10 Best Hip-Hop Songs of 1991
1991’s best hip-hop tracks lean more towards beats production than the era’s popular gangsta genre because hip-hop’s militancy reinvents itself every few years.
A Tribe Called Quest
‘Go Ahead in the Rain’ Artfully Melds the Many Parts of a Tribe Called Quest’s Backstory
In Go Ahead in the Rain, Hanif Abdurraqib blends his talents as both culture critic and personal essayist for a meditation on perhaps the most influential hip-hop group from the genre's sample-laden boom-bap era, A Tribe Called Quest.
The Midnight Hour: Orchestral Groovers in the Dark
The Midnight Hour, a jazzy collaboration between Ali Shaheed Muhammad and Adrian Younge, made their live debut at the McKittrick Hotel.
The Musical Atmosphere in BigYuki’s ‘Reaching for Chiron’
The jazz/hip-hop/electronica of keyboardist BigYuki—featured on the last Tribe Called Quest album—is a true hybrid that, surprisingly, contains more Louis Armstrong that you might think.
Culture and History for the Age of Trump
History doesn’t always tell us how to get it right. It sometimes warns us of the cost of getting it wrong. Art steeped in that history, like John Lewis’ graphic novel trilogy, March, can remind us, if we’re paying attention.