Tomorrow marks the 20th anniversary of A Tribe Called Quest's Midnight Marauders, the seminal group's third album and one of the most iconic albums in hip-hop history. Unleashed the same day as the Wu-Tang Clan's debut Enter The Wu-Tang: 36 Chambers, it represented the other side of New York hip-hop in the early 1990s, and cemented Tribe as one of the best hip-hop artists out.

"At first there was a lot of pressure, because everybody was so gung-ho about the Low End album, and that came out '91," said Tribe's Phife Dawg in an interview with XXL yesterday. "Obviously, that's a two-year wait, so there was a lot of pressure like, 'Can they do it again?' Q-Tip is really hands on, Tip is a genius, so by the time he was finished sequencing the album, I was lookin' at him sayin, 'Yo, b, we did it again.'"

Twenty years down the road—and 15 years since their last album, 1998's The Love Movement—and Tribe are about to reunite for a handful of shows opening up for Kanye West on his current (though currently postponed) Yeezus Tour. "Honestly, man, it makes me feel old as hell," Phife said, laughing. "It honestly feels like it was just yesterday. Time definitely flies, but I'm glad we're all still around to smell the flowers while we still here." While reminiscing, Phife broke down his ten favorite Tribe Called Quest songs from the group's five albums, the stories behind them, and dishes on the Tribe song he holds closest to his heart. —Dan Rys (@danrys)

Ed. Note: DJ Rasta Root created a 'Best Of Tribe' playlist, which can be streamed here.

Song: "Money Maker"
Album: The Love Movement (Limited Edition Only)
Year: 1998
I thought the beat was hot, the bounce was dope, and I thought those were some of Q-Tip's most poignant rhymes. I mean, he's had a lot of dope songs, lines and things of that nature, but this song for me—even his off-key singing at the beginning—it was just dope, really really dope to me. That's definitely one of my favorites, and it was one of the most slept-on that came from the Tribe. It was only on the limited edition of The Love Movement. I like that song a lot.

Song: "Verses From The Abstract"
Album: The Low End Theory
Year: 1991
That's one of my all-time favorite Tribe records—the track, the way he chopped up Heatwave's "Star Of The Story," I thought that was one of his most genius efforts to date, you know what I mean? "Excursions" is another of my favorites that he performs from the Tribe set—the bassline, and then when the drums hit, it's crazy. It was definitely fun because we were young, energetic, and we were just kids doing what we loved doing. We probably should have had the business end of it more solidified, but again, you live and you learn and we were just kids. But it was definitely a fun time. Compared to the first album—back then I wasn't coming to the studio as much, I wasn't taking it as serious as I should have—but by the time we set out to do Low End, that's when I was all in, all hands on deck, all systems go. So it was definitely a fun time, everybody was on the same wavelength, one hand was washing the other, that type of thing.

Song: "Award Tour"
Album: Midnight Marauders
Year: 1993
Definitely. My experience with that was, I used to be back and forth between New York and going to visit Atlanta, because I had a girlfriend down there at the time. I remember being at a club in Atlanta, and I didn't know—I was trying to figure out what the first single should be off Midnight Marauders; we were thinking "Oh My God" at first. It was between "Oh My God" and "Award Tour." So my decision was made—I can't speak for the rest of them—when I was at this club, Club Kaya, I think it was called something else at the time. But I remember being in there, and I just started talking to somebody near the speaker, and they were spinning some other record, I can't remember what it was. And then they pretty much segued—I think it was DJ Nabs—into "Award Tour," and nobody had heard it yet. The pianos came in at the beginning, [sings the beat] and everybody was looking around, like, "What was that?" I even was like, "What the hell is that?" as many times as I had heard it in the studio while we recorded it, sequenced it, mixed it, mastered it, whatever. Once I heard it then, I went back home and I was like, "Tip, Ali—that's the one." They already came to me and said yeah, "Award Tour" is the one. So we all agreed and put it out there, and the rest, as they say, is history. It's always a killer in the shows.

