Midnight Marauders

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Midnight Marauders
Midnight Marauders cover
Studio album by A Tribe Called Quest
Released November 9, 1993 (1993-11-09)
Recorded 1993
Genre Alternative hip hop
Length 51:12
Label Jive Records
Producer A Tribe Called Quest
Large Professor
Skeff Anselm
Professional reviews
A Tribe Called Quest chronology
The Low End Theory
(1991)		 Midnight Marauders
(1993)		 Beats, Rhymes and Life
(1996)
Singles from Midnight Marauders
  1. "Award Tour"
    Released: November 1993
  2. "Electric Relaxation"
    Released: March 1994
  3. "Oh My God"
    Released: May 30, 1994

Midnight Marauders is the third album by hip hop group A Tribe Called Quest, released on November 9, 1993.

Contents

[edit] Background

The album was a critical and commercial success, especially the hit single "Award Tour", though its jazz rap fusion and intellectual songwriting were subdued in comparison with the previous record, The Low End Theory, leading to some criticism. The album still contains important themes, like the use of the word nigger, but does not lose its spirituality.

The listener is guided through the program by a robotic voiced woman played by Laurel Dann. As this voice tells the listener at the end of "Award Tour", the meaning of the album's title derives from a figure that "seven times out of ten, we listen to our music at night", hence the "Midnight", and that the word maraud means to loot, and A Tribe Called Quest are "maraud[ing] for ears".[citation needed]

It is one of three A Tribe Called Quest albums on The Source's 100 Best Rap Albums.[1] It is also one of three A Tribe Called Quest albums to be certified platinum by the RIAA.[2]

The only video for this album that is fully displayed in full color is "Oh My God". The song "Electric Relaxation" was used during the opening theme for the WB sitcom Wayans Bros.. The original version of "The Chase Part Two", called "The Chase" uses the same beat, but instead has one verse by Consequence in it.

[edit] Track listing

The entire album is produced by A Tribe Called Quest except "8 Million Stories" (produced by Skeff Anslem) and "Keep It Rollin'" (produced by Large Professor).

# Title Songwriter(s) Performer(s) Sample(s) Time
1 "Midnight Marauders Tour Guide" Davis, J./Muhammad, A./Taylor, M. *Interlude* 0:45
2 "Steve Biko (Stir It Up)" Davis, J./Muhammad, A./Taylor, M.
  • Verse one: Phife Dawg, Q-Tip
  • Verse two: Phife Dawg, Q-Tip, Phife Dawg, Q-Tip
  • "Ekim" by Michal Urbaniak Group
 3:11
3 "Award Tour" Davis, J./Muhammad, A./Taylor, M. 3:46
4 "8 Million Stories" Davis, J./Muhammad, A./Taylor, M./Anslem, S. Phife Dawg 4:30
5 "Sucka Nigga" Davis, J./Muhammad, A./Taylor, M./Hubbard, H. Q-Tip
  • "Red Clay" by Jack Wilkens
 4:05
6 "Midnight" Davis, J./Muhammad, A./Taylor, M. 3:49
7 "We Can Get Down" Davis, J./Muhammad, A./Taylor, M.
  • Verse one: Phife Dawg
  • Verse two: Q-Tip
 4:19
8 "Electric Relaxation" Davis, J./Muhammad, A./Taylor, M.
  • Verse one: Q-Tip, Phife Dawg, Q-Tip
  • Verse two: Q-Tip, Phife Dawg, Q-Tip, Phife Dawg, Q-Tip
 4:04
9 "Clap Your Hands" Davis, J./Muhammad, A./Taylor, M./James, B./Norcentelli/Porter/Neville/Modeliste
  • Verse one: Phife Dawg
  • Verse two: Q-Tip
 3:16
10 "Oh My God" Davis, J./Muhammad, A./Taylor, M.
  • Verse one:Q-Tip, Phife Dawg
  • Verse two: Q-Tip
  • Chorus: Busta Rhymes
  • "Who's Gonna Take Weight" by Kool & The Gang
  • "Why Can't People Be Colors Too?" by The Whatnauts
  • "Absolutions" by Lee Morgan
 3:29
11 "Keep It Rollin'" Davis, J./Muhammad, A./Taylor, M./Mitchell, W. Verse one:Phife Dawg 3:05
12 "The Chase, Prt II" Davis, J./Muhammad, A./Taylor, M./Arrington, S./Godsey, V./Hankerson, B.
  • Verse one: Phife Dawg, Q-Tip
  • Verse two: Q-Tip
 4:02
13 "Lyrics to Go" Davis, J./Muhammad, A./Taylor, M.
  • Verse one: Q-Tip
  • Verse two: Phife Dawg
  • Verse three: Q-Tip
 4:09
14 "God Lives Through" Davis, J./Muhammad, A./Taylor, M.
  • Verse one: Phife Dawg
  • Verse two: Q-Tip
 4:15
15 "Hot Sex" (European bonus track) Davis, J./Muhammad, A./Taylor, M.
  • Verse one: Phife Dawg
  • Verse two: Q-Tip
  • "Who's Making Love" by Lou Donaldson
 5:12

