Hanif Abdurraqib, "Go Ahead In The Rain"

Abdurraqib follows the acclaimed essays of They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us with a penetrating and personal look at the band A Tribe Called Quest. Interweaving his own experiences of the music with a history of the group, open letters to the performers, and a consideration of the band’s role in the broader context of rap in the 1990s, Abdurraqib considers their creative arc—from their early days as part of the Afrocentric rap collective, the Native Tongues, through their long hiatus and reappearance—and probes the deeper meaning of their work. That this band matters is evident from their early introduction of jazz rhythms into rap through the release of We Got It from Here . . . Thank You 4 Your Service in the aftermath of the 2016 election—exactly the kind of intense, socially conscious album audiences desperately needed.

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Produced by Tom Warren