The 12th installment of I Used to Love H.E.R., a series in which artists/bloggers/writers discuss their most essential or favorite hip-hop albums (read intro) is a fantastic breakdown by Dale W. Miller, drummer for Palomar, on a straight-up classic. Palomar released All Things, Forests (on Misra) last month to heady reviews (7.4 at Pitchfork among them). Miller takes on this album from the viewpoint as a fan but also puts it into a context of its effect on him as a musician.

• Palomar | Our Haunt

A Tribe Called Quest
The Low End Theory (Jive, 1991)

It was only when a friend of mine started playing Public Enemy’s “It Takes a Nation..” as his hardcore band’s intro at shows that I first tasted true hip-hop. Inspiring lyrics with groundbreaking production really set P.E. apart from so many old school & commercial rap acts of the time. Their raw energy really grabbed me the same way so many hardcore and punk bands did, but it was ultimately that same aggression that later wore on me in both genres. You see, long after discovering P.E. I started to turn into the person I am today, and the teen angst that had fueled my love for hardcore and P.E was fading away.

It all happened at once. I was in college at the time broadening my scope on music listening & studying the likes of Miles Davis’s “The Complete Concert 1964 My Funny Valentine and Four & More” and the Tribe’s “Low End Theory” fell in my lap, literally. My roommate recently bought “Low End” and when he read the credits stating Ron Carter was on the bass on some tracks he immediately brought it in my room knowing my love of his playing on Mile’s records.

Though not performed by Carter, the opening bass line of “Excursions” immediately drew me in. Like jazz, it had a heaviness that filled the speakers without anger, just power. Even within the first few lyric lines, Q-tip drew that same connection I was seeing between jazz & rap; “You could find the abstract listening to hip hop, My pops used to say, it reminded him of be-bop”. I knew right then I was on to something.

Q-tip’s delivery was extremely laid back, yet his vibe was coming through strong. Lyrics such as “I am a bona-fide, Not too modest and not a lot of pride, Soon to have a ride and a home to reside, If my momma is sick I’m by her bedside”, shows he had quite a mature outlook at such a young age yet still managed to keep it fresh. His co-MC Phife Dawg was a bit more energetic, but never stepped over the tone that was set from both the music and Q-tip. Phife’s lyrics showed his age a bit more by speaking of all the girls that he “Used ta love ’em, leave ’em, skeeze ’em, tease ’em”, but you still never felt like you were hanging at a frat party.

“Beats that are hard, beats that are funky, It could get you hooked like a crackhead junkie”. This album paved the way not only for Guru’s obviously jazz influenced 1993 record “Jazzmatazz Volume 1”, in which he had the entire Blue Note catalog at his disposal, but it also set the tone for the entire genre of trip-hop that was to follow a few years later in Europe. Even the collaboration between the Antipop Consortium and avant jazz pianist Matthew Shipp on their 2003 album shows obvious influence from “Low End Theory”. I personally remember spending countless hours repeating those footy kick drum patterns from “Low End” over and over again until I got them to swing.

The jazz flavored upright bass and hypnotic drum patterns were the key to this whole record. But as the album ends, Tribe decided to make an immediate left turn, letting you know there is still a good time to be had. “Scenario” was the hit off the album and the theme song to many people’s house parties that fall. Though the album dates itself a bit by talking about the obsolete usage of pagers and what “Bo Knows”, the overall production and message continue to be relevant today.

• A Tribe Called Quest | Excursions

BONUS:

• A Tribe Called Quest | Scenario (Young Nation Mix)

To be honest, I’m surprised it took 11 installments of I Used to Love H.E.R., a series in which artists/bloggers/writers discuss their most essential or favorite hip-hop albums (read intro), for someone to write about this album. But I’m more than pleased to hand over a post to Tony Sevener, drummer/beats programmer of San Francisco trio Honeycut, whose LP, The Day I Turned to Glass, was released on Quannum last year. (Read previous post.)

• Honeycut | Shadows

De La Soul
3 Feet High and Rising (Tommy Boy, 1989)

One of the most important (and favorite) hip-hop albums in my collection is De La Soul’s 3 Feet High and Rising. At the time of its release (1989), sampling had already taken over as the method-of-choice for hip-hop production. Hot producers of the time were pilfering every James Brown breakbeat known to man, and for the most part, the art of sampling hadn’t strayed too far from James and other “classic” funk breaks. Rhyme styles of the time were still largely bragadocious, and in the wake of Run DMC and LL Cool J a few years earlier, it seemed that MC’s were all trying to out-yell each other.

Enter: De La Soul.

From the second you approach the album cover to 3 Feet High you get the hint that this rap album is a horse of a different color … literally – day glo! Florescent flowers replaced the usual tough-guy posturing seen on rap record covers. Leather medallions replaced the obligatory dookie gold ropes of the time. And asymmetrical dread styles replaced…well, any orthodox hairdo I’d ever seen.

Once you dropped the needle on the record, your suspicion that this was something new was quickly confirmed. The first surprise was something that has now become commonplace on rap records – the skit (a hip hop facet pioneered on this album.) “Hey all you kids out there, welcome to 3 Feet High and Rising”… you were suddenly in the middle of a wacky game show, complete with nerdy host, and idiotic sounding contestants. It’s immediately apparent that these guys have a sense of humor – an odd one at that. Then the first track kicks in – a Led Zeppelin break sampled by way of Double Dee & Steinski’s Lesson 3. “The Magic Number” hits you over the head with a fat beat coupled with a vibe and lyrics that sound more influenced by Sesame Street than The Juice Crew. Track after track, the genius of producer Prince Paul is revealed to you thorough multi-layered sample collages which broke down the boundaries of what was then considered “sample-able.” Hall & Oates, The Turtles, Johnny Cash, Schoolhouse Rock, bits of French language instruction records, were all digested into a most unexpected sampledelic stew. Not only what was sampled, but how they were incorporated was next level.

As playful as the tracks and cuts (courtesy of PA Pasemaster Mase) were, so followed the rhymes conducted by Posdnous, and Trugoy. No LL-style yelling going on here. Their style was a sing-song, limerick-like flow that had yet to be heard in the rap arena. Although fun and funny, they were also smartly constructed, full of inside jokes and cryptic brilliance sometimes only revealed after a few swipes at the rewind button.

Surprisingly, the first track I heard from 3 Feet High and Rising was not the P-Funk inspired hit “Me, Myself and I.” I first heard the track “Eye Know” which dared to blend a Steely Dan’s hit “Peg”, Otis Redding’s “Sitting On The Dock of the Bay”, and thick Sly Stone break, with the MC’s spitting game to a girl in a manner which I’d never heard (and probably never will again). Growing up in the ‘70s, I knew Steely Dan’s “Peg” all too well, and when I heard this track, I bugged the f*** out! I couldn’t believe they had the balls to sample something this … soft (for lack of a better term). It was the complete opposite of what most hip-hop artists were trying to achieve at the time … and THAT’s genius. This track had me running to the store the same day to cop the record.

Front to back, De La’s debut is one of the biggest musical coups in hip-hop that I can remember. It, with one fell swoop, broadened the scope of rap music tenfold. The artistic door, which was slightly ajar, was now kicked wide open. It now seemed like anything was possible. It was not unlike a hip-hop Sgt. Pepper. Writing this piece makes me smile and long for those days a little. The days when it seemed like anything might happen. The days when people still valued something so sorely missing from much of today’s hip-hop … originality.

• De La Soul | Eye Know

BONUS:

• De La Soul | Eye Know (The Kiss Mix)

Related:
De La Soul: 3 Feet High and Rising (video press kit).