1990: The Conscious Rap Boom

1990 saw a spate of conscious rap releases that would influence the lyricism of the next 5 years but is sadly missing from the majority of modern hip hop. Imagine if the biggest artists of the day were rhyming about Allah, black empowerment and Egyptian history instead of whips, tricks and shine and you can catch a glimpse of the conscious rap movements heyday. The majority of artists releasing conscious albums were either members of the Nation of Islam, Nation of Earths and Gods (Five percenters) or closely affiliated with these groups that were considered extremely radical at the time.

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Popularity: 5% [?]

Edited: July 23rd, 2009

90’s wiki: A Tribe Called Quest – Peoples Instinctive Travels & the Paths of Rhythm

In a time when rappers were either hardcore and gangster or political and militant the Native Tongues collective were neither. Abstract, witty and intelligent is the best way to describe A Tribe Called Quest’s approach to lyricism, with an evidently coherent jazz backdrop that was much less radio friendly than De La and the JB’s, but would leave more of a lasting imprint on hip hop production values of the 90’s. Made up of Phife Dawg, Q-Tip, Ali Shaheed Muhammad and sometime member Jarobi White, A Tribe Called Quest entered the stage with their 1990 debut Peoples Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm.

Their debut album was full of random rhymes that touched on topics as diverse as safe sex, vegetarianism, wallet loss, as well as odes to the ladies, French hip hop artists and fools. This lyrical lightheartedness gave Tribe a vast appeal which reached out to younger children, the white mainstream and the larger dance community, areas that more militant or hardcore artists could not breach. The fact that a lot of their early audiences didn’t get the lyrical content of a rap album but still chose to enjoy it is a testament to the ear friendly production. This album wasn’t the ear melting stuff of say NWA or Public Enemy but was a mellow full sound that hadn’t been heard from a New York scene which had so far favoured sparse cold production. The warmth of the beats and the varied vocal styles of Phife and Q-Tip make this a classic debut but fortunately for hip hop the best of A Tribe Called Quest was still to come.

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Popularity: 58% [?]

Edited: September 29th, 2008