Midnight Marauders Classic Album Review

With an already prestigious resume in the rap game trailing behind them, American hip-hop group A Tribe Called Quest shocked the world in 1993 with the release of their third official studio album Midnight Marauders. Rapper and leading act of the group Q-tip spearheads the production of the album along with producer Skeff Anselm and rapper Professor Larger. The final record would be a coalition of sounds and elements ranging from hip-hop and jazz. We hear this formulation best through tracks like “Electric Relaxation”, “God Lives Through”, and “Lyrics to Go.”

Tribe’s third, and arguably best project would gain mass commercial success as it transcended the realm of hip-hop and blew into the mainstream world in a way that Tribe’s contemporaries were not able to accomplish. The lack of features fail to weaken the project as the group once again proves to carry their own weight musically. Although, there are a number of artists from this era that would have potentially fit like gloves on a collaboration in this record. Despite this, Ali Shaheed Muhammad, Q-tip, and Co-MC Phife Dawg and still hit the nail on every track lyrically and stylistically. Midnight Marauders is one of the most timeless records I’ve heard and provides a kind of substance that their projects before and after although classics, could not emulate.

Rating: 4.5 Stars

Highlights: Oh my God, Electric Relaxation, Award Tour