Line #40 Music/ATribeCalledQuest


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/32_1_2b39ac212e1a54e49b4785ad3116f24a21499c17_s800_c85.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:Like [[WesternAnimation/TheBoondocks A Pimp Named Slickback]], you have to say the whole thing.[[note]]Clockwise from top: Q-Tip, Phife Dawg, Ali Shaheed Muhammad, Jarobi White.[[/note]]]]
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4	A Tribe Called Quest was a HipHop group formed in Queens, New York City in 1985. It is composed of rapper/producer Q-Tip (Kamaal Ibn John Fareed, formerly Jonathan Davis), rapper Phife Dawg (Malik Taylor), and DJ/producer Ali Shaheed Muhammad. A fourth member, rapper Jarobi White, left the group after their first album but rejoined the group in 2006.
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6	The group's members are regarded as iconic pioneers in hip-hop, and they have been credited as [[TropeCodifier one of the first prominent acts]] in AlternativeHipHop. They also popularized the practice of [[GenreMashup mixing]] hip-hop with {{jazz}}, which helped expand the art of the genre's production and became a template for numerous hip-hop and [[RAndB R&B]] artists in the following decades.
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8	Along with Music/DeLaSoul, Music/QueenLatifah and the Jungle Brothers, the group was a central part of the Native Tongues Posse, and enjoyed the most commercial success out of all the groups to emerge from that collective. Many of their songs, such as "Bonita Applebum", "Can I Kick It?", "I Left My Wallet in El Segundo", "Scenario", "Check the Rhime", "Jazz (We've Got)", "Award Tour", and "Electric Relaxation", are regarded as classics.
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10	The group released five albums in eight years (the first in 1990, the last in 1998); they were all quite successful, with their first three in particular being hailed as hip-hop milestones. They disbanded in 1998, [[https://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2011/07/26/138584427/a-tribe-called-quest-the-rise-and-fall-of-hip-hops-beatles attributing their split]] to [[MusicIsPolitics record label politics]] and the changing scene of the hip-hop world, with the popularity of groups shifting to solo rappers.
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12	In 2006, the group reunited, and five years later, a Creator/MichaelRapaport-directed documentary about them, ''Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest'', was released. The group played several shows on Music/KanyeWest's Yeezus Tour in 2013 and then stepped out of the spotlight before reuniting again on November 13, 2015 on ''Series/TheTonightShow'' in wake of the Paris terrorist attacks. Feeling "charged", they subsequently decided to put aside their differences and secretly record a new album.
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14	Tragedy struck on March 22, 2016 when Phife Dawg died due to complications resulting from his diabetes. Nevertheless, in August 2016, L.A Reid, CEO of Epic Records, announced that a new album from the group was coming out. This album, ''We Got It from Here... Thank You 4 Your Service'', was released on November 11, 2016. The 16-track double album features not only verses from Phife Dawg recorded before his death and Jarobi White rapping for the first time, but features from many rappers and artists from the past and present, including Music/KendrickLamar, [[Music/OutKast André 3000]], Music/KanyeWest, Music/EltonJohn, Anderson .Paak, Music/JackWhite, and Consequence. The remaining members of the group played on ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' the day after the album released. The album itself is a tribute and dedicated to Phife Dawg, who picked out its title; while the other members reportedly didn't understand its meaning at the time, they chose to keep it after Phife's death.
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16	[[WordOfGod According to Q-Tip]], ''We Got It from Here...'' is the group's final album. However, he also announced plans for a final world tour, to promote the album and honor Phife, before permanently disbanding. They eventually made several festival appearances throughout summer 2017; their final concert was on September 9, 2017 at Bestival in Dorset, England. A short film based on the album's opening track, "The Space Program", was released in March 2018 and billed as the group's final video.
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18	Around the time of the album's release, it was announced that a new Phife Dawg solo album, mostly completed before his death, would be seeing release. While his wife stated that it would be released in early 2017, it eventually came out in 2022 under the title ''Forever''.
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21	!!Discography:
22	* ''People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm'' (1990)
23	** ''[[RemixAlbum People's Instinctive Remixes]]'' (1991)
24	* ''Music/TheLowEndTheory'' (1991)
25	** ''[[RemixAlbum Revised Quest For The Seasoned Traveler]]'' (1992)
26	* ''Midnight Marauders'' (1993)
27	* ''Music/BeatsRhymesAndLife'' (1996)
28	* ''The Love Movement'' (1998)
29	* ''We Got It from Here... Thank You 4 Your Service'' (2016)
30	!!Notable Songs:
31	* "Bonita Applebum" from ''People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm''
32	* "I Left My Wallet in El Segundo" from ''People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm''
33	* "Can I Kick It" from ''People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm''
34	* "Check the Rhime" from ''Music/TheLowEndTheory''
35	* "Jazz (We've Got)" from ''Music/TheLowEndTheory''
36	* "Scenario" from ''Music/TheLowEndTheory''
37	* "Hot Sex" from ''Midnight Marauders''
38	* "Award Tour" from ''Midnight Marauders''
39	* "Electric Relaxation" from ''Midnight Marauders''
40	* "Oh My God" from ''Midnight Marauders''
41	* "1nce Again" from ''Beats, Rhymes and Life''
42	* "Stresed Out" from ''Beats, Rhymes and Life''
43	* "Find a Way" from ''The Love Movement''
44	* "The Space Program" from ''We Got It from Here... Thank You 4 Your Service''
45	* "We the People" from ''We Got It from Here... Thank You 4 Your Service''
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48	!!A Tribe Called Quest provides examples of:
49	* AlternativeHipHop: They are one of the better-known acts in this genre.
