similar to my thread on Weezy's mixtape artwork, here are Tribe's cover art in the best quality, and truest to original form, I could get

1990 - People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm

A composite of two scans and a cleaned frame, tried to get it close to the original vinyl pressing.

1991 - The Low End Theory

This one took me the longest. Back in 2011, I scanned my CD and recoloured it to make it more vibrant, that scan ended up being used on iTunes and the ATCQ website for a while but it wasn't ideal. They've recently updated the artwork on MSPs to a higher resolution image however it's got many flaws.

The reissued artwork on streaming platforms made some odd decisions like stretching the fingers, reshaping stripes on the left knee, removing part of a shadow beside the arm. Also, the green stripes were less visible and the colours looked too lightened. I found the best scan I could, which was just 876x, and I edited it towards the original 1992 LPs by repositioning the text and colour correcting using a bunch of photos of 1st pressings for reference.

1993 - Midnight Marauders
A few years back I found a HiRes scan but the clocks were cropped, so I fixed that.

1996 - Beats, Rhymes and Life

This is a composite of a HiRes scan and an export of the original artwork by Skam2

For the last two albums' covers, I use what's on the streaming platforms

forgot to post the variations of Midnight Marauders

fans want the feeling of a tribe called quest

@PADYBU this is cool, nice work. whats your favorite tribe album

Thanks!
Was thinking about this earlier

quick answer would be it's between TLET & MM..

I think it's TLET though. Might be because the relationships in the group were stronger then.. sort of feels like they were having fun more than just performing which is what it feels more like on MM especially towards the end

good choice bro. Low End is also my favorite. MM is great too no doubt, and I feel like its most peoples favorite, but Low End is perfection

Very nice we need this for a lot of albums

I always felt like Midnight Marauders was where Tip and Phife chemistry as perfectly balanced. The beats fit both of them perfectly and and they both seem equally comfortable.

TLET is just as good for sure but I always felt like Phife was still finding his footing at that point

Dope thread

I wonder how much of that was them being competitive though

idk, I'ma relisten to them both rn

fire

They were having some conflict that era but I always felt like it hadn’t effected the music yet on that album. Like you can’t fake the chemistry they had on Electric Relaxation.

I just loved how perfectly in a bag they both were but still had their own moments to shine.

Thank you for your service PADYBU

i agree and i feel like Low End is more of a Q-Tip featuring Phife album while MM is them more like co-lead-MCs

Yeah Phife is amazing on Low End Theory but there are so many songs hes not even on, which is even more of the case on their debut.

Midnight Marauders was like they’re both here, and they’re both in their prime. All their albums are great on some level though except maybe the love movement which is still solid

"yo tip, settle down, what's the reason for your laughter"
first track in and Phife is already on Tips case /s

ill never understand why people regard MM so highly, its great but not better than TLET

Idk man I feel like Midnight Marauders is definitely their best album, probably in my top 5 albums ever

People's Instinctive still the most underrated Tribe album

Facts. That album still has the most crisp sound out of all the tribe albums

Beautiful

I've looked for album art for some older albums and I was really surprised at how hard it can be to get high quality images of cover art if it's not very modern. Good thread

Tell me about it, even the most renowned albums of all time still have poor reproductions on not only itunes/ spotify etc but also cd/vinyl reissues!

streaming services use this for Kind of Blue

Colours washed out, doesn't have the original fonts

colour corrected towards mint original pressings

@PADYBU if you ever do one for Lil B that'd be greatly appreciated

HD is a term for motion picture, not stills