BIOGRAPHY
Formed in Queens, New York City, in 1985, A Tribe Called Quest comprised rapper-producer Q-Tip, rapper Phife Dawg, DJ and co-producer Ali Shaheed Muhammad, and rapper Jarobi White. The group co-founded the Native Tongues collective in 1988 and became its most commercially successful act, with all six studio albums certified gold or platinum by the RIAA. Their debut, People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm (1990), earned The Source's first five-mic rating, while the jazz-infused The Low End Theory (1991) and Midnight Marauders (1993) further shaped alternative hip-hop. Beats, Rhymes and Life (1996) became their first Billboard 200 number-one album. AllMusic's John Bush called them 'the most intelligent, artistic rap group during the 1990s,' and Pitchfork's Kris Ex named them 'one of the greatest acts that hip-hop has ever produced.' The group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2024.