In today's world of Puff Daddy and Master P-inspired hoochie-mama rap and hip-hop, one may long for the days when jazz-rap artists like Guru, Digable Planets, 3rd Bass, Us3, and of course, A Tribe Called Quest were in their prime back in the early 90's. On Tribe's anthology you not only have their greatest hits, but also some of the best hip-hop of the 90's and possibly of all time. The classics ("Award Tour," "I Left My Wallet in El Segundo," "Hot Sex," "Oh My God," "Find a Way") are all here, and newcomers to the tribe will marvel at the versatility demonstrated accross the board. Examples abound - from the heavily-jazz-influenced "Check the Rhime" and "Luck of Lucien," the darker-sounding "Scenario" and "Buggin' Out," to the mellow and melodic grooves, "Bonita Applebum" and "Electric Relaxation."

Their preternatural knack for sample seasoning is also well evident on tracks like my personal favorite, the Lou Reed-sampled "Can I Kick It?" There's not enough I can say about this group, but in a nutshell it must be said that Tribe made some of the catchiest, most memorable, and most lyrically-brilliant rap music of the 90's. Now that the Tribe have gone their separate ways, this 19 track compilation is an essential part of any good collection - hearkening back to a time before rap got caught up in thuggism and sexist bling blingery of the present. After listening to this tasty smorgasborg all the way through (there's no way you could skip past any one of these songs), Years from now when the influence of rap music can be assessed from an objective point of view, bands like Tribe should be the gold standard by which their contemporaries in the genre are judged.