A Tribe Called Quest - People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm (1990)

"Can I Kick It?" by A Tribe Called Quest


"After Hours" by A Tribe Called Quest


Jungle Brothers and A Tribe Called Quest went to high school together. Both started rapping in the mid-eighties. They shared classes, they shared a manager (DJ Red Alert), and they shared a worldview informed by their participation in the Universal Zulu Nation. They saw themselves as a tight-knit family and carried this mentality into the formation of the Native Tongues. The Tribe is the third founding member of the collective to be covered on this blog.

The band introduces itself to the listeners after the first track of their debut album. Ali Shaheed Muhammad lays the foundation for the Tribe as "the sound provider" while Q-Tip (Kamaal Ibn John Fareed, formerly Jonathan Davis) fronts the Tribe as the "top of the pyramid". At the top, he acts as the group's creative, intellectual, and spiritual leader and works as the liaison between the Tribe and other mainstream or alternative hip hop acts. Ali and Q-Tip were the first of what was to become A Tribe Called Quest to perform together. The duo sought the addition of another MC, Phife Dawg (Malik Taylor), with whom they occasionally collaborated. The collaboration would become permanent only after they recruited a fourth member, rapper Jarobi White, a close friend of Phife's. In the song, Phife is introduced as Jarobi's "right hand man" while Jarobi (the speaker) introduces himself as "the last but not the least, the least but not the last).

The group held influence over the alternative hip hop movement in the late eighties but did not settle on a record deal until 1989. Despite numerous, rich offers from several big labels, they opted to sign a modest deal with independent rap label (at the time, anyway) Jive Records. Jive impressed the Tribe with their dedication to their artists' longevity and attention to grass roots fan bases. They released their first official single "Bonita Applebum" at the turn of the decade (though a promo single was released in 1989) and released their debut album People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm soon after in April. While De La Soul's debut and Jungle Brother's sophomore album were met with raucous critical and commercial success, A Tribe Called Quest's debut was slower out of the gates. The album's sales opened light but slowly gained momentum to eventually be certified gold. Critically, the reviews came out mixed. Critics felt the album was "undanceable" or commended Instinctive Travels's experimental tendencies while reserving judgement on whether or not the experiments worked or not. The trend is that most people didn't know what to make of the album.

If you listened to this album and the two previous albums on the Musical History Tour, you might assume that all it takes to release a Native Tongues album is jazz samples, non-traditional lyrical content, and an Afrocentric attitude. Although these are honest first reactions, to pigeonhole the albums in such a way is to limit each group's individuality that really allow them and their work to stand out. Ali's DJ work sounds honest and fun and embodies the group's experimental nature, a sonic ride where anything can happen just for the sake of trying it out. Coupling the DJ with the MC, Q-Tip's lyrics share the same quality but provide the rhythm with narrative. Q-Tip tells stories. There's no grandstanding or posturing. Instead, he speaks directly to the listener to teach and entertain.

Here is the discography surrounding A Tribe Called Quest's debut album:

Description of a Fool (1989 promo single)
Bonita Applebum (1990 single)
People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm
Can I Kick It? (1990 single)
I Left My Wallet in El Segundo (1990 single)

"I Lost My Wallet in El Segundo" by A Tribe Called Quest


If you have any ideas for where the tour should go next, please give a shout. I'm open to whatever as long as the artists are historically related in some way and go in an artist's chronological order.

Pass the Headphones!!

Jungle Brothers - Straight Out the Jungle (1988)

"What's Going On" by Jungle Brothers


De La Soul were one of the leading hip hop groups from the east coast alternative scene. Before even releasing their first record, they networked with two other hip hop groups that would form the creative nucleus of a collective called the Native Tongues posse. The posse supported each other, toured together, featured one another on select songs and remixes, and shared a common artistic and political perspective of hip hop and life. One of the other two groups in the collective, a group that also featured on De La Soul's single "Buddy", was Jungle Brothers.

Decked in bush gear, Jungle Brothers expounded on the metaphor of the city as a jungle first introduced by hip hop artist Afrika Bambaataa and his Universal Zulu Nation. Like De La Soul, Jungle Brothers is a trio of two MCs, Afrika Baby Bam (Nathaniel Hall in homage to Bambaataa) and Mike Gee (Michael Small), and a DJ, DJ Sammy B (Sammy Burwell). With the benefit of famous local disc jockey DJ Red Alert being Mike Gee's uncle and the group's manager, they signed with independent label Warlock Records on which they released several singles and their debut Straight Out the Jungle in 1988.

