ARTS The Michigan Daily, Can ya Tribe Called Quest beats sophomore jinx by Forrest Green III So it's a placid Monday morning and I'm pacing the Daily. arts office, reconsidering my questions again when the telephone rings. And then I'm standing beside myself, staring detachedly as the call is answered. We exchange pleasantries in a roughshod fashion through what sounds like a speakerphone. With a clutter of "uhs" and "you knows," I ask Phife about the vibe that went into creating the Tribe's new album, an understated masterwork, The ow End Theory. "Well, basically the whole al- bum is like that," he answers. "You know, we're just trying to bring back what hip hop was. It's like kicking a basic routine, like what we did on that single you just heard ("Check The Rhyme"), and still comin' off. Everything is concept. Everything has to have a concept, it seems nowadays. So we're tryin to frove that wrong. We're into con- cepts, don't get me wrong, but we wanted to just get wrecked this year." "Okay, so unlike the first one, there's no theme," I ask. "Not really. The album is called The Low End Theory. And it's basi- cally just talkin about the bottoms. You know, the bass, the 808s, all t.at Just the whole vibe." "Just describing the feel of the record," I offer. "Exactly. You know, in every record it's like that. Last year, it was a laid-back thing, where you could listen to it with your grand- mother. This year, you gotta pump it in your car." "The bass is in there. Is that re- ally Ron Carter on that one song?" * "That is Ron Carter on one cut, Verses From The Abstract,"' Phife answers. "Were there any other cuts with musicians on 'em? 'Excursions' sounds like a sample..." "No. No samples." A Tribe Called Quest don't re- veal their samples. This gesture of forced legitimacy only adds to their album's overall effect, a strong feel *f musical cohesiveness. A calcu- lated logic is holding these grooves together, and from unpredictable bop change-ups to the-chaotic cross- Tuesday, September 24, 1991 Page 5 Apollo Smile Dune Buggy (12") DGC Looking for more proof that the US record industry is indeed a whir- ling black hole of despair? Well, today's entry is by a girl (not a womyn) who undoubtedly must have attended the Barbie (Mattel®, not Benton) school of singing. As a former model, she probably met some slimy producer at a sleazy Hollywood party and he said, "Stick with me kid and I'll make you a Star." "But Mr. Ree-" "Call me Slip." "OK, Slip. Well... I can't sing. I mean I've ne-" "Hey, babe, don't worry about it. We don't sell singers, we sell image here hon. Guns 'n Roses? Image. Axl had Big hair in the beginning, right? Remember that? Well, we did a little research and discovered that the kids were sick of Big hair. So-ixnay on the airhay!" "But Slip, I can't even write any son-" "Writing?! Hah! What's to writing?" "Nothing! I could probably write your first single. Let's see, Apollo Smile... Apollo Smile... Smile... Smi- I got it! Your first single will be about a dune buggy, yeah, that's it. And... and you'll say something like,, 'My name is Apol-lo, Goddess of the Sun. Come ride in my Dune Buggy.' Yes! Yes! I'm brilliant!" "But, the mu-" "And musically we'll just throw down a silly synth riff and any old drum machine beat. Don't worry about it. It'll sell." "Well-" "Briliant just brilliant." -Richard Davis Marshall Crenshaw Life's Too Short MCA/Paradox "Better Back Off," the explosive rocker his critics have been waiting for, starts off Marshall Crenshaw's first MCA release. Despite the unnec-. essary Stones allusion in the first two lines, it's one of this year's finest tunes, both lyrically and musically. Crenshaw, for instance, addresses a self-deprecating, girlfriend with the reprimand, "You're talking about someone I love." The Ed Stasium production catches the beat and brings it out front without overtaking Crenshaw's guitar or vocals. The next couple of tunes, including "Stop Doing That" and the Smithereens-like "Don't Disappear Now," can sustain the interest of the shortest attention spans. Once the disc hits tracks eight and nine, however, the excitement wanes, and you're encouraged to do things like pick up the phone, brush your teeth, or go get a cup of coffee. I'm not saying it's boring, but those tunes are just not as good as the ones before it. The closing ballad, "Somewhere Down the Line," brings the record back to form with a chorus you may try to harmonize with. The "Here Comes the Night" bassline sounds cool at the end, and its subtlety pr'events it from sounding like the opening Stones reference. -Andrew J Cahn The members of A Tribe Called Quest, looking pretty perturbed. Maybe it's because New Jack Kid Donnie Wahlberg's little brother cramped their style by liberally sampling "Walk on the Wild Side." faded breaks of rap, it all gels. The real issue at hand concerns the knowledge that the Tribe is kicking nowadays. A great number of rap listeners, myself included, have built Q-Tip into some kind of legend. Yet Low End Theory finds the self-dubbed "abstract poet prominent like Shakespeare" drop- pin' lines