D//E is self-aware enough to realize that in this pace it will never become the go-to place for rap and hip-hop music, however, when one of the most important acts of this genre, the legendary NYC rap group, A Tribe Called Quest, drops its first album in eighteen years, which is also intended to be their last ever, and that turns out to be the triumph that is We Got It From Here... Thank You 4 Your Service, a work of such importance and widespread critical and commercial acclaim, then it is hard for anyone to overlook.
We Got It From Here... is charged with profoundness, dignity and charm like a classic Tribe record through its abundant sixty minutes that it lasts, fueled by the overwhelming social and political issues in America today and one a more personal level, the recent passing of Phife Dawg, to whom the duo have paid their respects in various ways recently, including the album's very title which was chosen by the late rapper himself.
A Tribe Called Quest always approached their kind of rap with deeper artistic intentions than most of their peers and through the course of six albums they developed a more jazz- and funk-oriented version of hip-hop that became their trademark sound and earned them the status they have today, even after they've been inactive for so long and plan to immediately retire for good. We Got It From Here... does not reinvent that trademark sound for the new generation of listeners, on the contrary, as this radical rap ensemble stays true to its values, sound and attitude, it proves for one final time that in 2016 they can be as relevant as they were in the early nineties, even more. Smoothly and just like that, in about a year after their reunion performance on Fallon's Tonight Show, they delivered the world the hands down best hip-hop album of the year.
The video for the politically intense We The People.... is directed by James Larese. Watch and listen below...
ZR