Their debut, like De La Soul's, is considered a landmark for alternative hip hop. Their energetic horn samples colored the album with a jazzy tone while Baby Bam and Mike Gee added light-hearted, humorous, and politically conscious lyrics. Their rhymes spoke out against street violence ("Straight Out the Jungle", "What's Going On"), foresaw ethnic advancement in society ('In time, I see a better black reality' from b-side "In Time"), promoted Afrocentric themes ("Black Is Black"), and parodied hip hop's stereotypical sexual themes ("Jimbrowski", "I'm Gonna Do You"). Still, the album is light and humorous and never takes itself too seriously. These qualities effectively make Straight Out the Jungle a prototype to De La Soul's 3 Feet High and Rising which came out a few months after. Although it might seem unfair, the Jungle Brothers's debut has since been overlooked by critics as alternative hip hop's landmark beginning in favor of De La Soul's debut. However, 3 Feet is considered a more concise album with better lyrics and a more innovative style of DJing for its time. Besides jazz rap, Jungle Brothers also ventured into "hip house" when they rapped over Terry Todd's "Can You Party". Their debut met to middling success but they were soon brought to national prominence with the success of their fellow Native Tongues members.

Here is the discography surrounding Jungle Brothers's debut album:

Jimbrowski / Braggin' & Boastin' (1987 single)
On the Run (1988 single)
I'll House You (1988 single)
Straight Out the Jungle
Straight Out the Jungle (1989 single)
Black Is Black (1989 single)



If you have any ideas for where the tour should go next, please give a shout. I'm open to whatever as long as the artists are historically related in some way and go in an artist's chronological order.

Pass the Headphones!!

De La Soul - 3 Feet High and Rising (1989)

"Eye Know" by De La Soul


Since 2000, the National Recording Preservation Board annually selects a myriad of different recordings from popular songs to historic speeches for preservation in the National Recording Registry. Last year, Mort Sahl's At Sunset and De La Soul's 3 Feet High and Rising were two of 25 recordings chosen and deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically important, and/or inform or reflect life in the United States."

With their debut in 1989, De La Soul heralded an alternative movement that had been growing and solidifying in the hip hop underground for several years. Forming in 1987 when the trio were still in high school, the group consisted of MCs Posdnuos (Kelvin Mercer) and Trugoy (David Jude Jolicoeur) and DJ Maseo (Vincent Mason). Then again, those stage names are only one of several the group could choose when referencing themselves. With the studio guidance of producer Prince Paul, De La Soul's album worked against the standing stereotypes of hip hop. Their sound borrowed samples from non-traditional palettes (country and jazz) and extended their use from not only hooks and drumbreaks to "split-second fills and in-jokes". In attitude and appearance, the trio maintained their own style, promoting individuality, that stood in strong contrast to the burgeoning popularity of the gangsta rap trends of doo rags and bling.

While a gangsta rapper's themes included street violence, profanity, and walking on the wrong side of the law (aka the realities of inner city life), alternative hip hop held a sunnier disposition on city life, promoted individuality, and made relevant social statements. De La Soul's debut in particular promoted the D.A.I.S.Y. Age ("Da Inner Sound, Y'all"), a peace and love mentality that earned the trio an unwanted 'hippie' label. All of these elements put together constructed an album linked together by multiple concepts (a game show transmitted from Mars), featured an innovative sound that strengthened the direction of alternative hip hop, and highlighted by poignant lyrics with definite things to say, underwritten by positive themes, veiled by quick-witted humor. The unlikely popularity of 3 Feet High and Rising and its singles symbolized the expected rise of the alternative hip hop scene out of the underground. A rise that would not come to fruition (at least not then).

Here is the discography surrounding De La Soul's debut album:

Plug Tunin' (1988 single)
Jenifa (Taught Me) / Potholes in My Lawn (1988 single)
This Day and Age (1988 EP)
Eye Know (1989 single)
3 Feet High and Rising
Me Myself and I (1989 single)
Say No Go (1989 single)
Buddy / Ghetto Thang (1989 single)
4 New Remixes (1989 single)
Buddy / The Magic Number (1990 single)





If you have any ideas for where the tour should go next, please give a shout. I'm open to whatever as long as the artists are historically related in some way and go in an artist's chronological order.

Pass the Headphones!!

Mort Sahl - At Sunset (1958)

At Sunset by Mort Sahl

With his popularity as a comic rising, Dick Gregory more commonly found his name and work referenced in the papers. And of course, a reporter can't describe one artist without using another as a measuring stick, so Greg found himself being compared to his white contemparies. They described him as the "negro Mort Sahl... Bob Newhart and Shelley Berman". As the joke goes, Greg read a diversity of papers that included the Congo Daily Tribune. In these papers, he could find the likes of Mort Sahl described as the "white Dick Gregory".

