After Hours — A Tribe Called Quest

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QG8OyVN0wQA

A Tribe Called Quest is one of those hip-hop groups from the late 80s and 90s that embodies the most false nostalgia for me. It's such an overwhelmingly positive, cheerful tone; lyrically positive, musically tenacious, complex and simple and truly great songwriting. I wasn't alive in the 80s and 90s, but if I were, this is what I would've listened to, I'd like to think. Moreover, it samples, heavily: but the samples aren't immediately recognizable. The modern trend in sampling is to use the background for an entire song and to perhaps use another song for the chorus; Quest uses bits and pieces of other songs, chopped up and put together and truly composing with the samples, not just laying them under the verses. They weren't the first, but they emulate a tone I really like — the low-key, simple, relaxed smooth-jazz tones, but with the churning, pounding rhythms that hip-hop needs.