Since the late 80s, iconic rap quartet A Tribe Called Quest has captivated Hip Hop listeners who still rabidly debate the merits of the veteran rap group’s second album. Released in September of 1991, The Low End Theory ushered in a more aggressive sound for the crew – going away from the sample loop heavy offerings of their debut People’s Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm.
Whereas the preceding album managed to highlight front man Q-Tip as the face of Tribe, Low End was fellow microphone rocker Phife Dawg’s coming out party. With their 1-2 punch solidified in the annals of rap, VH1 caught up with the longtime and formerly feuding rap pals as they reminisced over the creation of what’s considered to be their landmark classic.
Joining Tribe in the discussion of their seminal second release are critic and writer Nelson George, journalist Boss Lady, and our own Hip Hop encyclopedia Sway Calloway – who all weigh in with their thoughts on the significance of The Low End Theory. Of course the brothers Tribe offered plenty of insight throughout the two-part VH1 anniversary piece, revealing that aside from the rumored grumblings inspired by their Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels Of A Tribe Called Quest documentary from director Michael Rapaport that the pains of all are slowly being buried.
“It was a dope time,” said Q-Tip of the early 90s. “N.W.A. was crushing it, and I just remember being influenced by that, how it sounded sonically.” Q-Tip’s brother-in-arms Phife chimed in with, “We just spoke on how we felt at the moment and it was the truth. We were one of those groups that didn’t have a problem admitting that we cried in front of our mothers.”
Head on over to the VH1 Blog site to see all of the interviews and read the rest of the backstory on their classic album by following this link: http://blog.vh1.com/2011-09-29/the-low-end-theory-turns-20/
Is The Low End Theory a classic in your book? Tweet to us at @MTVRapFix or leave us a comment below.
Tags A Tribe Called Quest, Ali Shaheed, Beats, Beats Rhymes and Life: The Travels Of A Tribe Called Qu, Boss Lady, George Nelson, Jarobi White, Michael Rapaport, Phife, Q-Tip, Sway Calloway, The Low End Theory, VH1
Not so fast, says Ray J about the supposed collaboration between him and recently vanquished pro boxer Victor Ortiz.
The younger brother of R&B singer and actress Brandy said that a recently leaked track featuring his vocals and the raps of Ortiz never actually happened. The reality TV star and singer also closed the book on the alleged dustup he had with rapper Fabolous at a Floyd Mayweather victory after party in Vegas.
As a guest yesterday afternoon (September 29) on Shade 45’s The All Out Show, Ray J spoke on the news bits and is doing his best to move past the Fab situation. “You gotta grow from that,” Ray J said. “That was me letting my frustrations take over. Whatever situations happen behind closed doors [we] should have left it at that.”
Although gossip site TMZ leaked a song that was supposedly an official offering from Ray J and boxer Victor Ortiz, Ray J said the song was never something he signed off on. “”I don’t know how the media even comes up with these crazy stories. We ain’t never been in the studio together not one time,” said For The Love Of Ray J star.
Ray J is reported to be busy with a new television show and book, although he has yet to go public with the details surrounding his new media projects.
What do you think of the latest news on Ray J? Do you think Fabolous is ready to bury the hatchet as well? Tweet to us at @MTVRapFix or leave us a comment below.
Tags Fabolous, Floyd Mayweather Jr., Ray J, TMZ, Victor Ortiz
In a recent interview with LA Weekly, Los Angeles’ premium electronic music producer Flying Lotus has admitted that his first love was film. After directing Erykah Badu’s video for “Gone Baby, Don’t Be Long”, FlyLo plans to project his creative output to the big screen by creating his own feature film.
I’m trying to write the script right now, so I’m working on it. I finally got the idea that I feel is like good enough to represent things I really would like to see in a movie you know. For a while, I was like, “Let’s just make a movie because I wanna make a movie” but this one is like, “I wanna see this shit so I gotta see it through.” It’s too early to say who I’m gonna work with on it but you know I got a lot of really amazing talented filmmakers in my life right now. I’ve just been bouncing my ideas off them trying to build the script. I don’t wanna say too much about it yet.
Check out the official trailer for Tyrese’s “Too Easy” video featuring Ludacris. Tyrese’s Open Invitation is set to drop November 1, 2011. Hit play and enjoy. Where’s the bottles, TGIF!
Fresh off the new Charity Starts At Home solo album, one of its standout tracks, “Eternally,” is now being exclusively released for download as part of DJBooth.net‘s new event 20/20 Music project. Produced by 9th Wonder, who never ceases to amaze. The album is available now on iTunes.
Check out this dope day in the life piece with Chitown’s own, Rockie Fresh. KarmaloopTV and LRG take Rockie to SoHo for some shopping, Coat of Arms for a meet and greet, as well as a performance with The Cool Kids, at the Brooklyn Bowl.
Miguel’s hit single now receives the honorary remix treatment, fittingly from none other than the quick-spitter himself, Twista. Not sure how this holds up to the original, but it certainly gives it an edge. Check it out below and let us know what you think!
Before we start our weekly epitaph, does anyone else get annoyed when they say its a “supershow”? I think at this point the the brand extension is slowly dieing off. The “super shows” eliminates 70% of the WWE roster and we only see the same handful of top guys each week, renders the draft pretty much useless.
