A Tribe Called Quest - The Low End Theory [2LP UK Import]

Few hip-hop records swing like The Low End Theory, A Tribe Called Quest's 1991 lesson in jazz, bass and razor-sharp rhymes, here as a UK import double LP.

Arriving a year after their debut, the second Tribe album saw Q-Tip, Phife Dawg and Ali Shaheed Muhammad strip their sound back to the essentials: deep upright bass, crisp drums and plenty of space for the voices to breathe. The group handled the production themselves, and that lean, warm approach helped set the template for jazz-minded hip-hop throughout the decade that followed.

Legendary jazz bassist Ron Carter even turns up on "Verses from the Abstract", a fitting seal of approval from the very tradition the group was sampling. "Check the Rhime" is the perfect showcase for the Q-Tip and Phife partnership, the pair trading lines like old friends finishing each other's sentences, while "Jazz (We've Got)" rides a mellow, head-nodding groove that never outstays its welcome.

Then comes "Scenario", the explosive posse cut with Leaders of the New School that introduced a young Busta Rhymes to a much bigger audience and still sets parties off today.

More than three decades on, the album sounds effortlessly cool, and it remains a cornerstone of any serious hip-hop shelf.