A Tribe Called Quest Returns

SNL Host Dave Chappelle Tells A Tribe Called Quest He"s Going To Show Up
Photo Q-Tip, left, and Jarobi White, members of A Tribe Called Quest, which is releasing We Got It From Here, Thank You for Your Service. Credit Chad Batka for The New York Times

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When Phife Dawg, the Everyman hero of A Tribe Called Quest, died in March of complications from diabetes, it had been almost 18 years since the seminal hip-hop group Q-Tip, Phife, Ali Shaheed Muhammad and sometimes Jarobi White had released an album as a unit.

But after a rousing reunion performance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon last fall, the group had been plugging away at new music. And in late October, seven months after Phifes death, Q-Tip announced the imminent release of We Got It From Here, Thank You for Your Service, the groups first album since 1998, and also its last.

A Tribe Called Quest has a unique legacy in hip-hop a historically minded group that blended philosophical and bohemian impulses with street-friendly themes and sounds.

In advance of the new album, the writer Tour spoke with the remaining members of A Tribe Called Quest, still distraught over the loss of their friend and collaborator. On this weeks Popcast, I speak with him about his experiences interviewing the group over the years, its polyvalent legacy, and how it fits into the current hip-hop landscape.

Tour, recalling a conversation he had with Q-Tip before he started reporting this story, said the rapper expressed a desire to make music different from his peers, asking, I want to be grown-up with this how do I do that?

Its a subject that still reverberates today. We havent yet seen a truly adult, grown-up wing of hip-hop really develop, Tour said. Rock music and jazz and soul music have found ways to speak to older listeners and respect them. And hip-hop has not done that, even though we now have a large number of rappers who are at that age.

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Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/05/arts/music/a-tribe-called-quest-returns.html