Native Tongues Explained

Native Tongues
Background:group_or_band
Origin:New York City, U.S.
Years Active:1988 – late 1990s
Current Members:Jungle Brothers
De La Soul
A Tribe Called Quest
Monie Love
Queen Latifah
Black Sheep
Chi-Ali

The Native Tongues were a collective of late 1980s and early 1990s hip-hop artists known for their positive-minded, good-natured Afrocentric lyrics, and for pioneering the use of eclectic sampling and jazz-influenced beats. Its principal members were the Jungle Brothers, De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, Monie Love, and Queen Latifah. The collective was also closely tied to the Universal Zulu Nation. Rolling Stone cites the track "Doin' Our Own Dang" as "the definitive Native Tongues posse cut".[1]

Naming

The Native Tongues took their name from a line in the song "African Cry", by Motown-offshoot funk group New Birth, which features the lyric, "took away our native tongues".[2]

History

The New York City-based Native Tongues crew was a collective of like-minded hip hop artists who would help bring abstract and open-minded lyricism that addressed a range of topics—from spirituality and modern living to race, sex, and just having fun—to the mainstream. Together with the use of eclectic samples that would take on an increasingly jazzy sound, they would be pioneers of so-called conscious hip hop, alternative hip hop, and jazz rap.

De La Soul's Trugoy the Dove recalled: "The Native Tongues came about where, basically, we had a show together in Boston. [De La Soul], Jungle [Brothers] and we linked from there. We had a natural love for the art and a natural love for each other on how we put stuff together. So we invited [the Jungle Brothers] to a session, and when they hooked up with us, we happened to be doing "Buddy." It wasn't business; it wasn't for a check. It was just trading ideas and just seeing what you're doing. Bottom line, it was just having fun."[3]

According to Q-Tip of A Tribe Called Quest: "I remember Afrika [Baby Bam] called me that night, like, two in the morning. "Yo these kids, De La Soul, you gotta meet ’em! I swear we're just alike!" I went there, met them, and it was just fuckin' love at first sight. It was disgusting. In hip hop, it praises individualism. I think that's the main achievement of the Native Tongues. It just showed people could come together."[4]

Fostered by Kool DJ Red Alert, the success of the Jungle Brothers would pave the way for De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest; together, these three groups would form the core of the crew and continue the spirit of Afrika Bambaataa and the Zulu Nation. By 1989 they had been joined by Queen Latifah and the United Kingdom's Monie Love, and soon by the Black Sheep & Chi-Ali. Collectively, the members of the Native Tongues had a huge effect on the style and trends of hip hop during its most important period, the golden age of the late 1980s–early 1990s. A Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul's albums of this time are considered among the best and most important in the hip hop genre.

The song "Scenario" was the final track on A Tribe Called Quest's album The Low End Theory and featured the fledgling Leaders of the New School—Dinco D, Busta Rhymes, and Charlie Brown.

While featuring an extensive discography, the collaborations of the Native Tongues have been fairly limited: the collective never recorded anything under that name, and the number of notable crew cuts can be counted on one hand. The various groups grew distant with time, and, by 1993, De La Soul's Trugoy the Dove proclaimed, "That native shit is dead." The collective would, however, reunite in 1996 for the Jungle Brothers’ "How Ya Want It We Got It (Native Tongues Remix)"; collaborators in this period, such as Common, The Roots, Truth Enola, DJ S.T.R.E.S.S., Da Bush Babees, and Mos Def, could be seen as latter-day additions to the crew.[5] In 1998 on A Tribe Called Quest's album The Love Movement, the last track ("Rock Rock Ya'll") features Jane Doe, Mos Def, Punchline & Wordsworth. Q Tip states near the track's end that "this right here is a family".

Legacy

The Native Tongues are regarded as one of the first alternative hip hop movements; by diverging from popular models of hard-edged braggadocio, pursuing more experimental subject matter, and sampling more diverse types of music, they renewed the focus on individualism in hip hop. The innovations of the Native Tongues have been credited with facilitating the emergence of artists such as OutKast, Kanye West, and Pharrell Williams.[6]

There are several collectives today—with overlapping membership—that can be seen as the spiritual heirs to the Native Tongues crew: the Spitkicker crew (founded by De La Soul's Trugoy and Posdnuos in 2000), the Okayplayer crew, the Soulquarians and Odd Future. Chris Lighty was a member of the Native Tongues-affiliated street crew the Violators and began his career carrying records for Zulu Nation DJs, and later as the Jungle Brothers' roadie. Until his death in 2012 he ran the successful Violator Management company, which represented Busta Rhymes and Q-Tip, among other high-profile clients.

In 2019, the in Washington, D.C. launched an annual Native Tongues Festival to celebrate the musical legacy of the Native Tongues.[7]

Members

Core members

Peripheral members

† According to De La Soul interview on MuchMusic's RapCity in 1996.

†† According to Q-Tip interview the BBC Radio 1 special The Story Of Q-Tip.

Collaborations

Collaborations involving the original members, those that could be considered true Native Tongues crew cuts, are in bold. Note that this list is incomplete.

1988

1989

1990

1991

1992

1993

1994

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2010

2011

2012

2024

"the song is a ode to native tongues shouting out members like Jungle Brothers,A tribe called quest and De la Soul"

Further reading

Notes and References

  1. Book: Relic, Peter. Jungle Brothers. The New Rolling Stone Album Guide. Brackett. Nathan. Hoard. Christian. Simon & Schuster. 4th. 2004. 0-7432-0169-8. 444–45.
  2. News: A beginner's guide to hip-hop collective Native Tongues . Eric. Thurm . 5 July 2013 . . 20 October 2020.
  3. Day of Trugoy The Dove . Staff . 21 September 2014 . Global Exchange Chronicles . 27 September 2015.
  4. Q-Tip, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Jonah Hill are making a TV show . Coplan, Chris . 10 January 2014 . . 27 September 2015.
  5. Web site: Native Tongues . Discogs . 20 May 2014.
  6. Book: Abrams, Jonathan . The Come Up: An Oral History of the Rise of Hip-Hop . 2022 . . 256–57 . 9781984825155.
  7. News: Native Tongues festival brings together hip-hop's past and present . Julian. Kimble . 19 July 2019 . . 20 October 2020.
  8. As seen in (2011)
  9. Consequence Q & A at HipHopDX.com (2010)
  10. Web site: Hear Iz... . Discogs . 27 September 2015.

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