Background Noise Crew: T.Q.D's Corner

It's been a couple months, but I haven't forgotten about the blog.  I've just been busy making sure the new album gets launch properly.  I'll be back the first week of February with a brand new post.
In the meantime...

Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of T.Q.D’s Corner. This month, I will be speaking on the catalog of A Tribe Called Quest.   For those of you who don’t know, A Tribe Called Quest was made of 3 members: Q-Tip (emcee/producer), Phife Dawg (emcee), Ali Shaheed Mohammed (producer/DJ).  A fourth member, Jarobi, was a part-time producer, but left after the first album to pursue other non-music ventures.   A Tribe Called Quest released 5 albums in 9 years.  All of them sold well (3 platinum, 2 gold).  In 1998, they broke up due to personal and creative differences.  Before we talk further about their post-break up travels, I wanted to take a look back at their catalog.
People’s Instinctive Travels and The Paths To Rhythm (1990)
The long album title certainly is a bit strange, but had little effect on the quality.  When this album was released, it was highly acclaimed by critics.  That seems like a meaningless credit [...]

I have my preferences when it comes to Hip Hop, but every now and then people come along and force me to make exceptions.  I can appreciate a bad rapping if it's highly entertaining (Tim Dog's Penicillin On Wax).  I can also appreciate a highly skilled emcee, even if they touch on topics I have minimal to no interest in: Brotha Lynch Hung and today's subject, Suga Free, come to mind.
For the uninitiated, Suga Free comes to us from Pomona, California.  His delivery can be best compared to E-40 and the Project Blowed camp (hi-speed rap ability and wide variations in meter). 
His debut album Street Gospel was released in 1997 and produced entirely by DJ Quik.  Topically Suga Free draws most of his subject matter from his days as a pimp with a few other things mixed in between.  Production wise, it's classic DJ Quik funk: a good mix of synthesizers, samples and live instruments.  I'd argue it's some of his best work. 
In addition to the pimp talk throughout [...]

Hello and welcome to another edition of T.Q.D’s Corner.  In this edition, we discuss highly debated albums.  There are albums generally considered good or bad, but there are also those that don’t appear to have any consensus opinion one way or another.  This is usually do to an album being just okay when expectations were high or the artist decided to take their music in a totally different direction and some accept it, while others don’t.  I’d like to briefly discuss 4 such records and provide my two cents.
Public Enemy – Muse Sick N Hour Mess Age
I actually think this is a solid album that never really got the credit it deserves.  However, I can totally understand why this album was so divisive.  For starters, times had changed.  Speaking out about politics, racism, and self-empowerment didn’t exactly fit it with the gangsta image that had taken over mainstream Hip Hop at the time.  Secondly, the production style [...]

Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of T.Q.D's Corner.  As the month of May winds down, we approach the birthday of Big L (the 30th).  If he were alive today, he'd be turning 37.  It's on this occasions.  He was killed in 1999 and the assumed reason most people accept is that his brother who was heavy in to illegal activities was on the run from rivals, and since he couldn't be found, Big L paid the cost instead.  While that is what everyone assumes, the case remains unsolved.
Big L was a member of the crew D.I.T.C. (stands for Diggin' In The Crates).  Other members of the crew were Showbiz, A.G., O.C., Lord Finesse, Diamond D, Buckwild, and Fat Joe.  Fat Joe is the only one to have any real commercial success over the years, but they're all put out critically acclaimed material.  Big L was also a part of a short lived group Children of the Corn with Cam'ron, Mase, and Cam'ron's cousin Bloodshed, who passed away in 1997.  Stylistically, [...]