Over this past weekend, A Tribe Called Quest became the 12th Hip-hop act to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The overdue honor comes after the trio was nominated three times, but if Tribe’s music taught us anything, patience is a virtue. After piecing together a timeless discography that will go down as one of the most important in Hip-hop history and music history as a whole, the group of Phife Dawg, Q-Tip, and Ali Shaheed Muhammad have finally cemented their position in the prestigious Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The moving ceremony had guest appearances from Questlove, André 3000, and Lauryn Hill, praising the innovative trio.
It goes without being said, but A Tribe Called Quest had to start somewhere before scaling the mountain of success in the music industry. For this Golden Age Thursday, we look at an underappreciated moment in Tribe’s legacy. In 1996, while promoting their criminally underrated Beats, Rhymes & Life, the trio and fellow emcee Consequence stepped up to the mic for an iconic freestyle. The audio comes to us courtesy of Hot97, a Hip-hop radio staple in New York City that has become synonymous with freestyles and the city’s hip-hop scene as a whole. This freestyle captures Tribe at an interesting time in their career. They were already being showered in praise for albums like The Low End Theory and Midnight Marauders, so the question of “Is music right for me?” had seemingly never been further from their minds. You can hear their unique chemistry boom from the speakers as each member delivers a potent reminder of why their spot in the Rock Hall of Fame is more than deserved; it was earned.
