A Tribe Called Quest

USA, 1985–2016

New York hip-hop group (Q-Tip, Phife Dawg, Ali Shaheed Muhammad, Jarobi White) and pillars of the Native Tongues collective. The Low End Theory and Midnight Marauders defined jazz-rap — warm, sample-based grooves and playful, thoughtful rhymes.

MusicRoots documents 2 artists who influenced A Tribe Called Quest and 7 artists A Tribe Called Quest influenced in turn. Every connection cites a published source.

Who influenced A Tribe Called Quest?

• Miles Davis — A Tribe Called Quest pioneered jazz-rap by building beats on jazz — Miles Davis among the legends whose recordings and spirit fed their sound.
• Lou Reed — Tribe's jazz-rap crate-digging reached into rock too — their hit 'Can I Kick It?' is built on a sample of Lou Reed's 'Walk on the Wild Side'.

Which artists did A Tribe Called Quest influence?

• Nujabes — A Tribe Called Quest's laid-back jazz-sampled hip-hop is the direct ancestor of the unhurried, warm sound Nujabes built chillhop from.
• OutKast — A Tribe Called Quest's jazz-rap groove and lyrical dexterity shaped OutKast's early sound, which sat 'between the jamming madness of Parliament-Funkadelic and the bumping beats of A Tribe Called Quest'.
• The Black Eyed Peas — The Black Eyed Peas came up worshipping the Native Tongues — apl.de.ap learned English listening to A Tribe Called Quest, whose jazz-rap shaped their early sound.
• Fugees — The Fugees' jazzy, soulful, socially conscious hip-hop descends from the Native Tongues sound A Tribe Called Quest defined.
• The Roots — The Roots' jazzy, live-band hip-hop shares the jazz-rap DNA A Tribe Called Quest pioneered.
• Epik High — The group's own answer to what shaped them — jazz-sampled, conversational, built on a crew rather than a star.
• Kanye West — West calls them his favourite rap group ever, and the warm, unhurried soul underneath his early production is theirs.