I never thought this day would come for me.  To have the opportunity to listen to new material from the group that influenced so much of my taste of music. Growing up in Charlotte NC,  A Tribe Called Quest were everything to me due to their affiliation with the local rap group Black Sheep. The Tribe always put on for my state on a good amount of their songs even including the classic “Vibes and Stuff.” Having all these factors in my mind, makes it a great honor for me to give my opinion on the first Tribe album in 16 years. A record that in one word is a testament to the age of Hip-Hop that we have entered in the past two years.

This project really came out of nowhere. ATQC wasn’t heard from until last year after their first live performance ,since their world tour in 2006, on The Jimmy Fallon Show to support the 25th anniversary of their debut album, Peoples Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm.

Soon after this performance (according to a message from the collective),  the group of Q- Tip, Phife Dawg, Jarobi White and DJ Ali Shaheed Muhammad went back into the studio to work on what would soon be the last ATCQ project. During the recording process, tragedy struck. one of hip-hop’s most beloved voices , Phife Dawg, passed away due to complications with his long know battle with diabetes. The five foot assassin was only 45  years old. Thus changing the meaning of this album again.

We Got It From Here… Thank You For The Service, is a tribute to the late emcee and a return to form for ATCQ as well. What i mean by that last statement is the Tribe went through a rough patch of creative differences after releasing a trilogy of albums that still are looked upon as classics in the Rap game. When the group dropped their 4th and 5th studio LPs there wasn’t the same attention of detail that was put into to them. For example Q-Tip gave up much of the production side of those albums to make it a group effort called The Ummah. This group consisted of Tip, Ali and the late J Dilla, but Tip wasn’t nearly as involved as in past albums.

In this latest project however, you can feel Q-Tip’s fingerprints all over it. From the opening track “Space Program” to the elegant “Solid Wall of Sound.” Every instrumental on this album feels so imaginative and fresh that it gave me chills. To give a fair assessment of how these beats stack up with past Tribe records, I might be going out on a limb here but there right up there with the first three. The tracks “Melatonin” and “Whateva will be” are perfect examples of this, both tracks are extremely well thought out and executed at the highest level. Make no mistake this might be the best produced album in 2016 and we shouldn’t have expected anything less from ATCQ.

On to the performances on the album and it is like the group never lost a step. Q-Tip is in “Top 5” form once again, Phife is just as charismatic as I can remember and even Jarobi  jumps on the mic and drops plenty of memorable verses all over this project. Of course, this being the last ATCQ album ever there were going to be a long list of features. From Andre 3000 to Busta Rhymes , Consequence and Kendrick Lamar, the album is littered with so many epic performances worthy of being apart of this project. Busta personally brings some of his best material than any of the other features on the album, including his spirited verse on “Mobius.”

Honestly there are so many brilliant moments on this record that its hard to find a weak link in the chain. “The Killing Season” tackles police brutality and race gracefully . While the record “Dis Generation” is  a passing of the torch to the new generation of artist.

Talk to Joey, Earl, Kendrick, and Cole, gatekeepers of flow
They are extensions of instinctual soul
It’s the highest in commodity grade
And you could get it today –    Q-Tip “Dis Generation”

Another standout moment on this album is Tip and Jarobi’s emotionally tribute to their late member and life long friend Phife Dawg on “Lost Somebody“. There is so much passion in both of there verses that it makes for a truly somber moment especially when they give a moment of silence at the end of the record.

What makes We Got it From Here is it’s socially aware it is during this time in america. “Conrad Tokyo” and “We The People” grapple with issues that many american are dealing with at this moment. Especially  the rhetoric that is being slung around by the president elect is a huge topic that is brought up more than once on this project. The album’s title track is even called “The Donald.” This is classic ATCQ, taking on subjects that artist should be talking about because they have the platform to do so.

