A Tribe Called Quest

Love Movement

They ended their career with THIS album?!?!

Review Score:

(4/10)
After a three-peat of classic albums and one wack album, A Tribe Called Quest announced that they were breaking up after eight years in the game. But The Love Movement sounds just like Mase's last album released right before he too ended his era of fame: a bunch of lame songs that the Tribe seemingly hurried up to make just so they can get away from each other. If that ain't bad enough, most of the songs sound the same because of The Ummah's production.

If you take the production from "The Hop", a song off their disappointing Beats, Rhymes and Life album, and spead it out over fifteen tracks, you have a pretty good idea how the songs on this album sound like. But the beat to "Find a Way" crowded dance floors; still, you can't ignore Q-Tip's now non-existent rhyme skills: "I'm'a still just chill with you/Maybe things could change if you change your crew/If not, then I guess it is cool." Sheesh. Why not just hang up the mic right then and there? There are worse songs than this, but I didn't feel like punishing myself by listening to them again just to review the album.

Q-Tip and Phife remind me of senior citizens who once knew how to ball, teaming up against some young new jacks in a two-on-two. The guest stars on this album outshine both of them. Noreaga does his thing on "Give Me", while Busta Rhymes and Redman show up for "Stoppin' It Up". How can anyone survive when Redman busts lines like, "I'm 6'1" with a big a' gun/To carry it, you need a waistline the size of Big Pun"? And for the finale, the "Twice Inna Lifetime" guys Wordsworth, Jane Doe, Punchline and Mos Def come and rap circles around Q-Tip on "Rock Rock Ya'll".

The only reason to buy this album is for the bonus tracks at the end (B-sides and remixes of their, to quote L.O.N.S., classic material--speaking of that, check out L.O.N.S. and Tribe on the "Scenario" remix). Unfortunately, instead of leaving the rap game with an album that would make fans sad that they broke up, A Tribe Called Quest left us with an album that has us wondering why haven't they broke up sooner.

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