A Tribe Called Quest was an American hip-hop group formed in Queens, New York City, in 1985, rapper Phife Dawg, DJ and co-producer Ali Shaheed Muhammad, and rapper Jarobi White. A Tribe Called Quest came to prominence as members of the Native Tongues collective, which they co-founded in 1988. Widely regarded as pioneers of alternative hip-hop and jazz rap, and Kris Ex of Pitchfork regarded them as "one of the greatest acts that hip-hop has ever produced".
The group's debut album, People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm (1990), earned critical acclaim, receiving the first five 'mic' rating in The Sources history. Their jazz-infused follow-up, The Low End Theory (1991), helped shape 1990s alternative hip-hop, and was followed by the equally influential Midnight Marauders (1993). Beats, Rhymes and Life (1996), became their first Billboard 200 chart-topper. Their fifth album The Love Movement (1998), preceded their breakup. After reuniting in 2006 for sporadic tours, the group released its final album, We Got It from Here... Thank You 4 Your Service (2016), which topped the Billboard 200 and earned critical praise; it featured posthumous contributions from Phife Dawg, who died eight months before its release. Their most notable songs include "Can I Kick It?", "Scenario", "Award Tour", "Electric Relaxation" and "Bonita Applebum", along with collaborations "Buddy" with De La Soul, Jungle Brothers, Monie Love and Queen Latifah, and "Rumble in the Jungle" with Fugees, Busta Rhymes and John Forte. They received the Founders Award at the 2005 Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Awards, were honored at the 4th VH1 Hip Hop Honors,
History
1985–1990: Formation, Native Tongues, and People's Instinctive Travels
thumb|upright=1.3|The neighborhood of [[St. Albans, Queens, where Q-Tip and Phife Dawg grew up together]]
Q-Tip (Kamaal Fareed) and Phife Dawg (Malik Taylor) were childhood friends who grew up together in the St. Albans neighbourhood of Queens, New York City. Initially, Q-Tip performed as a battle rapper, under the name MC Love Child, occasionally teaming up with Murry Bergtraum High School classmate Ali Shaheed Muhammad as a rapper and DJ duo. In 1985, the duo began making demos over Q-Tip's pause tape beats. The group's final name, A Tribe Called Quest, was coined in 1988 by Jungle Brothers, who attended the same high school as Q-Tip and Muhammad; that year, Q-Tip made his first recorded appearances on Jungle Brothers' songs "Black Is Black" and "The Promo".
A Tribe Called Quest hired Kool DJ Red Alert as their first manager. In early 1989, the group signed a demo deal with Geffen Records and produced a five-song demo, which included future single "I Left My Wallet in El Segundo". After receiving lucrative offers for multi-album deals from a variety of labels, the group opted for a modest deal offered by Jive Records. The music was an eclectic mix of jazz, funk, soul and rock samples. NMEs review stated that "This is not rap, it's near perfection." The album only gained momentum after the release of the singles "Bonita Applebum" and "Can I Kick It?", eventually achieving gold certification in 1996.
1991–1993: The Low End Theory, Midnight Marauders, and commercial success
thumb|upright=0.7|left|Phife Dawg's breakout performance on [[The Low End Theory marked the beginning of the group's successful run in the 1990s.]]
A Tribe Called Quest's second album, The Low End Theory, was released on September 24, 1991, with "Check the Rhime" as the lead single; the song largely established the lyrical interplay between Q-Tip and Phife Dawg. Until then, most of the group's songs had only featured vocals by Q-Tip, but Q-Tip encouraged Phife Dawg to increase his participation despite his recent diabetes diagnosis. Mixing engineer Bob Power played a major role on the album, as he was tasked with removing surface noise and static that is typically heard on hip-hop songs sampled from old vinyl records. During the recording sessions, White left the group to pursue a career in culinary arts, and they hired Chris Lighty as their new manager after signing to Rush Artist Management.
Lyrically, the group focused on a range of social issues, from date rape ("The Infamous Date Rape") to consumerism ("Skypager"), while also criticizing the hip-hop industry on several songs. Leaders member Busta Rhymes attracted attention with his verse in the song, which led to him launching a successful solo career. The album peaked at No. 45 on the Billboard 200 and was certified gold on February 19, 1992; it reached platinum status by 1995.
Conrad Tillard, then known variously as the Hip Hop Minister and Conrad Muhammad, became a fixture in hip-hop in 1993 after he arranged a meeting and a truce in a feud between rising bands Wreckx-N-Effect and A Tribe Called Quest, that Tillard said threatened to turn Harlem into a "war zone".