Mort Sahl's audiences were highly educated college students and recent graduates who enjoyed his comedy routines in between jazz acts like the Dave Brubeck Quartet. Where his predecessors in comedy relied on solid jokes with deliberate punch lines, Sahl relied on a free flowing set whose topics came from the daily newspaper, recent publications, fliers, and the liner notes of jazz albums and were all littered with a number of subtle punchlines throughout. In order to get his comedy, not only did audiences have to have a certain level of literacy and knowledge of contemporary events, but they had to play close attention because jokes could come at any time. Like Gregory, Sahl's comedy routines took on overt political opinions, a natural side effect of using the newspaper as source material. He was especially critical of McCarthy Conservatives in power but didn't hold out on the inconsistencies of any politician of the day.

Besides being known as one of the preliminary figures of modern comedy, Mort Sahl also holds the distinction of having recorded the first modern comedy album. The album was cut without his knowledge at a jazz club in 1955 and briefly released by Fantasy Records. Briefly because Mort Sahl did not authorize this use of his material, and the record was pulled. Interestingly, his rate of speech was sped up slightly in order to fit the whole performance onto the record.

Here is the discography surrounding Mort Sahl's debut album:

At Sunset

BBC Four Piece on Mort Sahl and the "Cerebral Comedians" (slightly inaccurate)


If you have any ideas for where the tour should go next, please give a shout. I'm open to whatever as long as the artists are historically related in some way and go in an artist's chronological order.

Pass the Headphones!!

Dick Gregory - In Living Black & White (1961)

"Shoveling Snow" by Dick Gregory


Dick Gregory is not a musician, but he is an artist. He's a comedian, and both he and Chuck Berry attended Sumner High School, an African American high school in St. Louis. Now, I suppose I've purposefully broken my blog's bylaws by covering a comedian when it's clearly called the Musical History Tour, but I think I've always intended on doing so. Although I mostly cover music (and so far a very specific kind of music) and wish to branch out as far as possible within the realm of recorded music, organizing and connecting to artist's through albums predisposes me to a sort of foundational failure. I want to cover composers, for example, but simply getting to them through my system of connections is difficult. Organizing and sifting through the recordings of the composers would prove just as troublesome. It's already proven tedious with the recordings from pre-1957 folk singers I've covered so far, and they don't have their work performed by orchestras across the world. Foreign artists and bands are difficult to get to as well, and I know I've heard a couple requests to delve into the contemporary American and British music scenes. The system also sticks me in long stretches of "movements" or "categories". So far, I've gotten "stuck" in Australia, the punk movement, and several folk/blues movements; the last from which I finally see the light of day. For all of my system's failings, I feel it does open the door to all recorded materials whether it's music, comedy, sound effects, or field recordings (the last two of which have recently been possibilities). The thing is: I don't see where I'm going. I try not to plan ahead, and in doing so, I can use this blog to arrive at unexpected new places or old familiar stations. I just might not have given the blog the most appropriate name.

To cut a long rant short, one new place to discover is the comedy of Dick Gregory. In the early sixties, he was one of a small group of black comedians that began distancing (very quickly) their stand-up performances from what used to be considered black comedy, minstrel shows. He started performing stand-up in the military and eventually took his routine to black audiences after his tour of duty. His jokes could be about anything but almost all of them had an underlying theme of social justice. He made light of segregation, integration, voting rights, the Ku Klux Klan, his Negro Jewish friend Sammy Davis, Jr., and racist behavoir, but made the topics so personable, matter-of-fact, and funny that you can't help but laugh along. His comedy acted as a form of escapism for his black audience as they could remove themselves from the issues he casually brought up, issues they faced every day, and see them from an non-traditional and hilarious perspective if only for a moment.

Greg also made a surprising connection with white audiences as well despite confronting them with these same issues. In his words, he was "the first Negro comic permitted to work a white night club. That had never happened before because no black person was permitted to stand flat-footed and talk to white America." In his case, he talked directly to White America, made them laugh and made them think while pushing the contemporary Civil Rights Movement to the front of their minds. In 1961, Hugh Hefner hired Greg to performe at the Chicago Playboy Club. Soon after, he furthered his success by performing on Jack Paar's The Tonight Show, a financial blessing for any young comedian. After his success with growing and diverse audiences, he recorded his debut album In Living Black & White some time after his Tonight Show performance.

Here is the discography surrounding Dick Gregory's debut album:

In Living Black & White



If you have any ideas for where the tour should go next, please give a shout. I'm open to whatever as long as the artists are historically related in some way and go in an artist's chronological order.

