Why A Tribe Called Quest broke up and the reason they got back together
By 1998, A Tribe Called Quest had had enough. Their fifth album, The Love Movement, was to be their last, and they were very clear in saying so. Except, as so often happens when bands announce their break-up, they inevitably were drawn back together again in the end.
Numerous reasons have been cited to explain Tribe’s initial break-up in ’98. The group themselves blamed the politics of the record industry, but rumours set in that it was down to a rift between Q-Tip and Phife Dawg, who were both vying for more control. This is a view challenged by the members themselves.
Album sales were already beginning to face challenges as A Tribe Called Quest approached the end of their first and most successful run, and the fact that there were several members involved meant the money they did make had to be split. This was apparently part of Tribe’s struggles towards the end of the ’90s.
It has also been said that tensions arose after Q-Tip and Ali Shaheed Muhammad converted to Islam, whereas Phife did not. He went his own way, moving to Atlanta with his wife, but he never believed any of that was responsible for the group’s break-up, as he explained to Dazed in 2011.
“It was a combination of things,” he said of the reasons for the legendary group’s initial split. “I don’t think it had anything with the guys both being Muslim, or me moving to Atlanta. But when we decided to call it a day, it was a dark moment.”
The split of Tribe marked the end of a hip-hop era, but, all things considered, it didn’t actually last that long. While there would be 18 years separating their fifth and sixth albums, the crew did actually regroup as early as 2006. They played some gigs, apparently to help Phife pay his medical bills.
Phife referred to himself lightheartedly as the “funky diabetic,” but he really did suffer terribly with the condition. He needed two kidney transplants during his lifetime, and the disease would, ultimately, overcome him in the end.
The group played shows here and there throughout the late 2000s into the 2010s, but it was only in 2015 that the prospect of recording new material became realistic. Tribe got back together again to perform on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon that November, and the performance went so well that they decided to go into the studio together again.
They didn’t announce their sessions, but they began work in earnest. Tragically, of course, Phife Dawg died during the album’s production and it was completed without him. The record, We Got It from Here… Thank You 4 Your Service, came out in November 2016 and really has proven to be the group’s final album. Without Phife Dawg still around, that is the end of Tribe’s story.