A Tribe Called Quest released their third album, Midnight Marauders, on November 9, 1993. The lead single, "Award Tour", became the group's highest-charting single and helped to land the album at No. 8 on the Billboard 200. Topics on the album include police harassment ("Midnight"), religious faith ("God Lives Through"), hip-hop ("We Can Get Down") and use of the word nigga ("Sucka Nigga"). while Melody Maker stated "A Tribe Called Quest have expanded their vision with a lyrical gravitas and a musical lightness of touch that has hitherto eluded them across a whole album". That summer, the group performed as one of a handful of hip-hop acts on the Lollapalooza tour, among acts such as The Smashing Pumpkins, Stereolab and The Verve. While on tour, keyboardist Amp Fiddler introduced Q-Tip to a young producer from Detroit named Jay Dee. That year, Q-Tip produced the single "One Love" from Nas' debut album Illmatic and appeared on the song "Get It Together" by Beastie Boys, from their album Ill Communication. The group contributed "Glamour and Glitz" to The Show: The Soundtrack that year, before returning the following year with their next album.
1996–1998: Beats, Rhymes and Life, The Love Movement, and breakup
thumb|upright|Q-Tip's conversion to [[Islam in the mid-1990s influenced the philosophical direction of the group's music on Beats, Rhymes and Life.]]
Beats, Rhymes and Life, the group's fourth album, was released on July 30, 1996, supported by the singles "1nce Again" and "Stressed Out". It was recorded during the turbulent East Coast–West Coast hip-hop rivalry, with the tracks "Get a Hold", "Keeping It Moving" and "Baby Phife's Return" referring to it. The Ummah's production style, a minimalist R&B and jazz-infused sound, was a departure from the group's previous albums. Consequence, Q-Tip's cousin, and an aspiring rapper, was present on six songs.
The album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and went gold before the end of the year; it was certified platinum in 1998. Critical reception was divided, but mostly positive; Rolling Stone called the album "near-flawless", while The Source awarded it four mics. Melody Maker felt that it provided "both their best and worst thus far". They also appeared on the soundtrack Men in Black: The Album, with the song "Same Ol' Thing". In Europe, they released The Jam EP, which included the aforementioned song, "Mardi Gras at Midnight" (featuring Rah Digga) and two songs from Beats, Rhymes and Life, "Get a Hold" and "Jam". That year also saw the first reunion of the three Native Tongues groups since 1989, when Jungle Brothers invited A Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul to guest on "How Ya Want It We Got It", a song from their album Raw Deluxe. Musically, the album saw the return of The Ummah's stripped-down production style from Beats, Rhymes and Life. Guest appearances by Busta Rhymes, Redman and Noreaga helped to balance the subdued tone of the album. The album was nominated for Best Rap Album at the 1999 Grammy Awards.
1999–2005: Solo projects and brief return to recording
Under the management of Violator, Q-Tip launched a successful solo career, which saw two Billboard Hot 100 hits, "Vivrant Thing" and "Breathe and Stop", and the release of the gold-certified album Amplified in late 1999. The following year, he recorded the song "What Lies Beneath" for the Soundbombing III compilation, in which he responded to Phife Dawg's comments on "Flawless".
In 2003, Q-Tip and Phife Dawg put aside their differences and A Tribe Called Quest briefly returned to the studio, recording the song "I C U (Doin' It)", featuring Erykah Badu. Undeterred by the shelving of Kamaal the Abstract, Q-Tip recorded Open in late 2003, planning to release it the next year. It featured contributions from André 3000, Common and D'Angelo. The group was named the headlining act for the 2008 Rock the Bells tour. That year, Phife Dawg received a kidney transplant from his wife. After being shelved for seven years, Kamaal the Abstract was finally released in 2009, on Battery Records. In 2012, Q-Tip signed to Kanye West's GOOD Music label and prepared the release of his new album, The Last Zulu, which later became heavily delayed. At the 2012 BET Hip Hop Awards, the group took part in a tribute performance for former manager Chris Lighty, who had recently died.
In 2013, the group performed at a handful of select festivals throughout the summer, including Yahoo! Wireless in London, Splash! in Germany, OpenAir Frauenfeld in Switzerland, and in Los Angeles. In November 2013, two of the four New York shows for West's Yeezus Tour featured A Tribe Called Quest as supporting acts. According to statements made by Q-Tip at the time, these were intended to be A Tribe Called Quest's final performances.
