(Note: If you want to read about a real fight, a real battle between bands of matching or comparable strength, then go elsewhere. You will find no competition in a ring that pits A Tribe Called Quest against Kanye West. The former is Mike Tyson; the latter is Michael Spinks)

When the substance of A Tribe Called Quest is placed next to the substance of Kanye West, this binary sequence is set into motion: New York/Chicago; groundbreaking/faking the funk; politically lucid/politically messy; and day/night. Let’s unpack and examine each binary unit.

New York/Chicago

First of all, Kanye West comes from Chicago, a city that has contributed only two names to the 30-year history of hiphop—West himself and Common Sense (now known simply as Common). Chicago is not a rap city but a house-music city. House is the type of music that the Windy City knows how to make best. Hiphop is for New York City, where it was born and where it will not die—hiphop is destined to die, instead, somewhere in the dust and noise of the Dirty South. One track on Midnight Marauders, A Tribe Called Quest’s highest and most complete achievement, is called “8 Million Stories.” The reason why Q-Tip and Phife can tell that many stories is because they are from New York City (Queens to be specific), a city with a population of eight million. Kanye West, on the other hand, can’t even tell half that many stories, as Chicago has a population of 2.9 million.

Groundbreaking/Faking the Funk

Tribe’s 1990 debut album, People’s Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm, is marked by an extraordinary sense of creative freedom, beat experimentation, wonder at the sonic possibilities, range, and depth of hiphop. A sense of the solid substance of hiphop, its heaviness, its strength, its ability to fuse and mix with established musical forms, like jazz, is what marks their second disc, The Low End Theory (1991). A sense of hiphop’s rich history, its importance and its place in the spectrum of the musical arts, and identifying, naming, and celebrating the essence of hiphop, is what marks Midnight Marauders (1993). A Tribe Called Quest’s last two albums, Beats, Rhymes and Life (1996) and The Love Movement (1998), are distinguished by the fact that they launched producer Jay Dee’s career. The underground sound of today—the hiphop that’s made by leading beat-heads like Madlib, Vitamin D, Jake One—owes a heavy debt to Jay Dee, who, before he died late last year, owed a heavy debt to the man who discovered him, Q-Tip.

Kanye West has discovered nothing, and, consequently, has done nothing for hiphop except popularize that whiney, high-pitched chorus. West reduces great soul singers from the mighty Motown age to cartoon-like chipmunks. His is a childish art, and as for “Jesus Walks,” what on earth is that about? Jesus might have walked, but Kanye certainly crawls.

Quick note: Jay Dee gave Common his greatest track, “Heat,” which is on Like Water for Chocolate; Kanye West gave Common his worst track, “Faithful,” which has chipmunks singing, “They ought to be.”

Politically lucid/Politically messy

Listen to A Tribe Called Quest’s records, and their politics is transparent; listen to Kanye West and lord knows exactly where he stands on things. Is he gangsta? Is he for real? Is he about making that chedda? And can a real progressive head have Jay-Z (the godfather of hiphop capitalism and materialism) as his mentor? As for “Jesus Walks,” what are we supposed to make of its militarism, its battle sounds, its call for war? Granted, West is the first rapper to openly promote greater tolerance of homosexuality in the hiphop and black community, but beyond this what else is there? And besides, when one considers where West is from, Chicago, and the kind of music for which that city is famous, house (which has its roots in black gay club culture), his progressive position on homosexuality is not all that exceptional.

Day/Night

A Tribe Called Quest made their best albums during the daytime of hiphop history; Kanye West is making albums during its night. And boy is it dark out there: a total night that has here and there black cows, black cats, and the sounds of black chipmunks. A Tribe Called Quest, please, help me find my way.