Review
A Tribe Called Quest
We Got It From Here...Thank You For Your Service

Epic (2016) Kevin Fitzpatrick

A Tribe Called Quest – We Got It From Here...Thank You For Your Service cover artwork
A Tribe Called Quest – We Got It From Here...Thank You For Your Service — Epic, 2016

It's been a year of protests. Whether it's regarding the new president-elect, Black Lives Matter, or sitting down during the national anthem, folks are letting their displeasure with the current state of affairs.

With that said, it's been a while that anyone has released anything that could be categorized as a protest album. Hell, that might not even be a real category anymore. If it is, We Got It From Here... most assuredly belongs in that category.

Coming off their second hiatus, A Tribe Called Quest have released what is arguably their most politically charged and strongest album in their long and storied career. Recorded virtually in secret with member Phife Dawg before his untimely passing earlier this year, We Got It... is 16 tracks of hip-hop 101, each averaging 3 minutes, and there's nary a single nanosecond wasted.

Like all great albums from any great band, it would seem that the acknowledgement of something bigger than themselves can often be the catalyst.

In A Tribe Called Quest's instance, it was performing on late night tv on what turned out to be the night of the Paris terrorist attacks that had Q-Tip, Phife Dawg and Ali Shaheed Muhammad think that they had another album in them. This time, adding folks like Busta Rhymes to the mix and who honestly, sounds like he's been in the Tribe the whole time.

That drive, coupled with tracks like "We the People...", "Melatonin", "The Killing Season" and "The Donald" all prove, that this album doesn't just belong on the playlist labeled "essential", it's on the playlist labeled "important".

A Tribe Called Quest – We Got It From Here...Thank You For Your Service cover artwork
A Tribe Called Quest – We Got It From Here...Thank You For Your Service — Epic, 2016

Related news

Pitchfork 2017 lineup announced

Posted in Shows on April 7, 2017

Phife Dawg reportedly passes away

Posted in Obituaries on March 23, 2016

The end for A Tribe Called Quest?

Posted in Rumors on November 6, 2013

Recently-posted album reviews

Personality Cult

Dilated
Dirtnap (2025)

I had a hard time starting this review. I can’t help coming back to the fact that it sounds like Marked Men. It does, maybe intentionally so, as Dilated is the second of Personality Cult’s albums that is produced by Jeff Burke of Marked Men and Radioactivity. But I don’t necessarily like to say a band sounds like another band … Read more

Various Artists

Her Head's On Fire/Arms Like Roses - Split
Double Helix (2025)

Her Head’s On Fire (NY, NY) and Arms Like Roses (New Haven, CT) team up on this split 7” with two new tracks (one each band) of post-hardcore tunes that are both massive and melodic in their own distinct ways. "Universal" is the track from Her Head’s On Fire. Recorded by the band’s guitarist Jeff Dean, "Universal" came from the … Read more

Dead Bars

All Dead Bars Go To Heaven
Iodine (2025)

Dead Bars has a unique talent of taking the everyday, the experiences you see and live all the time, and shining a new light on them to make them personal and interesting. I've written about it before, yet it's my job to say this again and to make it interesting. It's what Dead Bars does, so it only seems fitting … Read more