2015–2017: We Got It from Here, death of Phife Dawg, and final tour
thumb|left|upright=1.3|Members of A Tribe Called Quest performing on their final tour in 2017
On November 13, 2015, A Tribe Called Quest reunited to perform on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. In addition, they participated in an AMA on Reddit, where users asked the group questions. On the night of their Tonight Show appearance, the same night of the terrorist attacks in Paris, the group felt "charged" and put aside their differences, deciding to record a new album, We Got It from Here... Thank You 4 Your Service, in secrecy. Muhammad was unable to attend recording sessions for the album, as he was producing the Luke Cage soundtrack with Adrian Younge at the time. The album was incomplete when Phife Dawg died, but the surviving members continued to work on it following his death. We Got It from Here... Thank You 4 Your Service was subsequently announced in October, with a release date of November 11, 2016; it became the group's second album to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. The day after its release, the group appeared on Saturday Night Live and performed in front of a mural of Phife Dawg.
We Got It from Here featured guest appearances by André 3000, Kendrick Lamar, Jack White, Elton John, Kanye West, Anderson .Paak, Talib Kweli, Consequence and Busta Rhymes. Promoted by the hit single "We the People....", which opposed Donald Trump's presidential campaign, the album received widespread acclaim from critics. Lyrically, Rolling Stone believed that the group "maintain the attitude of the Bohemian everydude funkonauts" that inspired many prominent hip-hop artists. AllMusic praised the album's "visionary and pleasingly weird production", which drew from several different genres and sample sources. Speaking with Billboard, Q-Tip revealed plans for the group to do a final world tour, to promote the album and honor Phife Dawg, before permanently disbanding. It was also announced that a new Phife Dawg solo album, Forever, mostly completed before his death, would be released in the near future; the album was released in 2022.
On February 12, 2017, A Tribe Called Quest performed alongside Anderson .Paak, Busta Rhymes and Consequence at the 59th Annual Grammy Awards. On May 22, 2017, We Got It from Here achieved gold certification, making all six of the group's albums RIAA-certified. The group performed at a number of festivals throughout the summer; they performed their final concert on September 9, 2017, at Bestival in Dorset, England. After disbanding, a short film for the album's opening track, "The Space Program", was released on March 29, 2018, and billed as the group's final video.
Legacy
thumb|right|A Tribe Called Quest logo
AllMusic critic John Bush called A Tribe Called Quest "without question the most intelligent, artistic rap group during the 1990s", further stating that the group "jump-started and perfected the hip-hop alternative to hardcore and gangsta rap." the group successfully bridged the gap between jazz and hip-hop, incorporating bebop and hard bop samples and recording with double bassist Ron Carter. The group's production influenced their contemporaries, thus changing the sound of hip-hop; Dr. Dre produced his highly regarded debut The Chronic after being inspired by The Low End Theory, and Pete Rock stated, "There were times when I would walk into a record store and see Tip sitting on the floor with his glasses on, going through albums, looking for beats ... I was like, 'This guy is serious.' Being around [the group] made me step up and become even more serious than I was."
Lyrically, A Tribe Called Quest has been regarded for addressing many social issues through Q-Tip's philosophical viewpoints and Phife Dawg's everyman perspectives. Kierna Mayo, former editor-in-chief of Ebony, said that The Low End Theory and Midnight Marauders "gave birth to neo-everything.... That entire class of D'Angelo, Erykah Badu, Maxwell, and Lauryn Hill—and moving on to André 3000, Kanye West, and Talib Kweli—everything that is left of everything begins with Tribe." The Roots drummer Ahmir Thompson's stage name "Questlove" was inspired by A Tribe Called Quest, whom he cited as his favorite group, stating, "They're my Beatles." The group's name serves as the inspiration for the name of electronic music group A Tribe Called Red, now known as The Halluci Nation.
In 2003, The Low End Theory was ranked 153rd on Rolling Stone<nowiki/>'s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. In a revised 2020 list, its ranking moved up to 43rd, and Midnight Marauders was added to the list at 201st. The group's single "Can I Kick It?" was ranked 292nd on the 2021 revision of Rolling Stone<nowiki/>'s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. In 2022, The Low End Theory was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Recording Registry. In 2024, A Tribe Called Quest was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
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|2023
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|2024
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The Source Awards
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Filmography
- Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest (2011)
Apparel collaborations
- In celebration of People's Instinctive Travels 25th anniversary in 2015, Stüssy worked with A Tribe Called Quest to create a line featuring hats, sweaters and t-shirts of classic photos, lyrics and their iconic logo.
- Teaming up with longtime collaborator Pharrell Williams, the group partnered with Billionaire Boys Club to make "The Space Program" capsule in 2018.
- Paying tribute to the rap group, Vans made a line of footwear in 2018, in honor of their album artwork and lyrics.
- In 2022, Peloton announced a collaboration with A Tribe Called Quest, which included a line of apparel.
- In 2009, Jordan Brand released ATCQ Jordan 1 special colorway, this sneaker gets its inspiration from A Tribe Called Quest's cover art from the album Midnight Marauders.