Song: "Scenario (Remix)"
Album: Originally a B-Side, later appeared on The Love Movement
Year: 1992/1998
Kid Hood—may he rest in peace—he was about to eat, I promise you. And then, unfortunately, he got killed. I don't even like thinking about that—it was just a few days after he recorded it that he got killed. Everybody was excited off of just those sixteen bars. We was like, "Yo, yo, yo, we about to put this kid out!" Q-Tip was gung-ho, he was ready to rock with him. And then all of a sudden his life got cut short, unfortunately. But the verse he laid was definitely memorable. And of course, Busta always does his thing too. The original "Scenario" should be on this list as well.

Song: "Find A Way"
Album: The Love Movement
Year: 1998
J. Dilla is just the king of the beats. "Find A Way" is definitely one of my favorite records. It's very reminiscent of "Electric Relaxation" for me; the melody is so laid back, and—I don't want to call it soft—but it has a smooth, jazzy, R&B feel to it. But once that beat hits, it's definitely hip-hop, you can't deny it. You fuse all that together and you're definitely going to have a treat. I'm tryna remember how that worked—[Dilla] used to come out to New York sometimes, but "Find A Way" is on Love Movement, so he just sent that beat. And Tip played it for us and we were just like, "Ohhhhh, shit. This shit is crazy." So we just went in on it, put our raps together and went in on it. I knew from Jump Street that was gonna be the first single. Everybody didn't agree—the label, the Late Chris Lighty, Barry Weiss—everyone was just like, "Y'all should do this, I think you should do this," and we were like, "Nah, we wanna do this." Me and Tip were the only ones like, "No, 'Find A Way'! What are you talking about?"

Song: "Electric Relaxation"
Album: Midnight Marauders
Year: 1993
[Sings the sample] "Mystic Brew." Just that part alone, and then the way Tip put the drums underneath, it was crazy. We used to have equipment in my grandmother's basement when we were working on Midnight Marauders. I just remember coming home from somewhere—my grandmother gave him a key, the whole nine, he used to just go in and do his thing—I came home from some type of trip and I walked in the kitchen, and you know, he's in the basement and you could hear the music coming up, and all I heard was that. I didn't even say hello to my grandmother or whoever was in the house, I was just like, "Hold on!" and went downstairs. "Yo, what the hell is that?!" He was like, "Yo, that shit is crazy, right?" And it just became what it is now. That's one of my favorite, favorite, favorite Tribe songs. On that record, he wrote my lines and I wrote his—actually, we wrote our own lines, and when we recorded, we traded. That's why the whole back and forth, you know what I mean?

Song: "Buggin' Out"
Album: Low End Theory
Year: 1991
One of my favorite songs, to perform, as well. When the album was fresh and new and we were on tour with it—on the Public Enemy tour, matter of fact—that bassline used to come in crazy. So "Buggin' Out" is definitely on that list. We used to start the show with either that or "Steve Biko," and we used to win.

Song: "Clap Your Hands"
Album: Midnight Marauders
Year: 1993
That and "God Lives Through," which was just smooth, it was just laid back. But we don't perform ["Clap Your Hands"] that a lot for some reason, I like performing that record. I like it, [so I perform it solo]. [Laughs]

Song: "Check The Rhime"
Album: Low End Theory
Year: 1991
That's my all-time favorite Tribe record. For the simple fact that—call me selfish or whatever—that was the song that set off my coming out party on Low End Theory. 'Cause if you judge by the People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm album, it was like, "What what the hell does he do? He don't do nothing." That was just the consensus on Phife Dawg or whatever. So when Low End came out and "Check The Rhime" was the first single, it was like, "Oh, okay, so he can rhyme." I hold that closest to my heart. No "El Segundo," none of that, looking all crazy in the video. [Laughs] Even though that was a really fun video, it was one of the most fun videos we ever did.

BONUS TRACK:

Song: "8 Million Stories"
Album: Midnight Marauders
Year: 1993
I don't know if I could say it's one of my favorites—I definitely like it—but I don't know if it's one of my favorites. But we definitely had a lot of fun recording that, 'cause I was just being silly. [Laughs] Making up, thinking of different scenarios to have a fucked up day, you know what I'm saying? So we put it together, Tip did the hook, Skeff Anselm did the beat, and it came together pretty dope. It's definitely a song that I like, but I don't know if I'd put it on the top ten.

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