A Tribe Called Quest

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".

8.0 / 10 — Kevin Fitzpatrick