Icon: A Tribe Called Quest
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, their “boom-bip” aesthetic more closely anticipated the sound of rap and R&B through the turn of the millennium.
Unfortunately, the group did not survive to see the sound it helped create reach its commercial peak. And while Q-Tip and Ali Shaheed Muhammad continue to make satisfying albums, A Tribe Called Quest’s legacy looms large over the vibrant hip-hop and soul undergrounds.
In Order of Importance
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Only a year after their lovably laid-back debut, A Tribe Called Quest figured out exactly what they wanted to say and how they wanted to say it. As Q-Tip put it, "Stern, firm and young with a laid-back tongue, the aim is to succeed and achieve at 21." While he philosophized on generational change, record biz shadiness and sexual consent, Phife Dawg's caustic, folksy wit leavened Tip's braininess. With cuts like "Check the Rhime," "Buggin 'Out," "Verses From the Abstract," "Jazz" and especially the bombastic posse cut, "Scenario," the album became a catalog of hip-hop quotables. Ali Shaheed and Tip, working with Skeff Anselm and Bob Power, integrated a wide range of tasteful samples with jazz legend Ron Carter's low-end rumble, setting a new sonic standard for hip-hop with their spacious, contained, high-def sound. Their first masterpiece.
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The BPMs were still set at 95 and the presentation remained "precise, bass-heavy and just right," but Tribe had traveled far in two years. The wide-open spaces of The Low End Theory were now filled in with filigreed detail. "Award Tour" and "Electric Relaxation" were marvels of design, flow and propulsion, so finely assembled they seemed able to float entire club crowds off the ground. On "Steve Biko," "We Can Get Down" and "Oh My God," the refinements in language, metaphor and sound were jaw-dropping. They seemed able to do anything; although the crew was being defined against so-called gangsta rap, "8 Million Stories" and "Midnight" were fine examples of rap social-realism. Track for track, Midnight Marauders was ATCQ's most accomplished album.
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By the fall of 1998, pop had caught up with the crew's innovations, and rap was still reeling from the deaths of Tupac and Biggie. Concerned mainly with desire and commitment, themes that had migrated from rap to R&B, The Love Movement was heard at the time as a retreat. In retrospect, it was actually another breakthrough, pointing forward to classics like D'Angelo's Voodoo. Producer Jay Dee (aka J Dilla)'s idiosyncratic tilt was felt on the throbbing "Start It Up" and the melancholic "Find A Way." Posse cuts "Rock Rock Y'all" and "Steppin 'It Up" recalled the mic-passing fireworks of "Scenario." "Against the World," "Common Ground" and "The Love" were affirmations of life, sexy and subtle answers to rap violence, and, in the end, perfect statements to close out the tribin 'era.
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ATCQ's 1990 debut was framed by a metaphorical journey, and the first sounds heard were the low ruble of a cosmic birth. But this bit of self-mythmaking was followed by a casual ride at a relaxed pace, full of insight and free of cliché. "Push It Along" was the humblest of manifestos; Q-Tip announced the crew's aesthetic, but also humbly confessed, "We ain't trying to rule rap." Another anthem, "Can I Kick It?," begged permission to entertain. "Bonita Applebaum" extended this mindset into one of rap's steamiest come-ons. The closing cut was a Nation of Islam-influenced "Ham 'N Eggs," which is less an uber-vegan scold than a Saturday afternoon stoop sing-along. At the moment Public Enemy was mightily fighting the power, ATCQ made Afrocentrism sound mind-ticklingly seductive.
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After three classics, ATCQ left the Native Tongues hip-hop collective behind, adding beat-prodigy Jay Dee to their production team (christened "The Ummah") and Q-Tip's cousin Consequence as a third rapper. Despite the promising title, the crew sounded defensive, the rhymes were sometimes overstuffed, and tracks like "Crew" and "Stressed Out" felt overly-literal. Exhausted and stretched thin, the cracks were beginning to show. Despite this, their sonics remained exquisite: aided by Dilla, the Ummah's work on songs like "1nce Again" and "Get a Hold" marked the beginnings of a blueprint for the rap and neo-soul undergrounds as the millennium neared.
