taking sides: a tribe called quest vs. de la soul

OK, from what I know of these people - superficiality alert:

ATCQ - incredible legends of hip-hop which like 95% of people in Britain who do know them I know only for "Can U Kick It?". "Can U Kick It?" however is glorious.

De La Soul - "3 Feet High...." was notable for being the only hip-hop record (apart from "License To Ill" which was not being listened to for its dope beats) to make it through the classic rock cordon around my school. I hated the people who liked it therefore I hated it. I don't hate it any more obviously. The singles are plainly terrific and I like whatever else I've heard by them so in the absence of an informed opinion I'll say De La.

Friend of mine met them at a radio station where they were being interviewed whilst on tour promoting 3 FEET HIGH, an album of course hailed as revelatory/seminal/etc for its gentle, mature imagery. Conversation went something like this: De La Soul: "Where's the fucking pussy at?" Friend: "Eh? I thought you guys were all peace and love." De La Soul: "Fuck that shit! That's record company shit! They made us do that shit! Where's the fucking pussy at?!" Still amused by that.

De La is great and I will always treasure _De La Soul Is Dead_, but album for album the Tribe is the better deal, IMO.

But Jesus, I have to think hip-hop fans of any stripe would find much to love on any of those 3 releases, so go out and buy them if you haven't. The Tribe production in particular is much more stripped down and less sophisticated than what is happening today, but it still has its charms. "Overrated"? Perhaps, yes, Tribe in particular are revered so much by indie hip-hop types today that it can be hard to see their true worth. But those three are just great records.

Tribe: Low End Theory, "I Left My Wallet in El Segundo"

It's a tie, though both ARE overrated, yes.

Why not De La Soul - partly cos my little sister got their first (being very honest here!) and partly because they seemed more hippie, rocky, indy... I need to go back to them though obviously.

Around then I liked the Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy more than both…

Now my buddy, don't you know that drive me nutty, Not too skinny and not too chubby, soft like silly putty...

Yes, it's fantastic (it's called "Flyin' High in the Brooklyn Sky") -- I've never heard anything quite like it. The DPs second album, Blowout Comb, always sounded a little like the hip-hop version of Bitches Brew to me, if that makes sense. But "Flyin' High" points to something totally different...it sounds almost cinematic to me, full of flashing lights and jump-cuts, with a groove that sounds (to me) like the best of all possible blaxploitation soundtracks. And then you add Lester Bowie and Wah Wah Watson to that...! I wish we'd gotten a third album out of them -- if it was anything like this track, it'd be an instant classic.

That being said, I think the Jungle Brothers' wrongly ignored and vastly underrated "J Beez Wit the Remedy" singlehandedly puts them above De La and Tribe both. That record is AMAZING - dense, varied, alternately sobering and funny, thick, sonic headfuckery, nothin like it before, lots of things like it since (Anti-Pop Consortium, for example).

Blow Out Comb is also rightly praised in this thread. Fantastic, overlooked record. Just listened to it the other day - the logical extension of "Low End Theory", only yes more cinematic (maybe that's the "Shaft" orchestral breaks), broader in scope.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4pwKKJ5TJU