Quote:
Originally Posted by Pretty Little Flower
All the time, Tip.
My love of hip hop and funk fed off each other. Sometimes I would first hear a hip hop song with a crazy sampled riff, and only later discover the funk tune that originally contained the riff (for example, Daily Dose #3 -- I had heard Public Enemy's "Timebomb" a thousand times before I discovered that the guitar sample was from the Meters' "Just Kissed My Baby"). Other times, I would hear a hip hop song and immediately recognize the underlying funk sample (Daily Dose #4 - I knew Tribe Called Quest was sampling Funkadelic the first moment I heard the song).
Yet part of what I loved about groups like Tribe and De La Soul was that they did not feel constrained to sample James Brown, Sly, P-Funk, and the Meters over and over. In fact, there appeared to be no limitations on where they would find their inspiration (De La's first album sampled everything from Steely Dan to Schoolhouse Rock; Tribe's first sampled Lou Reed, Stevie Wonder, and so much more). Tribe was also one of the first to truly incorporate jazz riffs in a way that did not seem forced at all. The Green Dolphin Street sample in We Got the Jazz was brilliant and for those who still think there is no artistry in hip hop, let that song alone be irrebutable proof that you are wrong. Hiring jazz great Ron Carter for one of the cuts on Low End Theory was also way ahead of the curve. Tribe's music and the lyrical interplay between Q-Tip and Phife Dawg sounds as fresh and relevant today as it did in 1989 (with the occasional exception of lines like "Mr. Dinkins, will you please be our mayor").
As Thurgreed would argue (and few would disagree), Q-Tip was the source of most of the musical and lyrical genius of the group. It is no accident that Q-Tip was just named the Kennedy Center's first Artistic Director for Hip-Hop culture. But on songs like Check the Rhime, the back and forth between Phife and Tip was magic.
Sadly, Phife has died at 45, probably from health problems related to his lifelong struggle with diabetes. So today's Daily Dose goes out to him. Minnie Riperton's "This Love I have" is really more a soul song than a pure funk song, but the opening riff that was sample by Tribe on Check the Rhime is straight up funky:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYUhMb74bjw#t=13
Check the Rhime by Tribe. R.I.P. Malik Taylor:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3PW2dXh0dk |
Love this post.
Tribe is my favorite group of all time (any genre). 'Tip made it happen, but they wouldn't be anywhere near as good without Phife diddog. From the moment I was introduced to their music, it was pure love. They were the next evolutionary step from De La (whose music spoke to me on a level that no other did in high school) and, as far as I'm concerned, no one has evolved beyond them. Mos Def and Talib, Kanye, Lupe, The Roots, and countless others all owe them their careers (or at least a major part of their sound), but none surpassed them.
And Phife, while not the strongest lyrically, could hold his own with anyone. He was clever, fun, magnetic, and the perfect balance to Tip's smooth, laid back delivery. As I said on facebook earlier, today, the shorty Phife Dawg is everyone's favorite MC.
TM
