Lester Cohen/Getty Images for ASCAPOn Thursday evening, Q-Tip posted a lengthy, hand-written note to social media — addressed “To all the good people worldwide” — in which he announced that the final album from hip-hop legends A Tribe Called Quest will be released on November 11.
Tip described how the seeds of the album were sown around this time in 2015.
“…Last year, myself, Jarobi, Ali and Phife had the extreme pleasure of performing on The Tonight Show,” he said of the late MC Phife Dawg, DJ and producer Ali Shaheed Muhammad, and rapper Jarobi White.
“It was our first TV performance in 18 years,” Tip continued. “The energy for us that night was one that we hadn’t experienced on stage together in some time!”
He also added the “unseasonably warm night in NYC,” November 13, was also the night of the terror bombings in Paris, and that seemed to spur the group to action. “As we left 30 Rock I felt the need, we all did, to get back to the studio and start that cook up!!” he wrote. “SO WE GOT TO IT!!”
However, Phife’s death set the effort back.
“It was coming together nicely and as you may know we lost our BROTHER may GOD REST HIS SOUL on March 22nd,” wrote Tip. “But he left us with the blueprint of what we had to do. So we collected ourselves and along tribesmen, Busta [Rhymes] and Cons [rapper Consequence]…we completed what will be, obviously the final A TRIBE CALLED QUEST ALBUM!”
“No this isn’t filled with old Phife bars,” he assured fans. “This is that pure, unstepped on pure!!”
Q-Tip ended the announcement by referencing the group’s classic album, People’s Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm.
“And on November 11th, 2016,” he wrote. “We will complete our paths of rhythm. Join us! Peace!!”
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