1990: "If the Papes Come", A Tribe Called Quest

Anchored by a bass heavy sample of Lou Donaldson's classic "Pot Belly", this early b-side from A Tribe Called Quest is as illustrative of the group's influential dabbling in jazz as anything that made the debut, People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm. The sample would go on the following year to be utilized prominently in tracks by Compton's Most Wanted ("Driveby Miss Daisy") and Ice Cube ("Horny Lil Devil") and even later a wealth of other hip hop cuts (including Dr. Dre's "Rat-Tat-Tat-Tat" off his immortal The Chronic LP).

A late addition to the Native Tongues Posse - whose De La Soul and the Jungle Brothers already had records in the stores by 1990 - ATCQ were arguably the first hip hop group to invest heavily in jazz as a source of breakbeats. In comparison, Gang Starr beat Tribe to putting out an album in 1989, but that first record, No More Mr. Nice Guy, is largely built on traditional funk/r&b beats and is not particularly representative of their later, more popular core sound. ATCQ was pretty much knocking shit out of the park from day one.

"If the Papes Come" - again, a b-side off of the "Can I Kick It?" single and not originally an album cut - is most commonly found these days off 1999's The Anthology; but that first album, which sported "Bonita Applebaum" and "I Left My Wallet in El Segundo" in addition to "Can I Kick It?", is a bona fide classic in its own right, and well worth hearing from start to finish.



BONUS: "Pot Belly" by Lou Donaldson