They came, they saw and they conquered the American music industry of the 90s, so much so that John Bush called A Tribe Called Quest “the most intelligent, most artistic rap group of the 1990s”. For their many fine productions of good music, the group received a Special Achievement Award at the 2005 Billboard R&B Hip-Hop Awards in Atlanta, while in 2007 they were honored at the 4th VH1 Hip-Hop Honours in recognition of their immense contributions as pioneers of alternative hip-hop music in the American music industry and indeed the music industry worldwide.
Who are the members of A Tribe Called Quest? – All You Should Know
A Tribe Called Quest was an American hip-hop group originally formed in 1985 in St. Albans, Queens, New York, the USA with founding members Q-Tip (MC and main producer), Phife Dawg (MC), Ali Shaheed Muhammad (DJ and co-producer), and Jarobi White (MC).
Between 1990 and 2016 they released a total of 6 albums, amidst all the challenges they faced at various times, including the break-up, the solo gang of their members, and even the death of one member. The music group A Tribe Called Quest is no longer active, but their music and legacy live on. Get to know the members of the group here and see what has become of them.
Q-Tip
He was renamed Jonathan William Davis at his birth on 10 April 1970 but later changed his name to Kamaal Ibn John Fareed due to his conversion to Islam.
According to his DNA analysis, Q-Tip traced his roots to the Jola people of Guinea-Bissau. His father, however, was from Montserrat in the Eastern Caribbean, while his mother is of African-American descent from Alabama.
When he was young, his parents moved to St. Albans, Queens, while he later went to school at Murry Bergtraum High School in Manhattan, New York.
The career we know him for began in 1985 when he and his friends founded A Tribe Called Quest. The Abstract, as he calls himself, was to perform as a soloist later in his music career in 1998, producing singles such as Vivrant Thing and Breathe and Stop, among others. During his career, he also worked as a music producer and disc jockey.
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Ali Shaheed Muhammad
Ali was born in Brooklyn on 11 August 1970 as a native New Yorker. He is recognized as an American hip-hop DJ, record producer, and rapper.
Together with Jay Dee and Q-Tip, he formed a music production group called The Ummah, which he hasn’t seen for a long time. After the group broke up, he formed an R&B supergroup called Lucy Pearl with Dawn Robinson and Raphael Saadiq and had a few albums released.
He became more popular, however, through his involvement with the group A Tribe Called Quest, and now that the group no longer exists, Ali Shaheed Muhammad is said to be a co-host of NPR’s radio show Microphone Check.
Phife Dawg
Unfortunately, there are no more Phife. He was born as a son of Cheryl Allison Boyce-Taylor and Walt Taylor on November 20, 1970, in St. Albans, Queens, New York, USA, where he grew up under the name Malik Izaak Taylor.
The rapper had been friends with Q-Tip since childhood and contributed immensely to the success of the group’s second album, The Low-End Theory, released in 1991. In the songs on the album, he often rapped about social and economic issues and referred to himself as the five-foot assassin.
In May 1990 Phife was diagnosed with diabetes mellitus. He announced this in the third album of A Tribe Called Quest, where he described himself as a “funky diabetic”. In 2008 he received a kidney transplant from his wife, but it was unsuccessful because he soon needed another transplant in 2012.
He died on March 22, 2016, at his home in Contra Costa County, California, at the age of 45, due to complications of his diabetes.
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Jarobi White
Jarobi left A Tribe Called Quest in 1991 after the release of her debut album People’s Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm to pursue a career in the culinary arts. He is the youngest member of the music group Quest and was born on 1 July 1971.
After leaving the group, he continued making music with DJ Rasta Root and his bandmate Phife Dawg until his death in 2016. Although Jarobi did not rap on the A Tribe Called Quest albums, his contribution was more in ideas for the songs the group sang. Of 13 music videos credited to the group, he appeared in 5.
Jarobi White returned to the group in 2016 and was part of their last album We Got It from Here… Thank You 4 Your Service and rapped for the first time on this album.
