“Excursions” by A Tribe Called Quest is a song that explores the band’s love for hip-hop and their deep connection to the genre. The lyrics of Q-Tip take the listener on a journey through the artist’s thoughts, emotions, and the story they aim to tell. The album was released on September 24, 1991, by Jive Records. Recording sessions were mostly held at Battery Studios in Los Angeles.
The song features samples of four songs: A Tribe Called Quest’s “Everything Is Fair, Everything Is Fair”, Jungle Brothers feat. De La Soul, and Q-Tip’s “Skit 5”. The album was covered in “Excursions (Tribute Remix)” by J.Period feat. De La Soul; “Excursions” by Aphroe.
A Tribe Called Quest album also includes samples of “Ms. Jackson” by Lonnie Smith, “Buggin Out” by Lonnie Smith, and “Minya’s the Mooch” by Jack Dejohnette’s Directions.
In addition to these songs, “Excursions” contains samples of other artists such as Simba and Milton Gulli, Buggin Out, Spinning Wheel by Lonnie Smith, and Minya’s the Mooch by Jack Dejohnette’s Directions.
In summary, “Excursions” by A Tribe Called Quest is a captivating song that explores the band’s love for hip-hop and their deep connection to the genre. The lyrics of the song, along with samples from other artists like Simba and Milton Gulli, provide a unique perspective on the band’s music and their connection to the genre.
📹 Sample Breakdown – The Low End Theory | A Tribe Called Quest
(Background) A month after the release of A Tribe Called Quest’s debut album, People’s Instinctive Travels and the Paths of …
📹 A Tribe Called Quest – The Low End Theory – 25th Anniversary Mixtape
The Shades of Brown – The Soil I Tilled For You (Loop) (Sampled in ‘Excursions) 12. A Tribe Called Quest – Excursions 13.
My mom use to date William Billy Brown of the Shades of Brown in the 1980’s and he taught me a lot about the recording studio and took me to meet a lot of people in the music business. He also taught me a lot about the music business. The Shades of Brown is from the southside of Chicago Altgeld Gardens. Billy was like a uncle to me until his sudden passing in 2014. I still have a autograph CD of their album he gave me.
As an avid listener of ATCQ, I truly enjoyed every second of this article. It is very interesting see how they did it. The songs they sampled from are already very good songs but they found the harmony between songs that didn’t exist and created beautiful beats by matching and merging them perfectly. In my opinion, this shows how talented they are at understanding and finding the connection in music. Furthermore, they even refined some of the songs that being used for sampling. It’s just breathtaking.
This is why hip hop is such a beautiful piece of musical art, there is NOTHING like it. Making new music out of other music but in a creative way is crazy, crazy to have that kind of ear and the art of sampling is one of the greatest things in music. I can honestly say that through hip hop it opened my ears to other music, I’ve learned so much more music and appreciate music because of it. Thank you HIP HOP!
The Low End Theory is a masterpiece using the form of hip-hop. A Tribe Called Quest have many hits and great albums. This is the stand alone project that feed the others. It’s a flawless expression of art in music form. The samples are layered in such a way that some can’t be recognized and only hint that they are there. Every listen can reveal something new. That’s the very definition of a masterwork.
Hands down my most favorite album of all time. It has helped me through so many hard times. This album has made me forget about my problems when days seemed dark and gloomy. This album has managed to put a smile on my face when life was more bitter than chewing a raw lemon. I just would like to thank Q tip, Ali, jarobi and to Phife may he rest in power
Q tip produced the 1st three albums and the later ones with J DILLA. Q Tip is the DR. DRE OF THE EAST. NAS, MOB DEEP, APACHE, BUSTA, JUNGLE BROS, Mariah Carey, Cordae, LL Cool J, Solange, John Legend, Santigold, Jay-Z & Kanye West, Quincy Jones, Stanley Clarke, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Whitney Houston, Heavy D, Mint Condition, Young Zee, Cypress Hill, Craig Mack, Diamond D, AND Chi-Ali.
This album would appear to be a tribute album one could say, to all the great jazz artists who inspired Tribe and others in hip hop music. truly there were extremely talented musicians in jazz back in the day, and this article is awesome in exposing me and others to their music, cos now I’m going to check them all out and find more musical gems to add to my playlist! Thanks man!
What a refreshing article I’ve stumbled upon! I cannot get over how some of these original songs were straight up transformed. I gotta admit that my favorite sample was Minnie Ripperton’s Inside My Love which was used for Lyrics to Go. Great website!…and keep up the great work! It’s much needed and appreciated!
