The 100 Greatest Native Tongues Songs
By Complex Magazine | Dec 15, 2010 | 1:23 pm | Permalink
#7. Jungle Brothers f/ Q-Tip "The Promo"
Year: 1988
Produced By: Straight Out the Jungle
Album: Jungle Brothers
Label: Warlock
"The Promo" is as raw as it gets. Mike G, Baby Bam, and Q-Tip just keep rhyming as if in a lunchroom cipher, thoughts and words spilling out in all directions. There are probably hundreds of mid-'90s underground tracks that attempt to capture the mood of this record, but very few artists have the finesse to make something like this sound so appealing. The tangents are not overdone and the emphasis is on style, not on wowing everyone with Latinate vocabulary; Native Tongue made rhyme clinics feel less like indulgent jam sessions and more like block parties. "In Time" is an alternate version that appeared on a few Jungle Brothers B-sides; Q-Tip sounds more pensive as he discusses topics like religious faith and mankind's fall from grace.
Rel December 15th, 2010 at 12:46 PM
Wait no God lives through, are you serious.
R. Poole December 15th, 2010 at 12:59 PM
ha-ha... remember PM Dawn thought they were dissin' them with this?
Eloh December 15th, 2010 at 01:14 PM
Ya'll should post a download link.It is Christmas you know!
joe December 15th, 2010 at 01:47 PM
my mental is excelling cause i dabble in the books
seymour glass December 15th, 2010 at 02:48 PM
Little low. Jimbrowski for president.
ox December 15th, 2010 at 06:50 PM
#63 used to be my joint...bumped it in the whip constantly...that is an example of a hip-hop song that is perfected, stripped down beats and rhymes....crazy
FTW December 15th, 2010 at 07:46 PM
I don't care who you are—if you were even remotely curious about the process of producing hip-hop music, your mind was blown the second you realized that Tribe had turned Minnie Ripperton's whistle-pitch vocals into an instrument ^^^^^ This.
Madlib December 15th, 2010 at 08:38 PM
Greatest Complex List EVER
Madlib December 15th, 2010 at 08:40 PM
the greatest complex list ever created.
Slick Savage December 16th, 2010 at 03:31 AM
Simply classic... But yo, WTF iz,"Subbups, subbups..."???