A Tribe Called Quest to Disband After Two More Concerts
Rapper Q-Tip has revealed via Twitter that A Tribe Called Quest, the hip-hop group he cofounded in the mid-Eighties, will throw in the towel after its two upcoming New York City dates supporting Kanye West. “In August, ATCQ did our last show FOR Cali,” he wrote, referencing the H20 Music Festival in Los Angeles in August. “It’s only right we do our FINAL 2 joints where we started. . . NYC.” Those shows will take place on November 20th at the Barclays Center and November 24th at Madison Square Garden. (Kendrick Lamar will support West on the 19th at Barclays and the 23rd at Madison Square Garden.)
A Tribe Called Quest formed in Queens, New York, and in 1989 signed a demo deal with Geffen. That demo, the cover of which Q-Tip recently Instagrammed, contained a number of their early hits, including “I Left My Wallet in El Segundo” and “Can I Kick It?” Complementing De La Soul and Jungle Brothers, the group was the final piece in the triumvirate known as the Native Tongues collective. They released five records between 1990 and 1998, the year they broke up, and all achieved either gold or platinum status on the strength of hits like “Check the Rhime,” “Scenario” and “Award Tour.” They reunited to play Rock the Bells in 2004 and toured intermittently after that.
This past May, Q-Tip told Rolling Stone that he will “probably get them on my [next] album.” He also hinted that maybe a sea change was afoot in the group’s touring schedule. “We love performing,” he said. “There’s a lot of places around the world that we’ve yet to hit, believe it or not. We’re probably gonna just concentrate on the rest of the world. We’ve kind of played America.”