Final Four: Wu-Tang Clan vs. A Tribe Called Quest

[MartyMcFly]

a publication could never determine anything within the culture. these magazine writers are basically just the type of dudes that get clowned & dismissed on here. hell, alot of them prolly post here. sure, when youre young & green, you fall for the smoke-n-mirrors, but after a while, you wise up and begin to realize how suspect the ratings are. especially when these mags pulled the curtain up and started posting their staff pics.

if forever isnt the reason why they lost steam, than what is? theres no possible excuse that they could make. im not saying that it was a bad album or anything, but its clearly not a classic. and nobody liked the 2nd disc breh.

the summer jam thing?? nobody outside of new york & north jersey knows or cares about hot 97 or their summer jam breh. youre reaching for straws. and only wutang fanatics paid attention to what they did or didnt do at the rage against the machine tour.

Breh if the most powerful radio station in the country when it comes to hip hop stops promoting you, you're finished at that time and you know that better than most cause you've been a fan of this shyt for the longest so don't act brand new. And Forever wasn't an album that you could just have singles off of. It didn't have anything like CREAM or Method Man. It wasn't a commercial viable album if we're going to be real about it, they made that album strictly without giving a shyt about radio. There's not a lot of catchy shyt on it. And if the group itself is in turmoil then that will reflect when it comes to promoting the album or a follow up album. Or just group unity. All of that plays a part in shyt going south. Look at Tribe. Once shyt went south with Phife and Tip, that was it for them. And you can hear it on Beats Rhymes and Life and the love movement where they have next to no chemistry at all and don't look comfortable doing interviews next to each other.

 

[Wacky D]

Word. The fact that we're on a message board discussing who's better: Wu or Tribe means we are nerdy lol. And I don't give a damn the color of the person writing the review, if they recognize dope music they recognize dope music. Three of the biggest reasons we have Nas right now: Serch (white), info (asian/female) and Faith Newman (white/female)

i never said it was about color. theres usually a disconnect there tho. and all these journalists play favorites so what people are usually being represented? usually not me, and this is my culture.

we dont need nas right now. dude couldve stopped making music 10 years ago for all i care.

 

[MartyMcFly]

i never said it was about color. theres usually a disconnect there tho. and all these journalists play favorites so what people are usually being represented? usually not me, and this is my culture.

we dont need nas right now. dude couldve stopped making music 10 years ago for all i care.

Fukk that I need Nas right now I'm saying that he wouldn't be where he was and who he became without help along the way from people who weren't black. Miss Info wasn't playing favorites when she heard illmatic she thought it was a dope record.

 

[DJ Mart-Kos]

I never liked Tribe as rappers much but damn those beats where the sickest at the time.
Rhymes i would say Wu.
Beats i give to to Tribe.

But overall i would go with Wu.

 

[mobbinfms]

Fukk that I need Nas right now I'm saying that he wouldn't be where he was and who he became without help along the way from people who weren't black. Miss Info wasn't playing favorites when she heard illmatic she thought it was a dope record.

Miss Info wrote the review. She did not unilaterally give the album 5 mics. That was decided by committee.

 

[Wacky D]

Breh if the most powerful radio station in the country when it comes to hip hop stops promoting you, you're finished at that time and you know that better than most cause you've been a fan of this shyt for the longest so don't act brand new. And Forever wasn't an album that you could just have singles off of. It didn't have anything like CREAM or Method Man. It wasn't a commercial viable album if we're going to be real about it, they made that album strictly without giving a shyt about radio. There's not a lot of catchy shyt on it. And if the group itself is in turmoil then that will reflect when it comes to promoting the album or a follow up album. Or just group unity. All of that plays a part in shyt going south. Look at Tribe. Once shyt went south with Phife and Tip, that was it for them. And you can hear it on Beats Rhymes and Life and the love movement where they have next to no chemistry at all and don't look comfortable doing interviews next to each other.

theres no such thing as a "most powerful radio station in the country". hot 97 only exists in 1 1/2 states. hot 97 aint powerful over here breh. and im not far from new york. the same way new yorkers think they invented powerhouse.

ya man inspectah deck himself even said that they lost the belt with that forever album. so what are we even arguing about here?

all these excuses. "forever" did indeed having catchy singles. and they didnt need catchy singles anyway. the album scanned 4 millie. its not about catchy singles. the album just wasnt as great as you thought it was.

what group unity? its 9 or 10 members. youre lucky to get 5 member on a track unless its a posse cut. how much unity did they have in the first place? and who the hell would even buy a ticket expecting all of them to show up period?

yea, look at tribe. THEY FELL OFF. and their solo albums werent popular either.

 

[MartyMcFly]

theres no such thing as a "most powerful radio station in the country". hot 97 only exists in 1 1/2 states. hot 97 aint powerful over here breh. and im not far from new york. the same way new yorkers think they invented powerhouse.

ya man inspectah deck himself even said that they lost the belt with that forever album. so what are we even arguing about here?

all these excuses. "forever" did indeed having catchy singles. and they didnt need catchy singles anyway. the album scanned 4 millie. its not about catchy singles. the album just wasnt as great as you thought it was.

what group unity? its 9 or 10 members. youre lucky to get 5 member on a track unless its a posse cut. how much unity did they have in the first place? and who the hell would even buy a ticket expecting all of them to show up period?

yea, look at tribe. THEY FELL OFF. and their solo albums werent popular either.

