go ahead in the rain a tribe called quest

(My copy of the book is dog-eared and highlighted into oblivion.) But what kills me the most is Abdurraqib's empathy-for the people who make the music that sustains us, and also for us, for being sustained.

Warm, immediate, and intensely personal.This lush and generous book is a call to pay proper respects not just to a sound but to a feeling.Ībdurraqib is a poet, and he writes with a precise, gorgeous rhythm that makes a reader want to linger on each line. He is a five-tool writer, slipping out of the timeline to deliver vivid, memoiristic splashes as well as letters he's crafted to directly address the central players, dead and living. Riveting and poetic…Abdurraqib's gift is his ability to flip from a wide angle to a zoom with ease. Whether he’s remembering The Source magazine cover announcing the Tribe’s 1998 breakup or writing personal letters to the group after bandmate Phife Dawg’s death, Abdurraqib seeks the deeper truths of A Tribe Called Quest truths that-like the low end, the bass-are not simply heard in the head, but felt in the chest. Throughout the narrative Abdurraqib connects the music and cultural history to their street-level impact. Their work is placed in the context of the broader rap landscape of the 1990s, one upended by sampling laws that forced a reinvention in production methods, the East Coast–West Coast rivalry that threatened to destroy the genre, and some record labels’ shift from focusing on groups to individual MCs.

The result is as ambitious and genre-bending as the rap group itself.Ībdurraqib traces the Tribe's creative career, from their early days as part of the Afrocentric rap collective known as the Native Tongues, through their first three classic albums, to their eventual breakup and long hiatus. Poet and essayist Hanif Abdurraqib digs into the group’s history and draws from his own experience to reflect on how its distinctive sound resonated among fans like himself. Thank You 4 Your Service, which arrived when fans needed it most, in the aftermath of the 2016 election. Seventeen years after their last album, they resurrected themselves with an intense, socially conscious record, We Got It from Here.

How does one pay homage to A Tribe Called Quest? The seminal rap group brought jazz into the genre, resurrecting timeless rhythms to create masterpieces such as The Low End Theory and Midnight Marauders. 'Warm, immediate and intensely personal.'- New York Times Club, CBC Books, and The Rumpus, and a Winter's Most Anticipated Book by Vanity Fair and The Week Named A Most Anticipated Book of 2019 by Buzzfeed, Nylon, The A. 2019 National Book Award Longlist, NonfictionĢ019 Kirkus Book Prize Finalist, Nonfiction

Go ahead in the rain a tribe called quest