Bringing Back The Song Of The Day With "Award Tour" by A Tribe Called Quest

It's been about two weeks since my last song of the day, making it not really the "song of the day" but the "song of the once in a blue moon"--- but I digress. Today's song is an absolute classic, by my favorite hip hop group of all time, A Tribe Called Quest. "Award Tour", Tribe's highest charting single of all time, released as the first single from their third album Midnight Marauders. The song features rapper Trugoy on the chorus, from the fellow Native Tongues group De La Soul. It contains a sample of "We Gettin' Down" by Weldon Irvine, from his 1975 album Spirit Man.

When asked about this hit, producer Q-Tip said---- "I love the drums on ‘Award Tour.’ And then there’s the sample I used from Jade’s ‘Don’t Walk Away.’ It’s all about that bassline. I just wanted to flip it, so I went through some more records and I got that Rhodes to counter the melody in the bassline. I wanted some drums that would smack that shit out the park."

The jokes make themselves, but yeah those drums smack alright. Tribes released some of my favorite hip hop tracks ever and it's their production that sets them apart, as the music has simple yet solid instrumentals on top of funky drum machine tracks, and the vocals are very ahead of their time in terms of production. My favorite part about Tribe is they rarely swear. I like to get a little ignant when listening to hip hop, but not everyone else does. Tribe makes hip hop extremely listenable which is what sets them apart from the majority of artists in the genre from their time and today. The story-telling is also very relatable most of the time, and was very different from the gangster rap that dominated the charts.

***Bonus track because who can't relate to losing their wallet***

-Rock on M8s