A Tribe Called Quest & the Native Tongues: Why the Movement Still Matters

My brother Maintain the Music is the biggest Tribe fan I know, so this one is his. It started with a dubbed tape a classmate brought back from New York with Bonita Applebum on it. By The Low End Theory, he was all the way in.

We get into how the Native Tongues came together, from Q-Tip and Mike G of the Jungle Brothers to De La Soul, Queen Latifah, Monie Love and Black Sheep. We talk about how a crew in dashikis and peace signs made it cool to be conscious in the middle of the gangsta era, and how those jazz samples sent a whole generation looking for Miles and Coltrane.

Then Midnight Marauders, the album with zero skips. The Love Movement and the breakup we found out about in The Source. Q-Tip's range. And the day Maintain ended up in Ali Shaheed Muhammad's living room being offered tea.