The Native Tongues collective forms
De La Soul (*3 Feet High and Rising*, March 1989), A Tribe Called Quest (debuting on De La's 'Buddy' before *People's Instinctive Travels*, 1990), the Jungle Brothers (*Straight Out the Jungle*, 1988), Queen Latifah, and Monie Love announce themselves as a loose collective working a thread that runs against the gangsta-era center of gravity. The aesthetic — jazz-rooted samples, conversational delivery, Afrocentric framings, deliberate playfulness — becomes a template that lasts into the present.
Why it matters
Native Tongues opens a permanent second front in 90s hip-hop: every record that takes seriously the proposition that rap can be erudite, jazz-literate, comic, and political at once descends from this circle. The reach is enormous — The Roots, Common, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Q-Tip's solo work, Tyler-the-Creator-era Odd Future, Anderson .Paak, Smino, Kendrick on *To Pimp a Butterfly*.
Branches
People4
Citations 2
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