Marks and scars, we own it, only made for tougher skin
Helps us actualize the actual greatness held within
Been on the wrong team so much, can’t recognize a win
Seems like my only crime is having melanin
Connection to the sun so strong the relationship is lusted for
Causes men to suffocate, I can’t breathe no more – Jarobi White “The Killing Season”

To close, this is an incredible album from start to finish. It is yet another milestone in this amazing group’s career, one that will continue to have the longevity of their previous works. We Got It From Here… Thank You For The Service continues to make me believe that we have been in another Golden Age of Hip-Hop for the past two years. This project is yet another by-product of that statement.

For more news on A Tribe Called Quest, keep it locked on RESPECT.

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Writer/presenter Touré Neblett recently hung out with A Tribe Called Quest for an excellent New York Times feature, which also serves as promotion for the iconic group’s forthcoming (and final) album We Got It From Here, Thank You for Your Service. It’s definitely one of the most poignant interviews in Hip-Hop to date: the reader gets a very personal look into the lives of Q-Tip, Ali Shaheed Muhammad and Jarobi White‘s lives following the tragic passing of Phife Dawg. With the help of close friends and peers — including Busta Rhymes, André 3000 and Phife’s widow, Deisha Taylor — we also learned much of the recording process for the group’s new project, which was revealed to have been birthed following Tribe’s reunion performance on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. It’s also revealed how Phife’s constant travelling to visit and make music with his crew (especially Q-Tip) took a toll on his health, which is said to have contributed to his untimely death. It’s a very emotional read for sure.

You can enjoy the feature in full here; some excerpts from that have been added below. We Got It From Here, Thank You for Your Service drops November 11th.

[On Phife’s passing] “I had no idea that his days was numbered,” Q-Tip said. Retelling this story in the same room where he had had so many conversations with Phife, he became too emotional to speak. He buried his face in his hands and sobbed. Finally he said, “I just want to celebrate him, you know?”

…some of the group members think that all that traveling may have contributed to grinding him down, physically. “Doing this album killed him,” Jarobi White said simply. “And he was very happy to go out like that.”

[On the new album] It features all four of the group’s members plus a host of guests — André 3000, Kendrick Lamar, Elton John, Jack White and Busta Rhymes, a longtime Tribe collaborator who made a heralded appearance on the 1992 posse cut “Scenario.”

Q-Tip had one major rule for the album: He insisted that everyone who was a part of it come work in the studio. “If you wrote your rhyme somewhere else, you still had to come back and lay your verse in Q-Tip’s house,” Busta Rhymes said. “So we pretty much did every song together. Everybody wrote his stuff in front of everybody. Everybody spat their rhymes in front of each other. We were throwing ideas around together.”

In the months since Phife died, Q-Tip has worked to finish what he called “the final Tribe album.” Its title is the one Phife wanted. What does it mean? “I don’t know,” Q-Tip said. “We’re just going with it because he liked it.”

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Q-Tip took to Twitter yesterday to announce the official release date for A Tribe Called Quest’s final album.

In August, L.A. Reid confirmed the rumors that a reunion album for A Tribe Called Quest was indeed coming together. Fans can now stop holding their breath as the anticipated project will be officially arriving on November 11th. This not only coincides with Remembrance Day, but also the infamous Paris Attacks that took place on November 13th 2015.

According to the written message tweeted by ATCQ, this album was inspired by the Paris attacks, and the groups performance on The Tonight Show, which was their first in eighteen years. The message also makes sure to shut down any worries this project might just be a compilation of old bars (see below).

A photo posted by Q-Tip The Abstract (@qtiptheabstract) on Oct 27, 2016 at 6:26pm PDT

“we completed what will be, obviously the final A Tribe Called Quest Album! No this isn’t filled with old Phife bars… this is that Pure, unstepped on Pure!!”

It appears the project was finished before the unfortunate and untimely death of Phife Dawg in March of this year. This news is obviously bitter-sweet for fans, as its rare any final project by a group is finished before the death of a group member, however for many the wounds of Phife’s departure are still very much open. Look for the project to arrive on November 11th.