[edit] Accolades

The information is taken from Acclaimedmusic.net[3]and other website links below.

Publication Country Accolade Year Rank
Ego Trip USA Hip Hop's 25 Greatest Albums by Year 1980-98 1999 #2
Exclaim Canada 100 Records that Rocked 100 Issues 2000 *
Pitchfork USA Top 100 Favorite Records of the 1990s 2003 #75
The Source USA The Source 100 best Hip-Hop Albums of All Time 1998 *
The Guardian UK 100 Albums that Don't Appear in All Other Top 100 Album Lists 1999 #98
The New Nation UK Top 100 Albums by Black Artists #11
OOR Moordlijst Netherlands 10 The 100 Best Albums of 1991-1995 1995 #31
Spex Germany 1001 The 100 Albums of the Century 1999 #19

( * ) designates lists which are unordered.

[edit] Personnel

  • A Tribe Called Quest – producer, engineer, mixing
  • Skeff Anselm – producer
  • Busta Rhymes
  • Pete Christensen – assistant engineer
  • Patrick Derivaz – assistant engineer
  • Chris Flam – assistant engineer
  • Eric Gast – assistant engineer
  • Gerard Julien – assistant engineer
  • Large Professor – producer
  • Tim Latham – engineer
  • Hoover Le – assistant engineer
  • Ali Shaheed Muhammad – DJ
  • Bob Power – engineer, mixing
  • Q-Tip – vocals
  • Raphael Wiggins
  • Tom Coyne – mastering
  • George Spatta – assistant engineer
  • Brad Schmidt – assistant engineer
  • Carol Weinberg – photography
  • Phife Dawg – vocals

[edit] Cover art

The back vinyl cover of Midnight Marauders
The back vinyl cover of Midnight Marauders

Widely respected and admired for their success and artistry throughout the hip-hop scene, and preternaturally inclined to accept this adulation with grace and humility, the group elected to summon fellow hip-hoppers whose work as artists and actions as human beings they respected, and photographed headshots of each for arrangement on the album's cover and liner-notes insert. And like The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, it serves as a time capsule of the era; a who's who of hip hop circa 1993.

According to ego trip's Book of Rap Lists, there are a reported 71 different hip hop luminaries and radio DJ's who adorned Midnight Marauders. The cover was issued in three different color schemes- red, black, & green (with black being the rarest). The book goes into detail as to which artists were on which particular album cover using a number scheme to easily identify each artist. The complete list of artists are as follows:

[edit] References

  1. ^ ~~~~ www.rocklist.net ~~~~
  2. ^ http://www.riaa.com/gp/database/default.asp
  3. ^ Midnight Marauders at AcclaimedMusic.net. Retrieved on June 23, 2007.
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