Up until now, I've been quiet on this subject. I've watched one head after another chime 
in and say _Low End Theory_ is the best. There's no doubt in my mind that it's one of the 
100 best albums in rap (too bad The Source didn't let *US* make that list) but it's not my 
favorite among the Tribe albums.

I've been cruising around with _Midnight Marauders_ in my trunk for the last four days, 
and I'm become firmly convinced it IS the best album that Tribe ever made. Listening to 
this album again and again has at last for me made it sink in how monumental their break 
up is. Sure, their work of late hasn't been up to this caliber, but anybody capable of 
making music THIS good deserves at LEAST three bad albums to "find their way" back to 
dopeness -- and let's face it, _Beats Rhymes and Life_ was not a BAD album, just a MEDIOCRE 
album.

I'm getting off the point though. Why is _Midnight Marauders_ the greatest Tribe album ever? 
There are so many reasons. Listen to the brilliant way that Ali Shaheed Muhammad disects Rakim's 
"My Melody" at the end of "We Can Get Down". Examine the heartfelt and vividly portrayed description 
of hip-hop nightlife Q-Tip exposes in "Midnight". Peep the bohemian ode to sex called "Electric 
Relaxtion" where The Abstract confesses: "shorty let me tell you bout my only vice/it has to do 
with lots of lovin and it ain't nuthin nice" -- who among us hasn't feel that way? In fact, this 
album is lyrical brilliance by BOTH Tip and Phife on an unparalleled level. Never before and NEVER 
again will you hear anybody rap a line like "Lyrically I'm Mario Andretti on the momo" because 
9 out of 10 heads who heard it don't even know what that means (I learned later that a momo is 
a type of steering wheel used by racing professionals). Rappers today would never go over people's 
heads that boldly: you'd hear "Lyrically I'm Fort Knox with the golden touch" or something generic 
like that. Nothing near the kind of skills Tip shows on "Award Tour".

What makes this album even more amazing is that the one track NOT produced by Shaheed fits in 
beautifully. Extra P perfectly captured the Tribe vibe in "Keep It Rollin" and gave a cameo 
performance that for me solidified his place in hip-hop history. His simply elegant prose captured 
the moment: "I proceed with what ya need like Akinyele, a whip looks complete when the tires say 
Firelli, funk monkey, one rapper fell off, now he's a junkie, there's eight million stories in 
the city it's a pity." Brilliant.

How much do I love this album? Back when it came out in '93, the Original Hip-Hop Lyrics Archive 
was just an FTP site on a server that donated me some space. It was so small I could back up the 
entire thing on a single 3.5" 1.44MB disk. What was the label I wrote on the outside of that disk? 
"Lyrics to Go". I still have that backup disc from back in the day too. I've always had "Lyrics to Go" 
and on this album, so did Tribe. I can't think of any other album that didn't have at least one bad song. 
Even P.E. misfired with "She Watch Channel Zero" on _It Takes a Nation_. There ARE no miscues on 
_Midnight Marauder_. Even the "computer woman" sounds perfect on this set. She adds just the right 
amount of serene weirdness to The Abstract and Phife's lovely wordplay, and says some simply profound 
things: "You're not any less of a man if you don't pull the trigger, you're not any more of a man if 
you do."

This to me is the best Tribe album ever. _Low End Theory_ was brilliant, but to me _Midnight Marauders_ 
is the overlooked work of genius in the same way that _Buhloone Mindstate_ is disregarded by fans of 
_De La Soul is Dead_.