"Check the Rhime" (A Tribe Called Quest)

"Check the Rhime" from 1991's The Low End Theory was my first introduction to A Tribe Called Quest, even though the group already had several singles and an album, 1990's People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm, under its belt.
I was in 8th grade when "Check the Rhime" dropped—a time when the likes of Vanilla Ice and MC Hammer were still being crammed down our throats (you couldn't turn on MTV without seeing the latter's gaudy, unintentionally hilarious "2 Legit 2 Quit" video every 20 minutes).  The whole pop-rap craze was really off-putting to me, especially when I knew there were groups out there (who didn't have Saturday morning cartoon shows) making intelligent hip-hop that acknowledged the genre's roots in blues, jazz, and funk.
Anyway, in the midst of all the "2L2Q"-ing, here was a group out of Queens with this unflashy video, where no one was wearing parachute pants or flashing lame hand gestures.  They traded rhymes like crews from the early 80s, only with flows that were so much smoother and more cerebral.  Plus, the backing track was funky.  It didn't surprise me at all when I found out they were compatriots of De La Soul and Jungle Brothers.
Incidentally, my favorite verse of the song is still Q-Tip's quip at the very end of the track:
Proper.  What you say, Hammer?  Proper.
Rap is not pop, if you call it that, then stop.

"Award Tour" (A Tribe Called Quest)

Midnight Marauders (1993) is one of those rare 90s albums that I can still put on without feeling silly or skipping a single track.  Even the little interstitial "skits" featuring the robotic, Siri-like guide still work for the most part.
If you're cherry-picking, the album contains several bonafide classics ("Oh My God" with Busta Rhymes, "Electric Relaxation," and "We Can Get Down").  My personal favorite, though, is still the lead single, "Award Tour."
Beyond the lyrical acrobatics (and Q-Tip and Phife Dawg spit some extremely clever verses), it was the production on the track that drew my ear years ago.  The backing instrumental is so melodic, so fluid that it's kind of hard to fathom that it's built from at least five different samples—the most prominent one being jazz keyboardist/composer Weldon Irvine's "We Gettin' Down."  It still sounds amazingly fresh 20+ years later.  
That's a testament to the creativity of this crew and the group's not-so-secret-weapon Ali Shaheed Muhammed, whose inventive, tasteful production work with everyone from D'Angelo to the short-lived Lucy Pearl continues to amaze and move me.