Trivia / A Tribe Called Quest

• Executive Meddling: The notorious origins of "Show Business" from The Low End Theory. In short, there is an unofficially released early version of the track called "Georgie Porgie" with the same beat but vastly different lyrics. "Georgie Porgie" is about a fictional friend of the group who they lost all respect for after finding out he was gay. The label refused to put out such a blatantly homophobic song, so after completely rewriting the lyrics, "Show Business" was born. The band is now very ashamed of "Georgie Porgie", and some of their later songs like "We the People..." mock homophobia.
• Money, Dear Boy: A rare positive example. As Ali states in the Beats, Rhymes & Life documentary, the main reason Tribe reunited was to help pay Phife's medical bills, since he suffered from diabetes.
• No-Hit Wonder: Despite critical acclaim and three platinum-certified albums, they've never reached the top 40, only peaking as high as #47 with "Award Tour".
• The Pete Best: Jarobi White. Subverted as he's been back with the group since 2006. Later averted when he recorded several verses in Tribe's final album.
• Throw It In!: In "What?" Q-Tip accidentally says "Kapelka" instead of "Gefilte." They decided to keep it in anyway.
• What Could Have Been: The beat that eventually became the basis of The Love Movement's title track was originally meant for The Notorious B.I.G.'s album Life After Death. Biggie liked it, but the album was already finished when Q-Tip showed it to him, and Biggie was murdered before he got the chance to use it.
• Unintentional Period Piece: “Ham And Eggs” is a song about the group refusing to eat ham and eggs, because of their high cholesterol content. When the song was written/released in 1990, many people thought cholesterol consumption was responsible for things like heart disease. Which has, since, been proven (mostly) false.

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