Vintage Review: People's Instinctive Travels And The Paths Of Rhythm

 

Score: 5/5 (Hall Of Fame Album) | Released: April 10th, 1990

Written By: Anthony Seaman   

     Q-Tip was always a sleeping giant. Childhood days spent digging through his family's jazz heavy record collection, afternoons making pause tapes, and long nights at block parties infected his mind with sonics. Jungle Brothers gave him his first swing on the mic in a major way. Peering over the shoulders of Prince Paul and De La Soul as they created the universe melting 3 Feet High And Rising he saw the outlandish beauty that could come from friendship and left field samples. These three groups along with Queen Latifah, Black Sheep, Monie Love, and Chi-Ali made up Native Tongues, an incubator of afrocentricity and alternative hip-hop styles on and off record. They leaned into being side characters within each other's classic albums, gifting hooks, ad-libs or short pop ins that would make your eyes go wider than if they had a full credited verse. People’s Instinctive Travels And The Paths Of Rhythm, the debut album from Tribe proved that the crew could do more than just be weird for weird's sake; there was hits to be made. De La and Latifah had their own commercial success, but those times were blips in a career built off experimentation or laser focus on breaking glass ceilings more so than crafting perfect songs. While it was truly a village at work each album (Ali Shaheed Muhamed, Phife Dawg and Jarobi, and later engineer Bob Power, all carrying their weight in their own ways as the crew pushed forward through the 90’s) Q-Tip for the first LP was the Chief. People’s Instinctive was as much his baby as any solo rapper's first LP was. Those teenage pause tapes were shined up within Calliope Studios to become the backbone instrumentals to the project. Today we remember Tribe as Phife and Q running the perfect two man vocal operation on their 2nd and 3rd projects; Phife was an everyman looking to chat up girls and watch whatever the game of the night was while Tip was earning his nickname “The Abstract” with every bar. But the Jarobi led interludes had about as much air time as Phife Dawg's verses on their inaugural adventure. Q-Tip carried the load on every front, and succeeded like it was the plan all along.

        Before People’s Instinctive was released the biggest albums of the last year had been It’s A Big Daddy Thing, Road To Riches, No One Can Do It Better, Unfinished Business, and the much maligned but commercial smashes Walking With A Panther and Please Hammer Don’t Hurt ‘Em. Each project was full of crossover appeal, hyper aggressive delivery, or streetwise concepts and aesthetics in some combination. The Beastie Boys, De La and Biz Markie all were misfits creating at the same time, providing looser records where caricatures of themselves worked within near psychedelic musical confines. Brand Nubian, X-Clan and Public Enemy along with the slow puttering of Boogie Down Productions were still in the realm of political focus and afro-centrcity like Tribe but moved with a militancy that left no room for individual freedom. Everyone sounded like they were on acid, selling something stronger or just plain selling out. A Tribe Called Quest came together to carry the torch of their Native Tongues family, more mellow than Black Sheep, more concise than De La, more playful than Latifah. Those components weren't full melted down into something new all together until Midnight Marauders, but the flashes of it on their debut were dazzling. Tossing the “in your face” stylings of Big Daddy Kane and the Beasties for the mellow leanings of EPMD and Rakim, Q-Tip made being purely intelligent sound cool for the first time. Rakim, KRS, and Kool Moe Dee were as smart as they came, but all provided an edge that read “yeah i’m smart, and if you don’t think so these hands do more than open books”. What they held was the respect of an elder. Tip didn’t have that, rather he was the cool older brother. His signature nasally tone and slight frame put no fear into the hearts of others, but his words garnered interest on their own. In the album and group titles the Tribe made it clear that traveling through life was enough of an inspiration, and on these travels stories and life lessons came in all ways. 

        Mentions of 3rd eyes, afrocentric concepts, and safe sex brought lessons to young fans that didn’t sound like lectures. Where their forfathers drilled lessons into the heads of listeners, it came up like a late night dorm room chat with Tip. His natural charisma proved that it’s better to make someone want to do something rather than make it seem like the only option. Everything sounded cooler when Q-Tip pushed it. “Ham ‘N Eggs” is a goofy jam session about healthy dieting that did more for teenage cholesterol levels than the invention of the Food Pyramid. Chuck D himself sounded scarier at the time than any singular pubic lice, allowing “Public Enemy'' the song instead to become the infectious precautionary tale about STD’s in the time of a rising HIV/AIDS epidemic. As a pure rapper the tricks that Kane and Kool G Rap used to earn the titles of best living MC’s were treated as unneeded options. Today we see Sir Michael Rocks, Curren$y and Roc Marciano as kings of cool, making their daily routines seem unattainable even if all they did was smoke weed and buy some shoes. In this era EPMD had that style on lock, but had as much personality as the zippers on their tracksuits. Youthful ignorance tinged Phife and Tips voices, letting simple descriptions of a Frenchman (“Luck Of Lucien”) or the story of misplacing a wallet (“I Left My Wallet In El Segundo”) run like Harold and Kumar films. Everything was going to be OK in the end, but you couldn’t help but be surprised at the detailed turns along the way. 

     Jazz records from Grover Washington Jr. and Lonnie Smith became hip-hop staples thanks to this record. Each of these jazz giants gained new notoriety as the nerds clamored to the liner notes looking to find where these sounds came from. Generations of producers looked up to Tip and Ali as Gods for their odd metered loops and layerings. Pharrell, Questlove and J Dilla saw jazzy chords and basslines become incorporated into the hip-hop vocabulary as heavily as James Brown style funk horns or Led Zeppelin's bluesy rock drums. DJ Premier, Large Professor and Pete Rock had dipped their toe into these crates, but never gave it the space to breathe quite like ATCQ had. Everything was slower, the drums weren’t as rushed into one another. Each signature rhythm is as much about the space they didn't fill as the time they did. “Rhythm (Devoted To The Art Of Moving Butts)” had a tin snare, tuned up human yells, blank space and futuristic chords as the framework, while “Can I Kick It?” was Lou Reed baseline and scratches were accented with odd tones that seem like they existed only in the depths of the ocean. “Youthful Expression” was the closest thing to the sounds of their contemporaries, and Q-Tip was still nestled into his nonchalant core between organ stabs and uppity drums. Then there’s “Bonita Applebum”. Fusing RAMP, Rotary Connection and Cannonball Adderly into a perfect stew of transcendent sound. It was sweet talking at a party done right; full of blush worthy compliments, awkward one-liners, and an admirable coolness that works every time.

        Over 30 years after the critical praise and cultural influence have run their course becoming mainstays into the fabric of modern entertainment instead of fresh novelties, A Tribe Called Quest still stands as right of passage listening for undergrads and newly minted hip-hop heads alike. Kids rapping about very un-kiddish things in goofy kid-like ways is a blueprint that the Native Tongues patented for rap. The quartet leaned into itself as a unit more going forward, with Q-Tip still acting as head honcho but Ali and Phife grew into their powers in such a way they had to become more visible voices. Low End Theory and Midnight Marauders will probably be argued about until the end of time as to which is better (spoiler, the answer is Low End) but both never depart fully from their predecessor. Each is flanked with whimsy, centered on neck snapping rhythms, and the purpose of progression through life with new enlightenment everyday.

Best Song: "Bonita Applebum"

Best Beat: "After Hours"

Best Moments: Q-Tip teaching everyone that "prophylactic" is a word / The frogs on "After Hours" / The first Jarobi skit after "Push It Along" / Whatever THAT sound is on "Bonita Applebum", you know the one / The "Can I Kick It?" bassline / Verse 1 of "Footprints