Check The Rhime

It was recorded at Greene St. Recording in New York City during the sessions for The Low End Theory, with Q-Tip, Phife Dawg, and Ali Shaheed Muhammad credited on the song. The track was built around group production and sample-based arrangement work on the original release. Released in 1991 as the lead single from The Low End Theory, it helped define the album’s stripped-back, jazz-inflected sound and the lyrical interplay between Q-Tip and Phife Dawg. Rolling Stone later singled it out as one of the group’s essential songs. The song remained one of A Tribe Called Quest’s signature records, with its hook and vocal exchange widely referenced and reused; it has been sampled in many later tracks and also circulated as bumper music in sports-radio and television contexts. Its continued visibility helped keep The Low End Theory central to hip-hop canon discussions.