Midnight Marauders is the Best Hip Hop Album of All Time
By Ruben Ayala III
Debates are something that is quite common when it comes to normal conversation among people, they range from politics to music and depending on who a person is conversing with it can be an interesting conversation every time you have it. Most people debate on the simpler things nowadays from movies to sports to all forms of music. Music is particularly the biggest topic when it comes to these conversations among people and it can span a wide range of genres. Over the last 35 or so years, Hip Hop has become the number one genre of music among most people and over its 40 plus years on the airwaves many fans of the genre have debated on a wide range of topics regarding the genre and the number one topic is undoubtedly which album is the best of the genre? Being a fan of the genre for most of my teenage years and early into adulthood I’ve gathered my own opinion on that topic and basically ever since I first heard it I always felt like Midnight Marauders by A Tribe Called Quest was and is the best overall Hip Hop album of all time.
Prior to the release of Midnight Marauders, A Tribe Called Quest was already one of the most revolutionary artists in the genre and in all genres for that matter. The group consisted of rappers Phife Dawg, Q-Tip, Jarobi, and producer Ali Shaheed Muhammad who shared duties with Q-Tip. They were apart of new wave when it came to Hip Hop along with artists like Brand Nubian, De La Soul, and the Jungle Brothers among others. After Hip Hop group NWA came out Hip Hop became saturated with harder sounding music and the West Coast sound throughout the late 80s and the1990s, but Tribe went away from that mold and created an album that would since become one of the classics of the genre with their debut album “People’s Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm” This album was unlike anything that had come out in the genre before at the point in 1989 and it started a new wave that gave an alternative to the west coast sound that took over everywhere at the time.
Two years later Tribe would release their second album “The Low End Theory” in 1991 and they further proved that they were one of the most dynamic upcoming acts in music. Midnight Marauders was actually the groups third album to be released which is something some might not realize. The album released on November 9, 1993 and thanks to two more than solid efforts previously, Midnight Marauders is still their highest selling album and sold over 1 million copies in its first week which is incredible still, but even more so at the time. It reached no. 8 on the Billboard Top 100, and was at the top of the R&B/Hip Hop charts, it also reached no. 70 on the UK charts. Commercial and critical acclaim is not the only reason that it is the greatest Hip Hop album of all time, but it’s praise definitely deserves to be mentioned.
One of the reasons A Tribe Called Quest is still able to be relevant to this day is the sound that they built which is built on Funk and Jazz inspired beats and the lyrical ability and content of the two main rappers Q-Tip and Phife Dawg who’s sounds will impress even today’s generation of Hip Hop fans. Most of their funkier sound that would be present on projects after Midnight Marauders were first introduced on the aforementioned album. Tribe’s previous two albums had heavy influence on Jazz music and while it worked tremendously the sound of Midnight Marauders took it to a whole other level. There’s not one point when listening to the album where you don’t catch yourself bobbing your head along to the beats and the lyrics. Q-Tip took a lot of the measures when it came to the production along with Ali and this album’s production probably introduced his tremendous production skills. Midnight Marauders could probably be released today and it’d still be a hit album. The sound of it transcends eras and it’s the perfect album in any era.
Another thing people take into account is when it comes to an album is its length. In my opinion an album with twelve to fifteen songs is the perfect length for an album and that’s just how long Midnight Marauders is. In comparison Illmatic, which is another one of the albums considered to be the greatest, is only 8 songs long. Midnight Marauders is the perfect length just taking just under an hour to listen through. It’s hard for an album to have every one of the songs be on par quality wise, but with Midnight Marauders it’s impossible to find a song you absolutely don’t like. All fifteen songs are superior and the only debate is what songs are the best on the album. You have the widely known songs like Electric Relaxation and Award Tour, but also you have other songs like Steve Biko and 8 Million Stories which are lesser known songs on the album, but still are incredible sounding in all ways.
It’s hard for albums to be considered true classics, but I can truly say Midnight Marauders has to be in that class. Most people beyond Hip Hop fans don’t give the albums from the genre the time of day and while not every single project is worthy or able to have cross over appeal I think Midnight Marauders is one of them. I would go as far as to say that a non Hip Hop fan would like this album just cause of everything that has to go into it. All in all, its all opinion, but I truly feel like most people that are familiar with both the album and A Tribe Called Quest could agree that this album is at least in the top five of the Hip Hop genre. Other albums will come, but I don’t see any other album matching the overall quality and experience with this album. This album will be a perfect introduction to both Hip Hop and A Tribe Called Quest.