Tribes solos came out way after their run although amplified moved units which I'm sure tip was proud of. And when deck says they lost the belts it's all about group issues man. You can't have inner group turmoil and expect to be on point after. For the w to get a platinum plaque was amazing to me because of all the bs behind the scenes. I'm not blaming the music as much as I'm blaming the group dynamics after 97 and that had nothing to do with music. All of the shyt I'm saying leads to a group in disarray. When your hometown isn't showing you love on radio when your brothers are beefing with each other and when the group as a whole lacks direction after that 97 summer then all of that adds up. Regardless of the quality of the album, if the group can't keep it together then that's that. Midnight Marauders is a classic and if anyone disagrees that it's classic, it's at least a very very dope record and they fell a part after it due to inner turmoil and personal issues

 

[Billy Ocean]

Nah, Forever was never all that great to me, at all. I loved "Heaterz", and that was one of the only joints I really latched onto from that album. I'm more into the solo joints.

I copped Enter the first night it dropped, right along with MM. I had my tracks on there, but I lost my mind when I heard MM, I don't think I messed with anything as much as that in '93. Those two Quest albums are just perfect, to me. I still listen to them all day. I haven't listened to Enter in years.

Forever is great. And a classic.

The same way you feel about those two Tribe albums is exactly how I feel about 36 and Forever, Awesome. Two undeniable classics.

 

[Wacky D]

Tribes solos came out way after their run although amplified moved units which I'm sure tip was proud of. And when deck says they lost the belts it's all about group issues man. You can't have inner group turmoil and expect to be on point after. For the w to get a platinum plaque was amazing to me because of all the bs behind the scenes. I'm not blaming the music as much as I'm blaming the group dynamics after 97 and that had nothing to do with music. All of the shyt I'm saying leads to a group in disarray. When your hometown isn't showing you love on radio when your brothers are beefing with each other and when the group as a whole lacks direction after that 97 summer then all of that adds up. Regardless of the quality of the album, if the group can't keep it together then that's that. Midnight Marauders is a classic and if anyone disagrees that it's classic, it's at least a very very dope record and they fell a part after it due to inner turmoil and personal issues

so you admit that tribe's run was over.

dog. everybody has their time. wu's time amongst the top of the crop was simply just up. youre making all these excuses concerning stuff that nobody cares about.

by '98 they were becoming and there was a whole new fresher, hipper & hungrier batch of east coast rappers coming thru in '97-98.

thats how it be happening. or how it used to be.

just remember them at their best, and whatever good stuff they put out afterwards.

 

[MartyMcFly]

dog. everybody has their time. wu's time amongst the top of the crop was simply just up. youre making all these excuses concerning stuff that nobody cares about.

by '98 they were becoming and there was a whole new fresher, hipper & hungrier batch of east coast rappers coming thru in '97-98.

thats how it be happening. or how it used to be.

just remember them at their best, and whatever good stuff they put out afterwards.

Not making excuses breh because once 98 came they were still nice. It's not like the collective skill of dudes fell off..they were better on forever than they were on 36 and the rhymes continued to be on point. Again, lack of direction is the key. You get when the skills take a nosedive and the only cat in wu to experience that is Cappa. Fukk, Tip hasn't fallen off to take it back to Tribe. He continued to be dope and kill it on the mic each time out. Whether you fukked with the music or not is a personal taste thing but objectively, he didn't suddenly get rusty and forget how to rap or stop being a dope rapper. Same with Wu as a whole and individually minus Cap. Prodigy is an example of falling off (no diss to the mobb)

 

[eerieBell]

put it this way. how often do non-wutang fans champion "forever" as a classic album?

its just a personal classic amongst wutang fans.

I'm a huge Wu fan, but Forever ain't no classic, it's a really good project, but it still needs that something to reach the final step and become classic on level that 36Chambers is.

 

[mobbinfms]

Not making excuses breh because once 98 came they were still nice. It's not like the collective skill of dudes fell off..they were better on forever than they were on 36 and the rhymes continued to be on point. Again, lack of direction is the key. You get when the skills take a nosedive and the only cat in wu to experience that is Cappa. Fukk, Tip hasn't fallen off to take it back to Tribe. He continued to be dope and kill it on the mic each time out. Whether you fukked with the music or not is a personal taste thing but objectively, he didn't suddenly get rusty and forget how to rap or stop being a dope rapper. Same with Wu as a whole and individually minus Cap. Prodigy is an example of falling off (no diss to the mobb)

Exactly. Wu fell off commercially. The rhymes were exquisite in 97 though. What killed the Wu was when they started releasing all the follow-up solos without wall-to-wall RZA production. Plus all the Wu affiliates were diluting the brand. But mostly, commercial tastes changed. Nothing they could do about that.

 

[MartyMcFly]

Exactly. Wu fell off commercially. The rhymes were exquisite in 97 though. What killed the Wu was when they started releasing all the follow-up solos without wall-to-wall RZA production. Plus all the Wu affiliates were diluting the brand. But mostly, commercial tastes changed. Nothing they could do about that.

Exactly. There's a difference between falling off and self destruction whether it be through group fighting or like you said, freaking diluting the brand and slapping that logo on every thing like it was going out of style

 

[GeeEffKay]

im not surprised by the results but it should be much closer than it is

as a group atqc has released 2 absolutely amazing albums and 2 really good albums

 

[BmoreGorilla]

That's a tough one but gotta go with the Wu.