about beepers and women instead of karmic levels. In the aforementioned "Verses From the Abstract," he rhymes, "If I don't pursue, then I just don't give a fuck/ My motto in the nineties is be happy makin ducs/ Girls love the jim cause it causes crazy friction/ When it goes up in, it fluctuates their dic- tion." "Some people see it as we're droppin' a little more knowledge or whatever on this album, some peo- ple see it as we're not," Phife con- tinues. "Our thing is, we're not tryin' to do anything but make rap music. Whatever comes out, comes out. Whatever comes out is gonna be positive. It's just something you can enjoy and listen to forever." Forgetting that we're talking on a speakerphone, when it comes time for Q-Tip to talk, I dryly refer to him as "the Abstract." Phife suddenly explodes with a maniacal howl of laughter, and I imagine Tip glaring down at the module. "What's the science, kiddo?" he says in a funny voice, not unlike the cartoon bullies you hear in the skits between songs on the De La Soul Is Dead album. I'm asking him to drop about the songs from People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm, yet he forces me to answer my own questions. The most awk- ward moment occurs when he ex- plains what the papes from "If the Papes Come" are - money. Another contendor might be the re- sponse to my question about "After Hours." Having taken the track for a ref- erence to the end of the world, espe- cially the foreboding line, "'Cause there's only a few hours left," Q- Tip stops my assumption cold, say- ing it's "about a bunch of guys hangin' out late at night, watching the sun come up." "Idle chatter... after midnight," Phife adds. No third eye is revealed to me. In "Show Business," with Brand Nubian, Q-Tip drops, "Let me tell you bout the snakes, the fakes/ The lies, the highs, all of these industry shingdings/ When you see the pretty girls/ In their high, animated worlds/ Lookin for a rapper with all the dough/ If you take a shit, they want to know/ And if you take a fall/ They won't be around, y'all/ So, you still wanna be in show busi- ness?" Having alienated the Tribe's collective vibe now, I feel closer to that description than anything. So, I do as Grand Puba Maxwell said in the same song, and "throw away the verbal ham.", One very good point was made by our conversation, however. Even more brilliant than the admitted simplicity of The Low End Theory was the stubbornness with which the Tribe refused to drop any arbi- trary information to me. Not only do they have one of the best albums of the year, but their stripped-down approach peels away all of this lug- gage to reveal the true role of a rap- per -just rap. A TRIBE CALLED QUESTS THE LOW END THEORY is scheduled to hit record stores today. hwithstudent comedians Chris Curtis and Blake Robinson t SeptemberDances wobble but don't fall Aml September Dances The Performance Network September 20, 1991 Dancing the night away at the small but intimate Performance Network, 21 dancers presented the intriguingly ultra-modern 11th an- nual September Dances show last weekend. Ten pieces displayed a *wide variety of talent and creativ- ity, as dancers personified vibrations from Jimi Hendrix guitar. strings; expressed emotion through a glid- ing skateboard; and magically trans- formed themselves into a gracefully awkward swarm of birds. The eclectic and often bizarre combination of music, sounds and movement challenged the minds of the viewers and allowed for various interpretations. "A Stumble In The Dark," choreographed by Barbara Boothe, presented an captivating in- teraction between a man and a woman (Renee Grammatico and Adam Clark). Like a musical fugue, Clark echoed the movements and poses of Grammatico's like a de- layed shadow. The dissonant sounds of Ralph Shapey's violin and piano music were given form by the dancers' arched backs, dragging feet, and outstretched arms. The pair's fluctuations between unity and separation brought the unsettling mood of the music to life. With an odd mix of radio, voice and song, Janet Lilly (co-producer of the show) premiered her piece "Needle In A Haystack." Reciting See DANCES, Page 8 - OYOU LIKE TO SING~ ~~pop, jazz, funk, blues, classical... # a cappellar i . ~Come to the'-. MASS MEETING: Wolverine Rooms, Michigan Union .8 P.M. Tues., Sept. 24 - U of M's Coed A Cappella Singing Ensemble University Activities Center Call for Audition Information: 763-1107 - University Rk (*Activities Center for more information dial 763-1107. H . LUB--= _ _, CP&P presents successful professionals sharing tips and advice on the job search process and on graduate school decisions First Impressions : The Employer Perspective Tuesday, September 24 5:10-6:30 pm A panel of employers shares insights on the interview process. Learn what to expect, and how you can best prepare for your interviews. Representatives from: Procter and Gamble Environmental Protection Agency Ernst & Young Enterprise Rent-A-Car C-r~dsd% SC.hU l r Wnrk k E- Iipmrp -1 A .. t Air L " .-1 A.'7 1 Graauatecoo orhor Cxperence: Which Comes First? I II I