Remember the summer of 1996 when artist such as Nas, Jay-Z, De la Soul dropped dope albums. Today the 20th Anniversary of A Tribe Called Quest’s 4th studio album, ‘Beats Rhymes & Life’ dropped that summer. This album was J-Dilla’s mainstream introduction, even though he produced for the other major artist, but some heads did not realize it until later. This LP produced almost entirely by the Ummah, a production outfit featuring a young J-Dilla, it’s rich in samples and displays a bass heavy, more stripped down production sound than previous albums. Also heavily featured is Consequence whose career was largely kickstarted by the release. Released 3 years after the group’s seminal ‘Midnight Marauders’ with recording said to have been ,by internal differences in the group, the LP failed to gain the critical acclaim of previous offerings at the time of release, critics suggesting it lacked the chemistry evident on earlier albums. 20 years on however it remains a great listen.
Former BBC 1Xtra DJ & eclectic beat enthusiast DJ Chris Read did all Tribe fans a solid and did excellent blend of the album adding beat breaks. Be sure to check out Chris Read’s Mixcloud page for other mixes, and beat breaks