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I’ve always thought A Tribe Called Quest were OK, but I never rode hard for them. When the six or so people at my high school who listened to rap they couldn’t hear on the radio were passing around The Low End Theory, I thought it was weak compared to the blare of Fear of a Black Planet and too smooth compared to Check Your Head. I also thought Tribe came off kinda smug and superior–an attitude that seemed to infect their more dedicated fans, like dudes thought they were somehow better people just because they listened to a particular group. That turned me off more than anything.
That’s not so much “conscious rapping” as it is “borderline hate speech.” Fuck that, and fuck getting a couple decades of goodwill off your supposed intelligence and tolerance when it was only some suit up in corporate who kept you from being exposed as ignorant, hateful bigots.
