A Tribe Called Quest - We Got It From Here… Thank You 4 Your Service (Discussion Thread)
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beenz
Rap Guerilla
A Tribe Called Quest's Revealing NYC Album Launch: 7 Things We Learned
A Tribe Called Quest's Revealing NYC Album Launch: 7 Things We Learned
When hip-hop legends' comeback LP took shape, how members pushed each other in the studio and other insights from all-star celebration
Read seven things we learned at A Tribe Called Quest's launch party for new comeback LP 'We Got This From Here ... Thank You 4 Your Service.' Rodrigo Villordo
By Elias Leight
2 hours ago
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On Friday, seminal hip-hop act A Tribe Called Quest will release its first album since 1998. As a testament to the beloved group's sterling reputation, We Got It From Here ... Thank You 4 Your Service comes chock full of guest stars, including Andre 3000, Kendrick Lamar, Jack White and Elton John. During a Wednesday-night listening party at MoMA PS1 in Tribe's home borough of Queens, New York, the new record boomed through the pristine, punishing sound system inside the dome set up in PS1's courtyard, inspiring vigorous head-bobbing in a chatty, boozed-up room of admirers.
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The album's release follows the death of Phife Dawg, one of Tribe's MCs, who passed away in March due to complications from diabetes. His comrades paid their respects at PS1. "He set the tone," the rapper/producer Q-Tip told the audience. Q-Tip and Jarobi White – who contributed to the 1990 album People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm before departing for culinary school – enthusiastically co-rapped one of Phife's verses, adding touching annotations as they went.
The pair briefly discussed their work on the record, occasionally competing with the sound of subway trains screeching from a nearby stop. The two MCs were joined during the Q&A by an emotional, loquacious Busta Rhymes and Consequence, both of whom are featured on We Got It From Here. Here are seven things we learned from their conversation.
Consequence, Busta Rhymes, moderator Omar Dubois, Jarobi White and Q-Tip Jared Siskin/Patrick McMullan/Getty
1. Busta didn't think the album would happen.
The initial conversations about We Got It From Here took place last year: the day after Tribe's performance on The Tonight Show, when the group was celebrating the 25th anniversary party of People's Instinctive Travels at New York's Santos Party House. "We just started to talk about how the [new] album needed to happen officially," Busta remembered. "That was the first time that Q-Tip said, 'Alright, I'm with it.' I thought he was bullshytting. I didn't think it was really gonna happen. I thought he was just in the moment, the whole anniversary celebration. The next day, he still said he was with it. Then I really knew: This shyt is gonna pop."
2. Tribe tapped into their legacy. ...
Working on We Got It From Here in Q-Tip's studio, the members of the group quickly regained some of their old chemistry. "The drapings of ageism and questions of where we're at, that shyt flew out the fukking window," Q-Tip noted. "We fell into science mode. We just locked in. We became fukking kids again."
Jarobi White Jared Siskin/Patrick McMullan/Getty
3. But they didn't set out to make a revivalist record.
"We spoke about it at length, [Phife] and I, about the importance of maintaining the essence [of A Tribe Called Quest] but not getting trapped in that and trying to see it beyond," Q-Tip said. "We would just listen to shyt we liked —'Bohemian Rhapsody' by Queen, and then we would listen to 'Money Trees' by Kendrick, then we'd go to Rakim. It was a sonic exercise to hear all those different records and see the common thread."
4. The studio was full of gleeful one-upmanship.
Q-Tip described a playfully competitive recording environment. "There was one point where we were in the studio, and my manager was there, and she walked in and heard Phife and Jarobi bouncing on a joint, and she pulled me [aside], and she was like, 'I don't know what you doing, but these nikkas is out for your head,'" he recalled. "'You better get in your shyt."
"You hear Cons[equence] do a couple of bars, you might go back and change a few of your lines," Busta added.
5. They don't make rap albums like this anymore.
"Nobody don't sit in a room and write with each other no more," Busta declared. "Everybody just send their little ProTools to each other, and you get the verse back in an email. When you write your verse, and you look at your man that's in the room with you, and he's reacting to his own bars that he's impressing himself with? You wanna go over there and hear what he's got to say.
"That was exactly what we did when we wrote 'Scenario.'"
