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Track: Excursions
Artist: A Tribe Called Quest
Album: The Low End Theory

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Name: A Tribe Called Quest
Spotify Genres: jazz rap, east coast hip hop, hip hop, old school hip hop
Followers: 2,389,550
Popularity:

68/100

Biography

A Tribe Called Quest was a critically acclaimed rap group comprised initially of [a=Q-Tip] (b. Jonathan Davis ― later changed to Kamaal Ibn John Fareed in the mid-1990s upon conversion to Islam ― 10 April 1970, New York, USA), DJ [a=Ali Shaheed Muhammad] (b. 11 August 1970, Brooklyn, New York City, USA), [a=Jarobi] and [a=Phife Dawg] (b. Malik Taylor, 20 November 1970, Brooklyn, New York City, USA; d. 22 March 2016, USA). The group formed in high school in 1988 in Queens, New York City, NY, where they started as part of the Native Tongues Posse, with [a=Queen Latifah], [a=De La Soul], [a=Black Sheep], [a=Monie Love], and the [a=Jungle Brothers], and were given their name by [a=Afrika Baby Bambaataa] of the Jungle Brothers. Following their August 1989 debut, "Description Of A Fool," they had a hit with "Bonita Applebum" a year later, based on a classmate from their school. Their most significant success came the following year with the laid-back "Can I Kick It?" demonstrative of their refined jazz/hip-hop blend. This release earned the first ever "5-star" award from Source Magazine. Q-Tip also appeared on Deee-Lite's August 1990 hit, "Groove Is In The Heart." While their debut, "People's Instinctive Travels And The Paths Of Rhythm," was more eclectic and even self-consciously jokey, "The Low-End Theory" (recorded as a trio following the departure of Jarobi) blended boom bap beats with carefully selected jazz, funk, and soul melodies. ATCQ was helped considerably by jazz bass player [a=Ron Carter] (who had worked with [a=Miles Davis] and [a=John Coltrane]). Tracks such as "The Infamous Date Rape" stoked controversy, while samples from [a=Lou Reed], [a=Stevie Wonder], and [a=Earth, Wind & Fire] were used frugally and intelligently. Q-Tip appeared in the 1993 movie "Poetic Justice" opposite [a=Janet Jackson]. ATCQ was awarded the "Group Of The Year" after the release of 1993's "Midnight Marauders" at the inaugural Source Magazine Hip Hop Award Show in 1994 before being moved off stage by the arrival of [a=2Pac] and his Thug Life crew, who were attempting to steal some publicity. It was later determined this was an accident on 2Pac's behalf. In 1996 "Beats, Rhymes And Life" debuted at number 1 on the Billboard album chart with highly evolved lyrics addressing issues with greater clarity than their past recordings. "The Love Movement," which debuted at US number 3 in October 1998, was another mature, stylish collection of material. However, it lacked the spark of their earlier works. ATCQ released "We Got It From Here... Thank You 4 Your Service" on November 4, 2016, nearly 18 years after "The Love Movement" album. While recording verses for the album and his solo album, Phife Dawg passed away on March 22, 2016. During its first month of release, "We Got It From Here... Thank You 4 Your Service" was greeted with critical acclaim and fan support. The group has been awarded the Founders Award at the Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Awards and was honored at the 4th VH1 Hip-Hop Honors. In 2017, the group was awarded the Brit Award for International Group. In 2024, the group was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

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Release: A Tribe Called Quest - The Low End Theory
Year: 1996
Genres: Hip Hop
Styles: Conscious, Jazzy Hip-Hop

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Source: MusicBrainz

LYRICS

Back in the days when I was a teenager
Before I had status and before I had a pager
You could find the Abstract listening to hip hop
My pops used to say, it reminded him of Bebop
I said, well daddy don't you know that things go in cycles
Way that Bobby Brown is just amping like Michael
Its all expected, things are for the looking
If you got the money, Quest is for the booking
Come on everybody, let's get with the fly mode
Still got room on the truckload of black boom
Listen to the rhymes, then get a mental picture
Of this black man, and black woman fixture
Why do I say that, cos I gotta speak the truth, man
Doing what we feel for the music is the proof and
Planted on the ground, the act is so together
Bona fide strong, you need leverage to sever
The unit, yes the unit, yes the unit called the jazz is
Delivering each year an LP filled with street goods
You can find it on your rack in your record store
If you get the record, say your thoughts are adored
And appreciated, cos we're ever so glad we made it
We work hard, so we gotta thank God
Dishing out the plastic, do the dance till you're spastic
If you dis... it gets drastic
Listen to the rhyme, cos it's time to make gravy
If it moves your booty, then shake, shake it baby
All the way to Africa aka The Motherland
Stick out the left, then I'll ask for the other hand
That's the right hand, Black Man
Only if you are noted as my man
If I get the credit, then I think I deserve it
If you fake moves, don't fix your mouth to word it
Get in the zone of positivity, not negativity
Cos we gotta strive for longevity
If you botch up, what's in that [ass]
A pair of Nikes size ten-and-a-half

We gotta make moves
Never, ever, ever could we fake moves (Come on, come on)
We gotta make moves
Never, ever, ever could we fake moves (Come on, come on)
We gotta make moves
Never, ever, ever could we fake moves (Come on, come on)
We gotta make moves
Never, ever, ever could we fake moves (Come on, come on)

Time, time is a ship on a merciless sea
Drifting toward an average of nothingness
Until it can be retarded for its own destiny
Time is an inanimate object
Praying and praying and praying with no justification for relief
Time is dancing, boogalooing away all memories of past..

We gotta be a winner all the time
Can't fall prey to a hip hop crime
With the dope raps and dope tracks we move blocks
From the fly girlies to the hardest of the rocks
Musically the Quest, is on the rise
We on these excursions so you must realize
That continually, I pop my Zulu [shit]
If you don't like it, get off the Zulu tip
So what can you do in the times which exist
You can't fake moves on your brother or your sis
But if your sis is a [bitch], brother is a jerk
Leave 'em both alone and continue with your work
Whatever it may be in today's society
Everything is fair, least that's how it seems to me
You must be honest and true to the next
Don't be phony and expect one not to flex
Especially if you rhyme, you have to live by the pen
Your man is your man, then treat him like your friend
All it is, is the code of the streets
So listen to the knowledge being dropped over beats
Beats that are hard, beats that are funky
They could get you hooked like a crackhead junkie
What you gotta do is know the Tribe is in the sphere
The Abstract Poet, prominent like Shakespeare
(Or Edgar Allan Poe or Langston Hughes)

We gotta make moves
Never, ever, ever could we fake moves (Come on, come on)
We gotta make moves
Never, ever, ever could we fake moves (Come on, come on)
We gotta make moves
Never, ever, ever could we fake moves (Come on, come on)
We gotta make moves
Never, ever, ever could we fake moves (Come on, come on)

Time is running out on black power advocates in the day
And white thigh supporters at night
Every time you see them they're chasing some white woman
With their tongue hanging out
Time is running and passing, passing and running
Running and passing, passing and running...