50	* TheArtifact: Q-Tip's stage name has been this since ''The Low End Theory''. By the time the album was in production, both an increasing personal dislike of the name and trademark issues made him change his stage name to "The Abstract". However, he ultimately kept the "Q-Tip" moniker, [[GrandfatherClause if only because that's what everyone knew him as by that point]].
51	* BigApplesauce: Their songs frequently reference New York.
52	* BookEnds: Their entire recording career may be a worthy example. At the beginning of ''People's Instinctive Travels...'' a (newborn?) baby is heard crying, and at the very end of ''We Got It from Here...'' the name of a deceased person (Phife Dawg!) is being chanted.
53	* ControlFreak: In the ''Beats, Rhymes and Life'' film, Phife, Ali and their old manager say that Q-Tip is/was this.
54	* CrimeOfPassion: This is the central crux of the track "Crew", wherein Q-Tip catches his best friend making out with his wife. [[spoiler:Despite briefly stewing over whether or not he should resolve the situation peacefully to avoid a jail bid, Tip's emotions get the best of him, and he guns down his now-ex friend in a crime of passion after confronting him.]]
55	* DarkerAndEdgier: The album ''Beats, Rhymes and Life'' has a darker sound and lyrical tone than the previous three releases.
56	* DistractedByTheSexy: The actual cause of Q-Tip leaving his wallet in El Segundo.
57	-->Ali said "pay for lunch", So I did it\
58	Pulled out the wallet and I saw this wicked beautiful lady\
59	She was a waitress there\
60	Put the wallet down and stared and stared\
61	To put me back into reality, here's Shaheed,\
62	"Yo, Tip, man, you got what you need!"\
63	I checked for keys and started to step\
64	But what do you know, my wallet I forget
65	* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Not related to the band was Q-Tip’s contribution to “Groove is in the Heart”. Downplayed as, while different from the usual sound, became a massive radio hit.
66	* UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfHipHop: They are one of the most acclaimed hiphop artists.
67	* GrandFinale: ''We Got It from Here...Thank You 4 Your Service'' effectively serves as one for the band's career.
68	* JazzRap: [[TropeCodifier Pioneers of the genre]]; though preceded by Music/GangStarr, and the Jungle Brothers. Even as their sound got slicker from ''Beats, Rhymes & Life'' onward, the jazz influence never left.
69	* JerkAss: Judging from ''Beats, Rhymes and Life'' (The Movie) Q-Tip shifted from InnocentlyInsensitive to this.
70	* InsufferableGenius: One definitely gets that vibe from Q-Tip after watching the movie.
71	* LocationSong: "I Left My Wallet in El Segundo", about how the band lost their wallet in this place and need to retrieve it.
72	* LyricSwap: In "Check the Rhime" the first two lines of each verse are the same (albeit with Q-tip rapping the first and Phife the second) but afterwords the lyrics are different.
73	* MundaneMadeAwesome: "I Left My Wallet in El Segundo", the best song ever written about a lost wallet.
74	* MusicIsPolitics: On the track "Check the Rhime", Q-Tip raps the line “Industry rule #4080/Record company people are shady”, which was supposedly a reference to their label Creator/JiveRecords.
75	* NWordPrivileges: "Sucka Nigga" touches upon this in the second verse.
76	* RealLifeWritesThePlot: Thanks to a throwaway TakeThat line in "Jazz (We've Got)[[note]] ''"Me sweat another?/I do my own thing/Strictly hardcore tracks/Not a new jack swing"''[[/note]] that led to him getting jumped by rap/New Jack Swing group Wreckx-N-Effect, Q-Tip was forced to wear a gimp mask to cover up an eye injury in the music video for "Hot Sex".
77	* RecordProducer: Q-Tip and Ali Shaheed almost exclusively produced everything the Tribe put out. The exceptions are their three-year period between 1996-1999 with their production crew "The Ummah",[[note]] Music/JDilla, Tip, Ali Shaheed, D'Angelo, & Raphael Saadiq[[/note]] and ''We Got from Here... Thank You 4 Your Service'' featured various guest producers and composers, including Elton John and Kanye West.[[note]] This was due to Ali Shaheed largely being tied up composing the score for ''Series/LukeCage2016''[[/note]]
78	* {{Rockumentary}}: Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest.
79	* ShoutOut: In "Oh My God" from ''Midnight Marauders'', Phife Dawg shouts out Music/AlBSure, {{Music/TLC}}, and En Vogue.
80	* {{Supergroup}}: ATCQ as a whole is one of the original three charter members of Native Tongues, alongside Music/DeLaSoul, and the Jungle Brothers. Tip himself was also a part of the late 90s Soulquarians collective, which included D'Angelo, Music/ErykahBadu, [[Music/TheRoots Questlove, James Poyser]], Talib Kweli, and fellow Native Tongues Mos Def and Music/JDilla.
81	* TakeThat: Subverted. "Check the Rhime" seemingly has a dig at Music/MCHammer, at the end for being a pop sellout with the final lyrics being "Rap is not Pop, if you call it that then STOP". However, Q-Tip was actually ''[[http://www.moovmnt.com/2009/04/19/exclusive-q-tip-interview/#.WnE5xWjT7rd defending]]'' Hammer's place in hip hop with that couplet, and checking everyone else who was calling Hammer a pop artist. Unfortunately, Hammer took it the wrong way, and dissed the Tribe on "Break 'Em Off Something Propa."

Context Music / ATribeCalledQuest