Electric Relaxation

"Electric Relaxation"
Single by A Tribe Called Quest
from the album Midnight Marauders
B-side	"Midnight"
Released	February 28, 1994
Recorded	1993
Genre	Jazz rap psychedelic rap
Length	3:45 (single) 4:04 (album)
Label	Jive
Songwriter(s)	Kamaal Fareed Ronnie Foster Ali Shaheed Muhammad Malik Taylor
Producer(s)	A Tribe Called Quest
A Tribe Called Quest singles chronology
"Award Tour" (1993) "Electric Relaxation" (1994) "Oh My God" (1994)
Music video
"Electric Relaxation" on YouTube

"Electric Relaxation" is the second single from American hip hop group A Tribe Called Quest's third album, Midnight Marauders (1993). It contains a sample of the song "Mystic Brew" by jazz organist Ronnie Foster.

The track was featured as the opening theme song for The WB's black sitcom The Wayans Bros., for the first two seasons.

The beat of the song was ranked as the third greatest hip-hop beat of all time by Rock the Bells in 2024.^[1]

Production

In a conversation with XXL, Phife Dawg revealed that the beat for "Electric Relaxation" was created in his grandmother's basement by Q-Tip:

I just remember coming home from somewhere—my grandmother gave him a key, the whole nine, he used to just go in and do his thing—I came home from some type of trip and I walked in the kitchen, and you know, he's in the basement and you could hear the music coming up, and all I heard was that. I didn't even say hello to my grandmother or whoever was in the house, I was just like, "Hold on!" and went downstairs. "Yo, what the hell is that?!" He was like, "Yo, that shit is crazy, right?" And it just became what it is now. ... On that record, he wrote my lines and I wrote his—actually, we wrote our own lines, and when we recorded, we traded. That's why the whole back and forth, you know what I mean?^[2]

Charts

Chart (1994)	Peak position
UK Club Chart (Music Week)[3]	55
US Billboard Hot 100[4]	65
US Dance Singles Sales (Billboard)[5]	2
US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs (Billboard)[6]	38
US Hot Rap Songs (Billboard)[7]	13

Certifications

Region	Certification	Certified units/sales
United Kingdom (BPI)[8]	Silver	200,000^‡
^‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

References

1. "ROCK THE BELLS RADIO NAMES "SHOOK ONES PT. II" GREATEST HIP-HOP BEAT". Rock The Bells. January 2, 2024.
2. "Phife Breaks Down His Ten Favorite A Tribe Called Quest Songs". XXL. November 8, 2013. Retrieved October 19, 2017.
3. "The RM Club Chart" (PDF). Music Week, in Record Mirror (Dance Update Supplemental Insert). February 19, 1994. p. 4. Retrieved May 15, 2023.
4. "The Pharcyde Chart History (Hot 100)". Billboard. Retrieved June 25, 2022.
5. "The Pharcyde Chart History (Dance Singles Sales)". Billboard. Retrieved June 25, 2022.
6. "The Pharcyde Chart History (Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs)". Billboard. Retrieved June 25, 2022.
7. "The Pharcyde Chart History (Hot Rap Songs)". Billboard. Retrieved June 25, 2022.
8. "British single certifications – A Tribe Called Quest – Electric Relaxation". British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved March 17, 2023.