A Tribe Called Quest
"We got it from Here ... Thank You 4 Your service"
(Epic (ASTERISK)(ASTERISK)(ASTERISK){)
"We got it from Here ... " leads the way by a long distance in 2016's "better than it has any right to be" sweepstakes. The first album in 18 years by the early 1990s Native Tongues rappers, who seemed to be out of commission even before rapper Malik "Phife Dawg" Taylor died in March, turns out to be an effortless-sounding, acutely intelligent, joyful offering that never comes off as overbusy or cluttered even as it packs in cameos from Busta Rhymes, Elton John, Jack White, Kanye West, Andre 3000, and Kendrick Lamar.
The latter three fit into the category of rappers influenced by Tribe's expansive musical palette and Phife, Q-Tip, and Jarobi White's dexterous verbal gymnastics, which are fully on display here on an album the group was working on in secret before Phife's death. Serious matters are discussed, starting with the opening tour de force, "We the People ... ," in which both Tip and Phife rhyme about police violence and intolerance. But the whole album floats with Ali Shaheed Muhammad's light-as-a-feather throwback beats. "We got it from Here ... " arrives with a sense of purposeful optimism that's most welcome and surprising on an album the surviving band members say will be their last.
_Dan DeLuca
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