About

People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm is the debut album by alternative hip hop group A Tribe Called Quest, released in 1990 on Jive Records. Although the album was critically acclaimed, it had little mainstream appeal. However, the album did earn the band a devoted following among the alternative hip hop community. The album was praised for its lyrical inventiveness and bizarre sense of humor, mixed with socially aware and literate message tracks.

One of three A Tribe Called Quest albums to be included in The Source's 100 Best Rap Albums, certified gold by the RIAA on January 19, 1996. The record was given the perfect rating of 5 mics in The Source in 1990 — according to Pitchfork, it was the first album ever to receive this honor.

“The group is marked for their social consciousness, but not merely because of their awareness, but their ability to wax simultaneously about politics and art. On "Push It Along", Tip traverses police brutality, community unity, and rap dreams in a few bars, managing to be an approachable advocate for responsibility without seeming didactic: "The pigs are wearing blue/ And in a year or two/  We'll be going up the creek in a great big canoe / What we gonna do? Save me and my brothers?/ Hop inside the bed and pull over the covers?/ Never will we do that and we ain't trying to rule rap/ We just want a slab of the ham, don't you know, black?" The lyrics are 25 years old. But were they released today they'd seem right on time, while being out of place—because all these many years later People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm is more than a nostalgia artifact. It's a worthy listen, not because of what it was, but because of what it is.” — (via Pitchfork)

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Label: Jive
Format: 2x Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue, Remastered
Country: US
Released: 1996
Genre: Hip Hop
Style: Conscious, Jazzy Hip-Hop
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File under: Hip-hop 90s