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Icon: A Tribe Called Quest

By Jeff Chang

If fellow travelers De La Soul were the giddy braniacs and the Jungle Brothers the funky eccentrics, A Tribe Called Quest were the artful romantics of the vanguard Native Tongues hip-hop crew in the mid-'90s. They shared their peers 'taste for conceptually rich work but, unlike De La, they preferred minimalism and, unlike the JB's, they proffered a sound that enfolded the listener (props due to shadow Quest member/studio wizard Bob Power). Because of that,… more »