Q-Tip Jared Siskin/Patrick McMullan/Getty
6. Q-Tip served as the group's musical "quarterback."
Busta Rhymes suggested that Q-Tip functioned as the quarterback during the recording process. "The fun shyt was taking direction from [him]," Busta explained. "He had a lot of specifics that he wanted. Sometimes you listen to the beat, and you'd be going in one direction, and he'd be like, 'Nah, I need you to do it this way.' And then he'll mumble some shyt to you, and you'll take it and you go back [to write more]. Then you come back and he'll be like, 'That's the motherfukking shyt you were supposed to do.' He was great at being the director for all of us. He was great at conducting the whole picture."
7. A Tribe Called Quest are still relevant.
Addressing the crowded, buzzing dome at PS1, Busta asserted the long-lasting importance of Tribe's music in hip-hop. "This room is a testament to what Tribe means historically, what Tribe means currently, what Tribe is gonna always mean in the future," he said. "I'm everywhere," he continued. "I'm in everything. I keep my finger on the pulse; I don't miss shyt. I'm in the club every day. I'm doing album sessions every day. It's to do my homework. I'm saying all this to say: I haven't seen a room like this for nobody's album in a long time."
Frankly, that was the moment I knew Busta worked hard for that flat top
you nikkas need to chill with the overreactions just cuz it's Tribe
lyrically it's on point, Jarobi is actually a real contributor and he's not bad.
sonically tho, this is not the album I hoped for. It's not as lush as previous offerings and there's not enough thump for my tastes.
beats are only
this sounds like a Q-TIp album more than anything, and it's more along the vibe and direction of his solo albums than anything in Tribe's catalog. and even then the drums as a whole don't hit as hard as they do on some of Q TIp's solo shyt
I really expected and hoped for more songs like Conrad Tokyo
THAT sounds like a tribe beat
maybe I need to give it a few more listens, but I get the same kind of feeling I did when I listened to De La's new shyt that everybody was lying to themselves about. shyt is only aight brehs
right today, it's my least favorite Tribe album
neg me if you want, or do so when negs get brought back. but I know i'm not the only one who feels like this. as a longtime fan of over two decades I feel let down
They won't. Most are frauds trying to latch on
Should've known y'all would dikkride this weak ass album. That cac rock influence running through this entire album
Beats don't thump and aren't melodically interesting.Best track: Ego (but if even that is kinda
)I thought "Space Program" was gonna be "good ol Tribe" went it started. But it's average.
DALLASMAVERICKS
Pro
anyone got the download link?
Frankly, that was the moment I knew Busta worked hard for that flat top
They won't. Most are frauds trying to latch on
Should've known y'all would dikkride this weak ass album. That cac rock influence running through this entire album
Best track: Ego
I thought "Space Program" was gonna be "good ol Tribe" went it started. But it's average.
hide behind gifs, brehs
beenz
Rap Guerilla
busta rhymes is ALL over this album. he on there as much as consequence is.
Its out?
Roland Coltrane
Superstar
we're on the same page breh
Roland Coltrane
Superstar
i've seen the documentary multiple times breh and it's still disingenuous to say Tribe=Q-Tip
foh
Q-Tip solo albums while similar DO sound different than Tribe projects
Jay Dee's fingerprints were all over Beats, Rhymes, and Life and the Love Movement or am I wrong?
ManBearPig
half man half bearpig
is it classic ATCQ or 
ATCQ
ATCQ
Piff Perkins
Veteran
Was Mohammed involved with the album at all?
Roland Coltrane
Superstar
breh, the overreactions around here are so predictable it's not even funny
Frankly, that was the moment I knew Busta worked hard for that flat top
They won't. Most are frauds trying to latch on
Should've known y'all would dikkride this weak ass album. That cac rock influence running through this entire album
Best track: Ego (but if even that is kinda
I thought "Space Program" was gonna be "good ol Tribe" went it started. But it's average.
as long as a certain name is attached and it's not complete basura you got cats screaming AOTY from the top of the mountain and if you disagree and have ANY criticism whatsoever they get furious
my thing is this, if you're a longtime fan of a group, or a Stan even that should make you look at their work even MORE critically because you have more of a base to inform your opinion. instead nikkas just hand out passes based on legacy
this album is aight, at best, and nikkas are pulling the exact same shyt they pulled with that weak ass De La album
Bruce Wayne
THE GODDAMN BILLIONAIRE
@Remy Le Breh Would it be more Respectful to get this on Disc?
Roland Coltrane
Superstar
it's got some decent joints but it's nowhere near classicis it classic ATCQ or
after the hype dies down people'll be more honest about it and might give it a
listen for yourself tho
