Sentiments aside, I don’t think you’ll
hear an album as good and relevant this year as A Tribe Called Quest’s We Got It From Here… Thank You For Your
Service. The album dropped in the aftermath of the American election where
Trump turned out to be the winner and the lyrics of songs like We The People seem to predict the wave
of hate that came with the man’s campaign and eventual ascent to the
presidency. Lyrics like, “All you Black folks, you must go/ All you Mexicans,
you must go/ And all you poor folks, you must go/ Muslims and Gays/ Boy we hate
your ways/” speak to the hate rhetoric spewed during this last American
election.
The album is also the last featuring Phife
Dawg who died early this year and during the process of completing the album
(the crew pay tribute to him on Lost
Somebody). While I take my hip hop influence from everywhere, Tribe’s first
three albums had an impact on what music could sound like for me and not to
mention the rhyme patterns of rappers like Phife and Tip played a part in
teaching one how to put lines together.
Their final album here is a great farewell
as it features everyone that has been a Tribe
member aside from the main trio of Phife, Tip and Ali Shaheed Muhammad. There’s
occasional members Jarobi White and Consequence and of course honourary member,
Busta Rhymes all over the album.
There are the great guest features ranging
from Jack White to the legendary Elton John (on one track for that matter) to
the usual rap drop-ins from Andre 3000 of Outkast to Kendrick Lamar among
others. There’s the introduction of new voices like soul singer Abbey Smith
alongside veterans like Marsha Ambriousa on Melatonin.
It is a sometimes politically charged
album with songs like the aforementioned We
The People and Moving Backwards,
the latter which at some point tackles the recent surge of police brutality
against people of colour, “Police killing niggas everywhere, maybe we should
get some guns too.”
Mention must be made of the prophecies of
some Phife’s lines, on Conrad Tokyo
it seems like the deceased rapper peeked into the future as he mentions Trump
and the SNL hilarity that eventually followed his win.
The only thing missing from this album is
a production credit from core member Ali Shaheed Muhammad who was allegedly
busy working on the Luke Cage
soundtrack, hence the entire production of the album is largely handled and
overseen by Q-Tip. One can’t help but think of all the members, perhaps Tip
wanted the reunion more than anyone and he wouldn’t be wrong for it.
The album ends with Donald, a reference (and tribute) to one of Phife’s alter egos,
ending out a true hip hop legacy. The truth is they don’t make rap albums like
these anymore, making it the more special. You on point y’all?
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