'A Tribe Called Quest' History:
Describing ATCQ or trying to acquaint someone with them is a task. Out of the Native Tongues crew, they weren’t as Afrocentric as The Jungle Brothers. They weren’t quite so left of center as was De La. Clearly enough, they weren’t old vets like Red Alert but not as green as Chi Ali. They weren’t as fiesty as Latifah (didn’t Tip get his eye jammied by dude from Wrecks-N-Effect?). They were…the meshed median perhaps. A combination of all of the qualities of the aforementioned members, swirled into one of hip-hop’s most consistently solid groups. They started out with Tip being the focus, and Ali Shaheed’s jazz-tinged beats that leaned heavily on sampled instrumentation. But when Phife stepped up to the plate on their second album, their ascent to being a true “group” was finalized. Appearances can be fooling because Tribe was actually cool personified. They seemed “regular,” their persona one that anyone could easily mimic just by being themselves. They weren’t too artsy or too “Afrocentric, which was common @ the time. But that’s not to discredit them because you could definitely find social consciousness & ethnic pride entwined in their music. They just were themselves - some kids from Queens and all that encompassed - trying to find a way to put out quality music. |
A Tribe Called Quest Discography:
| Release Title and date | |
 | Midnight Marauders 1993 |
 | The Low End Theory 1991 |
 | People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm 1990 |
| 1nce again | |
| 1nce again (cd-5) | |
| 1nce again (cds) | |
| anthology | |
| anthology bonus cd | |
| antology |
| award tour (single) | |
| beats rhymes & life | |
| beats, rhymes & life | |
| beats, rhymes and life | |
| best of | |
| bonita applebum | |
| bonita applebum (promo) | |
| can i kick it? | |
| check the rhime | |
| check the rhime (single) |
| cuts | |
| electric relaxation | |
| ep | |
| find a way | |
| hits rarities & remixes | |
| hits rarities and remixes | |
| hits, rarities & remixes | |
| hot sex (ep) | |
| i left my wallet in el segundo | |
| jam ep |
