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Celebrating 25 Years Of A Tribe Called Quest

Twenty-five years later and we’re still asking “Can I Kick It?”

Yes, you can, this November 13, when hip-hop group A Tribe Called Quest plan to reissue their 1990 debut album People’s Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm.

Photo/ LegacyRecordings.com

“This album means a lot,” producer Ali Shaheed Muhammad, said in a press release. “It was the beginning of our careers; the beginning of our imprint; the beginning of seeing life the way we saw it, and being able to put it down in words and music.”

Remastered from the tapes of Grammy-Award winning engineer Bob Power, the album will also feature new remixes, which will be announced in the coming weeks, from some of today’s biggest hip-hop artists who have credited A Tribe Called Quest as a major creative influence.

A Tribe Called Quest began in 1985, when four childhood friends from Jamaica, Queens–Jonathan “Q-Tip” Davis, Malik Issac Taylor a.k.a. “Phife Dawg,” Ali Shaheed Muhammad and Jarobi White–came together and forever changed the hip-hop game with their contemporary style of rap music.

Jarobi left the hip-hop power trio a year after ATCQ released their first album on Jive Records, to attend culinary school, and did not appear on either of the Tribe’s follow-up albums, The Low End Theory nor Midnight Marauders.

Known for their mix of Afro-centric rhythm and jazz infused beats, ATCQ helped create a new subset of the hip-hop genre that dominated the East Coast rap scene in the 1990’s.

“I had this album in my head for years before I did it,” lyricist Q-Tip said. “Looking at it overall, to see the thoughts of a 16-year-old old gain any kind of acknowledgement makes me feel like I have arrived… But to see it in this incarnation … I’m humbled.”

To celebrate 25 years of A Tribe Called Quest, Salute Magazine has hand-picked our Top 5 most essential tracks from People’s Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm.

1. “Bonita Applebaum”

“You’re like a hip-hop song, you know?”

“Bonita Applbaum” has been turning people on for decades with its classic ’90s hip-hop song about the fairer sex.

2. “I Left My Wallet In El Segundo”

What’s worse than forgeting your wallet? Forgetting that you left it somewhere in Mexico.

Well that’s just what happened to Q-Tip in this classic excursion “south of the border.”

3. “Can I Kick It?”

Sampling Lou Reed‘s classic tune “Walk On The Wild Side,” A Tribe Called Quest would forever change hip-hop game as we know it with this classic ’90s rap song that has perhaps gained as much recognition as the Velvet Underground.

4. “Footprints”

One of the album’s deeper cuts, “Footprints,” features samples of Stevie Wonder‘s song “Sir Duke,” on this disco-fueled track.

5. “Youthful Expression”

A blast from the past, then 20-year-old rapper Q-Tip showcases his lyrical skills with this organ-driven beat.