“Buggin Out” by A Tribe Called Quest

"Buggin Out" sits on The Low End Theory, the second album A Tribe Called Quest put out through Jive in September 1991, and its credits keep everything in the family. Ali Shaheed Muhammad, Phife Dawg and Q-Tip wrote it, the group produced it themselves, and Bob Power recorded and mixed it right alongside them.

It belongs to a record that cut the Tribe sound down to the bone, bass and drum breaks and jazz samples, a sharp turn from their debut. Most of the sessions went down at Battery Studios in New York, with Q-Tip steering the bulk of the production, and the rhymes on the album run on wordplay, humor and social commentary, Q-Tip and Phife Dawg batting lines back and forth. It's also the record that made Phife's name.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz.