Midnight Marauders is the followup to A Tribe Called Quest's hip-hop masterpiece The Low End Theory. Rather than playing it safe and making another mostly upbeat release, Midnight Marauders takes the act in a darker direction with more emphasis on bass lines and jazz horns. Q-Tip and Phife Dawg continue to trade lines flawlessly on the excellent tracks "Electric Relaxation", "Steve Biko (Stir It Up)", and "Award Tour." Deep funky bass lines are upfront with the rhymes on "Sucka Nigga", "Keep It Rollin'", and "Oh My God" which features Busta Rhymes. Although "Oh My God" doesn't hit as hard as "Scenario", their previous collaboration with Busta, it's still a strong track. Even when the duo decides to go solo as Phife and Q-Tip do on the brooding "8 Million Stories" and "Midnight" respectively, the results are just as impressive. Other great tracks include "Clap Your Hands", "Lyrics To Go", and "God Lives Through." Their raps continue to be among the best in the genre. I mean who else, except maybe the Beastie Boys, could include people from completely different walks of life such as Mr. Belvedere, Robert DeNiro, Vinny Testaverde, and Rollo Lawson in their rhymes? Although there is extensive sampling used throughout, it's from mostly obscure tracks that only a die-hard old school R&B fan would pick up on. This is a refreshing change from other popular rappers at the time, most notably rappers Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg, where all you have to do is pick up a best of Parliament album to see where they got their ideas. All told, while this isn't an all out classic like The Low End Theory, it's still a great album that should be a part of every hip-hop fan's collection. Highly recommended.