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at a glance...
Hometown: Queens, NY
Formed: circa 1988
Members:
Q-Tip (Jonathan Davis) -MC
Phife (Malik Taylor) -MC
Jarobi White -MC
Ali Shaheed Muhammed -DJ
Related Artists :
Jungle Brothers, De La Soul, Beastie Boys, Leaders of the New School, Flipmode Squad, Black Star, Dee-Lite, Mos Def
Notes:
Part of the Native Tongue collective along with De La Soul and the Jungle Brothers, Tribe defined a left-of-center movement of positive, thoughtful hip hop amid the growing popularity of gangster rap in the early '90s. With the "sound provider," Ali Shaheed Muhammed, on the turntables, MCs Q-Tip, Phife and the often-MIA Jarobi steadily tightened and developed their lyrical interplay over five albums. Debut People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm, featured the hits "Can I Kick It" and "Bonita Applebum" and sold 500,000 copies. The group released The Low End Theory in 1991, marking a move to more bass-heavy beats, with samples from the Average White Band and Funkadelic, and a tighter lyrical approach. Midnight Marauders came out two years later amid the height of gangster rap, and the album was laced with verbal fronts on gun toting but still reached platinum. By 1993, the Questers and De La Soul had made significant crossovers into the collegiate and non-traditional hip-hop audience, marked by Tribe's 1994 appearance on the Lollapalooza tour. Beats, Rhymes & Life didn't quite meet the enormous expectations placed upon it, but nevertheless contained some subtle, lyrically complex tracks. The band's fifth release, The Love Movement, continued Tribe's minimalist approach to beats and rhymes, and marked the finale for one of hip-hop music's truly innovative groups.
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