Twelve Most Influential 1990’s Hip-Hop Albums: Part I

Hip-Hop was born in the 1970’s after the seeds were planted and its roots sprung in the 1960’s. The culture grew up and branched out in the 1980’s. But it wasn’t until the 1990’s that its musical genre matured and reached its collective creative apex. I decided to create list that illustrates how diverse the music had become. These quintessential dozen paid homage to where Hip-Hop had come from and paved the way for where it would go…for better or for worse.

So, in alphabetical artist order, I will unveil the the twelve most influential Hip-Hop albums released in the 1990’s one by one.

Starting with...

-A Tribe Called Quest- Low End Theory (1991) feat. “Scenario”, “Check the Rhime”, “Jazz”
With the mainstream becoming colluded and polluted by super gangster fantasies, over simplified dance routine pop-tarts, or slick R&B ditties, Hip-Hop was losing its footing. The middle ground among the Geto Boys/NWA raw mold, the MC Hammer/Vanilla Ice pre-packed mold, and the Boyz II Men/Bell Biv DeVoe urban soul mold was A Tribe Called Quest. With their debut album (People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm) largely thrown in with various other colorful, loop-happy groups, ATCQ grew up in a hurry and refined its sound with 1991’s Low End Theory. The three-man crew had studied under some of New York’s finest (DJ Red Alert, Large Professor, etc.) and had clearly taken proper notes. The Jive Records platter resembled a groundbreaking sonic boom tinged with hints of the soul of their parents. They not only made the classic new, but also made them their own. Producers Q-Tip and Ali Shadeed Mohammed knew the formula well: take an old Jazz loop, add in a funky bass line, and top off with some phat drum machine patterns. But Tribe arrangements went steps farther: they brought in live accompaniments and blended samples from every genre and generation. Accompanying the instrumental canvas, Q-Tip and Phife’s lyrics were peppered with humorous wordplay but rang out the truth from a viewpoint not often represented in Hip-Hop at the time. These emcees were regular Joes with everyday problems and triumphs, not over exaggerated characters trying to over dramatize every situation. They proved anyone with the talent and the drive could make it in Hip-Hop without a carefully calculated glossy image or accepted stereotypical appearance or sound. A Tribe Called Quest made music for the love and fun of making music and not for the glitz and glamour.

Coming up next on the Twelve Most Influential 1990’s Hip-Hop Albums list comes a duo of bookbag icons. Got any ideas?