Midnight Marauders CD

Third and last of the classic Tribe records, it is arguably the group's most musically sophisticated album. The tracks balance jazz, soul, and even reggae influences with pure hip-hop to arrive at a completely distinctive Tribe sound, the logical evolution of the bop-inflected hooks which characterized Low End Theory.

Production-wise, Tribe graduates from a cool school aesthetic to an electric jazz sound (reminiscent of fusion-era Miles Davis). Lyrically, Midnight Marauders finds the group's abstract poetics in excellent form as usual, and Phife is miles ahead of the Mayor-Flavour rhymes of "Can I Kick It".