[rating=8.00]
Amazing, one of the greatest hip-hop acts of all time secretly record an album (their first in 18 years) after reuniting because they were inspired by world events. Unfortunate, one of the founding members passes away before it can be completed. With mixed emotions that this will be the last A Tribe Called Quest album, the outfit can hold its head high with the recently released We got it from Here…Thank You 4 Your Service.
The title was crafted by Phife Dawg before his passing and the rest of the members decided to leave it as is, even though they weren’t sure it’s meaning. With the political lyrics and cultural touchstones listeners can easily view it as a dismal of the whole political, racial and cultural climate. While remaining members mentioned that Phife left a blueprint for things, the album is divided into two discs but only runs an hour with lots of familiar (and not so familiar) guests showing up to help out.
The first disc is the better side as the group comes out of the gate with their scorching screeds. “Space Program” delivers an “Award Tour” piano vibe but then pushes the energy through the roof as Q-Tip, Phife and Jarobi spit politically angry, fluid and fast rhymes. The closing samples of Charlie and The Chocolate Factory bleed into “We The People” which continues the protest club music and adds some banging distortion via a sick Black Sabbath sample. Both tracks are invigorating and display the talents of the group have evolved, experimenting along a wider range.
“Whateva Will Be” delves into some deep bass as Phife lays out the societal problems Black America faces. Jarobi continues this while Q-Tip wraps it up and Consequence puts a pin in it, the group is clearly pissed at the whole damn system. “Solid Wall of Sound” ratchets up the sonics and odd guests with Jack White and Elton John building up to the crescendo while “Dis Generation” has loads of samples, guitar work and fired up Busta Rhymes who blasts the track to outer space.
The dream pairing of Andre 3000 and Q-Tip arrives in the lyrically dense “Kids” which tries to prove generational divides aren’t that large via sarcasm and escapism with lines like “I don’t wanna get up now, I don’t wanna go to school/I don’t wanna be the best, don’t wanna follow rules”. A highlight song on a first half of an album that has quite a few peaks.
Unfortunately as the album progresses the valleys are much more frequent, perhaps it was Phife’s passing but the latter half feels undercooked. Songs like “Mobius” are disjointed, an easy flowing background is paired with an angry Busta Rhymes for a messy result. Three tracks “Movin’ Backwards” “Conrad Tokyo” and “Ego” blend into each other with minimal results feeling odd and tacked on to simply amp up the running time. Two ode’s to a fallen brother are also towards the end with “Donald” acting as a solid showcase for Phife while “Lost Somebody” is a jumbled mess with piano rolls and the most overdone awkward stuttering snares in recent memory.
One bright spot on the second half is “Black Spasmodic” which is a classic Tribe jam that has all the markings of a thrilling track. Old school but still forward looking with a guest hook from Consequence, the effort finds Tip and Phife completely grooving, trading verses with ease talking about Ouija Boards and the Dead Sea. Tracks like this remind just how damn great this group was at their peak.
That crescendo was at the exact start of their career as A Tribe Called Quest released three stone cold classic hip-hop albums. People’s Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm, The Low End Theory, and Midnight Marauders are still fresh, engaging and relevant thirty years removed and while We got it from Here…Thank You 4 Your service does not rank with their upper echelon, it is a solid cap to their anthology.