Triple H starts the program and explains why Truth and Miz were fired, because of their words and actions from Night of Champions. Ziggs and Vickie come out to complain about guest host Hugh “Wolverine” Jackman interfering in Ziggs match last week. Seconds later Cody Rhodes hits the ring cuts a promo about Randy Orton bashing him with a ring bell on Smackdown. Christian comes out to piss and moan to Hunter. Christian does his best impression of Sly Stallone from the movie F.I.S.T and attempts to organize the heels into filing a massive lawsuit against WWE. Captain Charisma being the selfish scumbag we all know and love tells Hunter he will forget the whole thing if he gets just one more match. Because HHH is snarky Hunter decides to book Christian against Cena (non-title), Orton on Friday and Sheamus at Hell In The Cell. While all this nonsense took place Dolph Ziggler has to face Zack Ryder while Cody has to defend the Intercontinental title in a 10-man battle royal. I blame Punk for all the wrestlers speaking their minds in these shoot style promos.
The first match of the night was the Intercontinental Title 10-Man Battle Royal. Remember when the IC title was the cooler title than the heavy weight? Shit I do… I use to backyard wrestle and could give two flying shits about any other title. The IC belt was held by the best of the best. Any way there are a whole bunch of workers in this match so allow me to run through this match fast. Drew McIntyre who hasn’t had a push in what seems like years gets eliminated immediately because he’s a jobber and cant sell a t-shirt. Heel Sin Cara the taller one runs out and yanks out baby-face Sin Cara the smaller one out of the ring and we get week two of a lucha off. Justin Gabriel and Alex Riley get eliminated by the machine Sheamus, Ezekiel Jackson tosses Daniel Bryan and John Morrison at the same time.
Do we even care for this match? NO…Ted Dibasie get tosses out by Cody Rhodes because Rhodes has more charisma in his pinky than Ted does in his who being. Jackson attempts to get rid of Cody but Rhodes is clearly going to win this. Jackson is gone. Sheamus dominates as usual an attempts the Razor’s Edge but Christian runs down to the ring distracts Sheamus, Cody avoids the Brogue Kick and use the mask as a weapon for the WIN. Backstage has David Otunga and John Laurinaitis are talking about how Otunga might have to put that Harvard degree to good use. If my wife was Jennifer Hudson I’d play wrestling lawyer too. He reminds me of IRS and Right To Censor’s Steven Richards. Michael Cole gave us an update on the King’s condition. Cole said King has anal bleeding? @jonconnormusic tweeted “How does one say that with a straight face”? Booker T’s reactions to anal bleeding is priceless. Kelly Kelly and Eve vs Beth Phoenix and Natalya. Hot Eve Torres is sporting bangs and I don’t know if I like the change. Its the same match week in and week out a bunch of sweet butts jumping around. The most impressive move I have ever seen a diva do was Natalya doing this leg submission, that stretched out on Hot Eve Torres on her back. Phoenix hits Kelly Kelly from behind, with a Glam Slam for the victory. Mark Henry destroys the Big Khali, giving him the World’s Strongest Slam. John Cena vs Christian Del Rio and Punk were on commentary for this match.
Cena’s facial expression and reaction to to HIAC reminds me of my goddaughters first experience with Christmas light. At the time she was 8 months old and was mesmerized with by the twinkle. Anyway Cena cut a quick promo in hyping up the HIAC match. The PPV poster has the tag line “John Cena goes to hell” with his face surrounded by Flocka flames. Cena gets the win over Christian, SHOCKER. Del Rio and CM Punk are commentating that’s a win huh folks. The jabs back and fourth between Punk and ADR made a shit match watchable.
WWE rewards Zack Ryder with TV time, for getting WWE more mainstream publicity. Ryder really should tweet Weapon X a thank you. Hugh Jackman made Ryder look money on last week’s show. the was a great look for both WWE and Ryder. With a Jack Swagger assist Dolph Ziggler keeps his title. AirBoom come out to help Mr WOO WOO WOO YOU KNOW IT BRO. Otunga is backstage with Cody, Ziggler, Vicky and Christian giving them legal counseling. He cites “unsafe working conditions” if I wanted legal jargon type television I would watch Franklin and Bash on TNT starring Zack Morris…great show watch it. Honestly this has been the most interesting thing Otunga has ever done in his short wrestling career.
CM Punk vs Del Rio had a great back and forth. CM Punk coming out winner with a clean finish was a head scratcher. Meanwhile the cell comes down, Del Rio’s ringside announcer Ricardo Rodriguez is locked in with Cena and Punk. Anytime Ricardo gets TV time its awesome. CM Punk and Cena try to hit each other but Del Rio comes out of nowhere and bawse’s with a chair. Closing thoughts: I liked the ending alot. It was great to see ADR be the aggressor, after being super Cena’d at last months PPV. This attack mby Del Rio makes him look stronger. Do I think Del Rio still needs the the strap to be over… YES. I will go into detail about the mainevent next week. As much as I clown Otunga, I want to see what goes on with this angel. If the heels strike and to a protest or some wacky shit like that I think all of the IWC (Internet Wrestling Community) will lose its shit. Its genius if you think about it.
