In 1991 (five months before I was even born) A Tribe Called Quest released their seminal album The Low End Theory. In their short career Tribe managed to release some of the greatest albums in hip hop, and their discography remains to be the greatest having released in my opinion 3 classic albums and 2 otherwise great albums. The Low End Theory being their second release is what really put them in the good graces of mainstream audiences, despite Jive Records believing the release would be a commercial failure.
Like the title suggests, Q-Tip's groove oriented production really began to shine on this album. Tip is by far my favorite producer of all time, but close to him would be the Chocolate Boy Wonder Pete Rock. What's interesting about their single 'Jazz (We've Got)' is that this is the only collaboration on The Low End Theory in terms of production. For the most part, the early Tribe albums featured Q-Tip as the producer until later on when Detroit producer J Dilla would collaborate with Q-Tip credited as The Ummah. A collaboration between Pete and Tip would however make sense, considering both A Tribe Called Quest and Pete Rock & CL Smooth are considered the hallmarks of jazz hop.
In an interview with Wax Poetics back in 2004 Pete Rock had this to say:
What happened was, Tip used to come over all the time. One time the “Jazz” beat was already playing in the drum machine. I went to answer the door and left the beat playing… I even had the records I sampled still sitting there on the turntables because I’d just made the beat… [Tip] knew what I used and took the same elements, and made it the exact same way. And then at the end of the record he says, “Pete Rock for the beat ya don’t stop”Pete Rock however was not credited on the album, but it was in fact stated in the song that he had something to do with the beat. The sample used is a live recording of 'Green Dolphin Street' by Lucky Thompson's Quartet. Thompson was a soprano saxophonist from the 1960s around the time when John Coltrane began to come into popularity. Thompson however differed from Coltrane because of his hard bop style of sax playing that was in some ways more advance and technical than Coltrane at the time.
The piece sampled is considerably short, which means that Tip had to down pitch the sample quite a bit in order for it to play over a 1 bar drum loop. The sample is also filtered using a technique that was popular in 90s hip hop know as the low end theory (hence the title of the album) which means that the lower frequencies of the sample (the bassline) was filtered and then layered with a high end filter of the pitched down piano key. The drums came from 'Don't Change Your Love' by the 5 Stairsteps, a Chicago based soul band from the 1970s, probably most well known for their song 'O-o-h Child'.
In comparison to my last post which featured DJ Premier and Jeru the Damaja, this beat is a lot more sparse. I think when considering the techniques required to make a beat, sometimes less is more. DJ Premier has always been herald as one of the greatest hip hop producers of all time, and while in some ways I agree, this claim is arguable. Q-Tip to me has always known what it takes to make an excellent hip hop beat, heavy bass lines and some drums that sound real. Drums and the groove are by far the most fundamental and important part of any hip hop beat, and I think Tip's sound is an excellent example of this. I wouldn't put it past his ability however to make a complex layer of 4 or more samples, he just knows what sounds good and can achieve an impressive sound using only the essentials.
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