Youthful Expression

People's Instinctive Travels And The Paths of Rhythm may not be the easiest Tribe album to remember the full name of and it's probably not their best album either but when you sit down and listen to this from start to finish it's hard not to acknowledge how seminal a piece of work it was and always will be ... Prior to its release people in the know were aware of Q-Tip from his guest appearances on a number of Jungle Brothers tracks including "Black Is Black" and "The Promo" and those who were really clued up were also familiar with Phife from his lyrics on De La Soul's "Buddy" Remix but it was this album that gave the world a taste of what the Tribe were really all about ... For me the most amazing thing about this record when I listen to it now is how young the Tribe were when they released it ... On the track "Youthful Expression" Q-Tip rhymes "19 Years Is a Youthful Lesson" and when you listen to what he's talking about on this tune and the rest of the album the fact that a crew so young could produce such an accomplished piece of work is really amazing ... It's not the Low End Theory and it ain't Midnight Marauders but for a debut release it couldn't really be much better and is a perfect example of the hip hop movement in 1990 truly starting to embracing its jazz heritage ...