But hold up (wait a minute) The Wu's Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) was not the only classic album released on November 9th, 1993, Native Tongue's A Tribe Called Quest released their third album Midnight Marauders and it was an album that made a lot of top 10 lists by the years end and cemented Tribe as one of the greatest groups along with the Wu to ever grace Hip Hop.
What made the album so special other than the great music was the cover made up of a who's who of Hip Hop legends, I recall an old Friend attending photography school and a group of us recreated the cover, that was a wild and amusing day but the poster has long gone sadly.
Midnight Maruaders was ATCQ's trifecta and a superb follow up to the classic Low End Theory (1991) album and was just generally a great feel good album filled with positivity and dope jazz loops, crisp drum breaks and funk and soul samples supplied by Ali Shaheed Muhammad, Skeff Anslem (he gets props too) and Q-Tip with Q-Tip and Phife dropping some of their greatest verses of their careers and had "the funky diabetic" Phife telling us that his fave rap group in the World was EPMD (I agreed) and that "if he ever went solo my favourite MC would be me"
The LP will most likely be remembered for the dope Large Professor produced and guested track "Keep It Rollin" where Large Pro announced his solo album and for us to "buy the album when I drop it", as fans will know this album was never officially released due to label politics and b.s.
I remember taping the "Award Tour" video off TV and playing it pretty much every night (along with a ton of '93 classics that I had compiled on VHS tapes) and eventually heading to Allan's CD's to pick up the CD.
I had a few Friends that picked up the album on vinyl and we thought it was dope that there were different versions of the cover and that they changed up who appeared on the cover and it was a great way to past the time to pick them all out, I raise a toast to the great ATCQ for blessing us with great and timeless music and for the legacy they leave in Hip Hop after their final tour in 2013.
Check the links...
atcqs-midnight-marauders-turns-20-delve-into-the-story-of-its-arwork-and-the-intricacies-of-its-sonics
20th-anniversary-focus-a-tribe-called-quest-midnight-marauders-jive-1993
uncovered-tribe-called-quest-midnight-marauders-cover-art-director-nick-gamma
today_in_hip-hop_a_tribe_called_quest_midnight_marauders_turns_twenty
tribe-called-quest-midnight-marauders samples
a-tribe-called-quest-midnight-marauders
Big props to DJ Sav One and Mark 563 and Slurg for some of the scans used in this post.
Keep bouncin'...
This post is dedicated to the late Rob Arona, sadly this old Friend passed before the release of this album and I knew he would have loved it as he was a huge Tribe fan.
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