![]() ![]() Anything contained inside this album is mere gravy to what this album represents for hip hop, for friendship and for the evergreen chance at reconciliation. Unlike De La, who kept their flame alive through the 2000s with highly slept on albums “Art Official Intelligence: Mosaic Thump”, “AOI: Bionix” and “The Grind Date”, ATCQ and their “golden era” genius had long since been extinguished. They hadn’t made music together in 18 years. Unlike closely related act De La Soul, who dropped a new album of their own “… and the Anonymous Nobody” in 2016 (what’s with these mouthful album titles?!?), ATCQ was OVER. It is through this lens that this album must be viewed. Stated simply: It is more important THAT this album is than WHAT this album is. “We went through all of the stuff and apologized, and it was just so good, man. ![]() In a New York Times piece about the new album, Q-Tip is quoted as saying “He came here, and we was bonding,” Q-Tip said. Before even hearing one Ali Shaheed base line or one pop-culture-laced lyric, a victory was at hand. How did the pulling back of the curtain on this failed partnership retroactively impact our impression of the music we love? What did the deterioration of this group mean about the sustainability of love and friendship? How are we to endure the idea that Phife passed away without having reconciled with his lifelong partner in rhyme?Īnd then the news broke-Tribe would be releasing We Got it From Here… Thank You 4 Your Service. ![]() While the film hints at some manner of reconciliation between Tip and Phife during Phife’s battle with diabetes, ATCQ fans were left unsatisfied. Without dissecting the dynamics that led to the end of ATCQ as we knew them, sufficed to say that the flame burnt out at some point between the making of Beats, Rhymes & Life (the album) and “The Love Movement” (which was anything but). Along with their Native Tongue brethren, Tribe launched and sustained the “Golden Era” of hip hop that caused an explosion in the genre and carries through to virtually all hip hop that we hear today.Īnd then, as Chinua Achebe puts it, things fell apart. ATCQ both captured and spearheaded a cultural movement within hip hop that focused on playfulness, fun and consciousness. Watching that film is both joyous and painful for Tribe fans who fell in love with their music in large measure because of the perfect musical, lyrical and, yes, spiritual, synergy between the two front men. No disrespect-Q Tip said in 2011 documentary Beats, Rhymes & Life that his goal has always been to “not preach to the converted, but go out and crusade for more”-but appreciating the latest and last Tribe album, and first in 18 years, requires an understanding of context that goes far beyond the music itself.īeats, Rhymes & Life documents ATCQ’s rise to prominence, importance to hip hop culture and the ultimate implosion of the group, largely due to the deterioration of the relationship between Q-Tip aka Kamaal the Abstract and Phife Dawg aka Malik Taylor. Those expecting a vintage, golden-era throwback A Tribe Called Quest album probably aren’t core ATCQ fans to begin with. “People want my old shit, buy my old album” –Jay Z ![]()
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