The good news for fans of A Tribe Called Quest is that their new album is due in the next couple of weeks. The bad news? It’s going to be their last.
The influential rap group, whose as-yet-untitled sixth album will be their first since 1998’s The Love Movement, posted on Facebook to say: “We completed what will be, obviously, the final A Tribe Called Quest album.”
They added that it was the death of group member Malik “Phife Dawg” Taylor earlier this year that led to them completing this final record. In a handwritten note, Q-Tip talked about their reunion on The Tonight Show in November 2015: “It was our first TV performance in 18 years. The energy for us that night was one that we hadn’t experienced on stage together in some time!”
Making reference to the Paris attacks, which happened that same night, he continued: “As we left 30 Rock, I felt the need, we all did, to get back to the studio … So we got to it! It was coming together nicely.”
Phife Dawg died on 22 March 2016, but Q-Tip said he left them with the “blueprint” of what the group needed to do. LA Reid, the CEO of Epic Records previously claimed the material, which will be released on 11 November 2016, is “something special.”