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Tributes for the late Phife Dawg have been rightfully pouring in since he tragically passed away last month. You can also now add Jay Electronica to the long list, as the enigmatic rapper paid tribute to the legend at his concert in Minneapolis last night. Jay did so with help from local rapper, Metasota, as they both told the crowd, “Rest in Peace, Phife.” From there, Jay got the audience involved singing A Tribe Called Quest‘s iconic lyric, “Can I kick it?” with them responding “Yes, you can!” The performance was a huge one for Jay, who recently canceled his scheduled appearance at SXSW at the last minute.

Check out the video and tell us what you think of Jay’s freestyle!

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When was Phife Dawg never on point? It’s very rare that he wasn’t, even after death. His wordplay and mellow attitude towards the mic – set him apart of everyone; the leader of the old school. As we say goodbye to the life that has ended, we continue to celebrate the words he left on this plateau we call earth.

“Anything  I ever did wrong, blame TIP & Phife because ya’ll raised me,” Kanye West said during the celebration of Malik Izaak Boyce-Taylor (aka Phife).

In a nutshell, Phife was many things. So many things, he went through a majority of what he is using prefixes. “Un” and “re” are the at the center of the prefixes as Phife rhymed on this newly released track and music video. During the music video, you can peep Mike G from The Jungle Brothers, De La Soul, and of course the members of ATCQ shared what they thought Phife was in a nutshell.

After they finished with their thoughts on Phife, we’re offered a music video of Phife describing himself. Confident and thoughtfully said, Phife catches the vibe with lines like “uncensored, unchanging, unbreakable.” As he realign, readjust, and refocus,” it didn’t take too much thought for the music video to go well. Phife relied on his “raw skill” and ability to paint the perfect picture.

For sure the five-foot assassin will be missed, but his words remain immortal, something that can never be taken away.

Check out the music video for “Nutshell” below.

Related Article: https://respect-mag.com/2016/03/phife-dawg-tribe-called-quest-passed-away/

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ATCQ has announced that they will be honoring Phife Dawg by having a gathering for him tomorrow, April 4th at 10:30 am at St. Albans Memorial Park in Queens, New York. The event is posted on the Smoking’ Needles site and it states that the first 200 fans to arrive will get a special gift.

Along with this gathering, Phife has been celebrated in multiple ways. Tim Westwood released an unreleased Phife freestyle from 1999 according to Pitchfork. And according to Complex, Q-Tip paid tribute to Phife on his Abstract Radio show on Beats 1. He played a mix of Phife’s tracks/bars and the show featured tributes from Kendrick Lamar, Andre 3000, Chuck D and Pharrell. Here is what Chuck D had to say about Phife:

“Full-out salute to my brother Phife. Little brother Phife Dawg, a hip-hop rap world warrior. He lived and breathed hip-hop. The man’s a social narrator along with the world-legendary all-time A Tribe Called Quest. What aa team along with Q-Tip, along with Ali Shaheed Muhammad, along with Jarobi. Team player in the game and really from Queens, these kings. Even had the first lady salute as well. Shout out to my man Phife, the warrior. Peace. A Tribe Called Quest forever.”

You can take a listen to the entire show below.

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Without a doubt, DJ’s, producers and fellow emcees stopped in their tracks to pay homage to someone who was a true pioneer in this game. Talib Kweli penned an open letter he shared via Billboard. Kendrick Lamar honored Phife at a recent show. The list goes on and on and on. There probably isn’t a single, prevalent artist in this genre who wasn’t inspired or even slightly influenced by the 45 year-old co-founder of A Tribe Called Quest.

  
Joining the list of emcees paying their respects to Phife Dawg is none other than the pride of Pittsburgh, Wiz Khalifa, who provides his take on A Tribe Called Quest’s classic record, “Electric Relaxation”, a song that was also used as the opening theme song for The Wayans Brothers TV series.

The Wizard Called Khalifa (see what I did there?) jumps into vintage mode, as he impressively mocks the cadence and delivery of Q-Tip, while leaving Phife’s verses on the record, making for a pretty dope back and forth between old-school and new.

Check out “Electric Relaxation” here. Long Live The Phifer. Gone, but never ever forgotten. The Tribe is forever.

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