In a city that has become ground zero for a new face of hip-hop music, it's almost ironic that a 31-year-old rap group can remain relevant, especially in a Toronto that is so caught up identifying the next artist to go beyond our borders. So, on a seasonably cold and windy night, when old and new school hip-hop heads descended on The Dirty Bird Chicken + Waffles on Bloor Street, it felt like there was more on the table than just a spontaneous listening party for the new Tribe Called Quest album.
Advertisement
A Tribe Called Quest's sixth studio album, We Got It From Here… Thanks 4 Your Service, is a testament to both the group and the lasting endurance of 90s hip-hop. The era was dominated by rap groups like ATCQ, Wu-Tang Clan, Souls of Mischief, and The Beatnuts—all of whom had a defining role in my early music sensibilities. As the smell of food hung thick in the air and Toronto's original hip-hop scene turned out for a group who has been credited with bringing the Native Tongue collective together, who inspired emcees and producers like Talib Kweli, Common and Kanye West. I couldn't help feeling sentimental. Like Tribe and myself, the night was a mix of complex emotion: half celebration for a nostalgic type of sound that many of us feel is no longer being produced and part memorial for a voice we will sadly never hear again. Earlier this year, when founding member Phife Dawg passed away due to complications from Type-1 Diabetes, no one was sure if the studio album—which marked the end of their contractual obligation to Jive Records—would ever come to fruition. The project, likely Tribe's last, was inspired after their performance on The Tonight Show, November 13, 2015—the same night as the Paris bombings, according to Q-Tip. Almost a year to the day, We Got It From Here… was released.
As the diverse crowd inside The Dirty Bird waited with anticipation for opening track "Space Program" to begin, there was an overall sense of anticipation, gratitude, and community. After all, Toronto's hip-hop community shares similarities with the birth of New York's in the late 80s when ATCQ were establishing themselves. Toronto's scene was also built on tight-knit groups where faces are easily recognizable and degrees of separation are few. A city that built some of its earliest hip-hop roots with groups like Dream Warriors, Ghetto Concept, Point Blank and Monolith. In addition to having seen our own national hip-hop collective responsible for arguably the best Canadian ensemble rap record ever "Northern Touch", which samples Brooklyn group B.T. Express' "Everything Good to You (Ain't Always Good for You)." The city's close proximity to New York and diverse makeup, also make it a natural selection to carry hip-hop culture into the 21st century as it has.
Advertisement
As everyone in attendance quickly learned, though, now shoulder to shoulder, the new album isn't only about reminiscing about a time gone by. Despite the inclusion of original member Jarobi, who left the group after their second album, The Low End Theory; We Got It From Here… uses signature ATCQ traits like jazz-infusion, recognizable samples, smooth lyricism and storytelling, and seamlessly melds them together with insightful contemporary social commentary exhibited on "Moving Backwards" and "The Killing Season" when Jarobi raps: "It must be killing season, on the menu strange fruit/Whose juices fill the progress of this here very nation/ Whose states has grown bitter through justice expiration, These fruitful trees are rooted in bloody soil and torment."
The album was released the same week Donald Trump won the U.S election and having the two events side-by-side, songs "Dis Generation" and "We the People " feel like calls for action. 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" are laced with deep political insight offering a familiar voice for the disenfranchised in a pre and post-Trump America. Even so, for Toronto hip-hop artist Dan-e-o who has been a constant in the local scene since '96 when he released Dear Hip Hop and had worked with Phife in years past, the ATCQ party was a chance to hear the album and remember a friend.
Advertisement
"They get you on beat one, as soon as the drums knock, they have always managed to get your head nodding immediately and the rest takes care of itself," he said.As the first session drew to a close in the crowded restaurant I felt a strange sense of relief. In a year where terms like 'mumble rap' were coined and I felt far removed from hip-hop as I used to know it, ATCQ sounds familiar, offering a brand of rap those of us who have grown up in the previous era's culture can understand and appreciate. But 2016, is also a year where comfortably pining for a time since passed has resulted in the current state of affairs over in America. With final track "The Donald" which is an ode to Phife, ATCQ showcases the polarity of what ATCQ and Phife's legacy is and what President-Elect Trump stands for.Over the weekend, ATCQ took to the Saturday Night Live stage as the musical guest for Dave Chappelle. The episode, which will probably be SNL's most important of the season, poked fun at the Liberal blindness that led to a Trump presidency. Tip's high energy performance along with Jarobi and Ali Shaheed Muhammad against a backdrop of Phife in a Basquiat painting embodied the spirit of both the audience in studio 8H and throngs of protesters amassing across the continent.ATCQ's last album brings together all the elements of hip-hop we love, hard hitting beats, clever poeticism, and cool swagger. And with their unique ability to collaborate, utilizing guests and peers like Kendrick Lamar, Talib Kweli, Elton John, Anderson .Paak and Jack White they demonstrate hip-hop's ability to unite different groups and perspectives, even a group of Torontonians eating chicken and waffles.Thanks for your service Tribe.Georgia Williams is a writer based in Toronto. Follow her on Twitter. All photos by Jake Kivanc