16 April 2022 I’ve been listening to People’s Instinctive Travels and the paths of rhythym for 2 years now, because I wanted to really grasp the tribe sound and understand the native tongues. I took my time with that album and really enjoyed it. I listened to The Low End Theory today and now I can’t stop playing it! The jazz influence really turned up a notch and they took a different turn to really reel you in. From the lyrics,the rhyme scheme, the beats, jazz, bass and the overall feel is fantastic. It’s like Tip knew that the beats gotta be better and phife knew he needed to come in spittin. This album, The Low End Theory is iconic, plus we hear Busta Rhymes’s humble begginings and hear the earliest lyrics of him refrencing dungeon dragons that nicki minaj borrowed for romans revenge ft eminem AND lyrics which were also used in his 2002 song ‘As I come back’ produced by The Neptunes. Maybe skateboard told busta to bring it back since he is a stan of Q-tip and Tribe. If it was then pharrel is a genius. Now I’m hooked to Tribe the same way I was hooked to The Fugees, especially Wyclef and Lauryn. If The Fugees did more material together I would say that they should have done a VERZUZ with A Tribe called quest. I’m gonna take my time with this album before I move on to Midnight Marauders. The Low End Theory is a classic. 10/10. I feel like tribe showed the world that you do not need to be a gangsta to rap, swear a lot in your raps, do commercial raps like mc hammer and sir mix a lot, last but not least, you do not need a chain or be materialistic to be a rapper and make it in rap.
Early 90’s in San Diego there was a bar downtown called The Green Circle. I used to go there because there was a DJ who would play rare grooves and I was just starting to get into Jazz and Funk grooves. He started to play ‘Down Here on the Ground’ by Grant Green and I immediately recognized it from ATCQ, so I asked him who it was. That started my love of GG and a lot of other great jazz guitar greats. The DJ was DJ Greyboy, who shortly after this formed The Greyboy Allstars.
At 34, I’m now an avid jazz listener but I gotta say that it took me many years to really get into. Growing up on hip hop, a good 30 years after the height of the bebop movement, my context for jazz was based in the particular sounds that were sampled on albums like this. It wasn’t until I started dabbling in making my own beats that I took a deeper listen to jazz as a genre and began to appreciate it by itself. I say that to say that it’s amazing what guys like q tip did to create a sound of their own that’s still rooted in an already existing art form.
Music was so original back in the day beautiful sampling amazing going back to your roots also roots you’ve never expected just to find the sound you’re sounds hip hop is not the same and never will Rest In Peace the creativity and hunger for the game and all the MCs we lost and producers djs dope dealers bboyz all that much love peace!!!!!
this is a classic and unforgettable for me bc at the time, it was groundbreaking, we’d gone through sugarhill, BDP, rob base, big daddy, chubbs, special ed, Maestro – in Canada, Beasties all of which I was on from the beginning…and then as a pale teenager I heard Tribe…liked Jazz and to hear it fused with slick boom bap and just cerebral lyrics at the time was fantastic, and then discovering de la soul c’mon….TCQ is literally a part of my childhood and how I grew up….I wish Phife was still here so I could still hope for a reunion, thanks guys regardless.
Love this article, so great to not only see these original sample tracks highlighted but the amount of work that went into putting everything together for this album. There used to be these compilations called “Tribe Vibes” that compiled all of these tracks on a record, I can’t remember which label put it out.
Thank you for this. Really. I love the feeling of when you hear a song somewhere that you don’t know but you do know because of a hip-hop sample. So this felt incredible. If only people that had their music being sampled understood that more. Instead of any honor from it they are totally insulted. I guess they also feel ripped off which I do kinda get. But how is it hurting their song so much? Personally, I’ve been wondering where the bassline in Buggin’ Out is from for decades and it’s the only reason I would ever become aware of Jack Dejohnette’s Direction and am now going to find and listen to it. For real though, thank you for this.
Hip hop, when the heart, mind, and soul and ear unified, what the youth is left with isn’t a speck of sand to rap/hip hop, i don’t understand what is on most air waves anymore, cant even ample like Michael!! Unfortunately doesn’t look like its comin back around…. prolly never, see you all in el segundo ❌⭕️ ❤️✌🏼 and hair greese
I m 50 years old .more punk rock and old school reggae musical taste than hip hop. But i love this album old school rap .a tribe called quest, public ennemy NWA,cypress hill,house of pain. De la soûl. Run dmc still good music compare to actual rap so mainstream and stupid way of life. This album connected me to hip hop.for his good choice of eclectik samples. I saw public ennemy in festival before Ramones it was rebel music .✊🤙🙏.faya