Pass the Headphones!!

Chuck Berry - After School Session (1957)

"Maybellene" by Chuck Berry


In 1955, Muddy Waters steered a young Chuck Berry in the direction of Chess Records (his own label at the time). At the time, he wasn't a solo musician, but a member of a band. A band he wasn't a member of when it started. Originally a jazz and blues number, the Johnnie Johnson Trio recruited Berry on guitar after its saxophone player suffered a stroke and could no longer play. With the new instrument lineup, the repertoire morphed from jazz and blues to blues and country with a strong underlying note of contemporary R&B. Johnson (piano) didn't have the bombastic personality and showmanship that Chuck Berry did which inevitably led to Berry usurping the leadership role and the band name (now the Chuck Berry Trio). According to Johnson, he felt there was a greater chance of success with Berry as frontman. The new formula that blended rhythm and blues with country is the winning formula that most rock historians consider as one of the advents of Rock and Roll. The sound would meet the masses when Chuck Berry and his backing band (notice the change) recorded a country classic "Ida Red" but with completely revamped, youthful lyrics, an appropriate name change ("Maybellene"), and a clever re-arrangement by Berry and Johnson.

Chuck Berry's early life took a very strange road. He performed often in his youth but was sentenced to three years in jail after stealing a car while armed with a "non-functioning pistol". After he was released in 1947 at 21, he married, had a child, and took on a series of odd jobs to supply for his new family. He started playing odd gigs in the evenings as a means of making money. He was not the best guitarist, but he had a powerful style that he adapted from blues legend T-Bone Walker. He made up for the rest with his showmanship, his charisma, and his brilliant conversational lyrics. He never played anything too complicated, but that didn't matter because the opted for simplicity was what helped define rock 'n' roll in Berry's mind.

"Maybellene" met unexpected success as it sold over one million copies and peaked at #5 on the charts. More singles followed (all performing well on the R&B charts) and the next hit came in 1956 with the release of "Roll Over Beethoven" (#29 on the charts). This next hit helped propel Berry into a rising star. He not only sold out venues to both black and white audiences but his performances could also be seen on the silver screen. Disc Jockey Alan Freed's film Rock! Rock! Rock! featured Berry performing his single "You Can't Catch Me". In 1957, Chess Records released Berry's first LP After School Session. It did not chart and for good reason. The track list was made up primarily of Berry's soft B-Sides and lesser singles. What was more notable was what wasn't on the record. His three most successful singles were left off because they were recently used on the Rock! Rock! Rock! soundtrack. Still, Chuck Berry was at the forefront of the burgeoning Rock and Roll movement. "Hail! Hail! Rock and Roll!"

Here is the discography surrounding Chuck Berry's debut album:

Maybellene (1955 single)
Thirty Days (1955 single)
No Money Down (1955 single)
Roll Over Beethoven (1956 single)
Too Much Monkey Business (1956 single)
You Can't Catch Me (1956 single)

Rock, Rock, Rock! (1956 soundtrack songs)
School Days (1957 single)
After School Session (1957 EP)
After School Session

"Roll Over Beethoven" by Chuck Berry


If you have any ideas for where the tour should go next, please give a shout. I'm open to whatever as long as the artists are historically related in some way and go in an artist's chronological order.

Pass the Headphones!!

Muddy Waters - The Complete Plantation Recordings (1942)

"Country Blues" by Muddy Waters


John Lomax carried out the recording of Lead Belly for the Library of Congress with the help of his assistant and son Alan Lomax. The young folklorist would live to carry on the work of his father and work with and befriend folk musicians such as Lead Belly, Woody Guthrie, and countless others. In one case, Alan Lomax brought his recording equipment to Stovall, Mississippi and cataloged the songs of McKinley Morganfield.

Growing up he was known as Muddy. As he began to play the guitar with aspirations of becoming a professional performer, Muddy adopted the stage name of Muddy Waters. He tried his hand as a musician in Chicago once to little success before returning to Mississipi. While there, Lomax stopped by and recorded him on two separate occasions in 1941 and 1942. After receiving a copy of his first recordings, Muddy Waters would return to Chicago with confidence that he could succeed in the music industry.

Here is the discography surrounding Muddy Waters's first recordings:

Country Blues (1941 single)
The Complete Plantation Recordings

"I Be's Troubled" by Muddy Waters


If you have any ideas for where the tour should go next, please give a shout. I'm open to whatever as long as the artists are historically related in some way and go in an artist's chronological order.

Pass the Headphones!!