It seemed like the story of
A Tribe Called Quest ended with the sad passing of original member
Phife in early 2016. It began with their glory days as one of hip-hop's greatest acts to years of sometimes bitter estrangement, then hit a high point with the group coming together in 2015 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of their debut album
People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm. They had a surprise up their sleeve, though. On the night they performed on The Tonight Show, the four original members of the
Tribe decided the time was right to hit the studio and make a new album. Repairing relationships was the first step and once that happened, the group (minus
Ali Shaheed Muhammad, who was in Los Angeles working on the music to Luke Cage) holed up in
Q-Tip's home studio and started working on their comeback,
We Got It from Here... Thank You 4 Your Service.
Q-Tip held down the producer's chair with a mad scientist's flair, searching near and far through his record collection for inspiration.
Tip,
Phife, and
Jarobi brought rhymes that sounded like they'd been sealed up since the early '90s, then broken open and served fresh. Old collaborators
Busta Rhymes and
Consequence dropped by to add their skills and energy; new artists like
Kendrick Lamar and
Anderson Paak, who grew up on the
Tribe, dropped by to add verses, and some big names like
Andre 3000 and
Kanye West jumped in feet first, especially
Andre, whose rapid-fire verses with
Q-Tip on "Kids" provide one of the record's highlights.
Jack White adds some of his guitar heroics on a few tracks and
Elton John makes a cameo as well, singing the hook of the very odd "Solid Wall of Sound."