauryn Hill would be introduced to the world in a most drastic fashion which in it of itself is a sort of an amazing feat.
So that is it. The gauntlet has been thrown down. The question asked. The field primed for play. Whatever you prefer, I want to hear what you have to say. This debate arose about on Twitter where the people were split exactly down the middle as to who was the better group.
FUGEES OR TRIBE?
You don't have to write a novel like I did but I want to hear what the people have to say.
Stay Safe-Phil.
A Tribe Called Quest.. because I'm on Award Tour, with Muhammad my man