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A Tribe Called Quest Announce Final Album Featuring New Phife Verses

The album is comprised of new material recorded last year.
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By Raymond Boyd/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images.

A Tribe Called Quest is going to kick it one more time. On Thursday, Q-Tip, a founding member of the iconic rap group, announced to fans that a new and “final” A.T.C.Q. album is on the way, set for a November 11 release. The news comes just a few months after the death of member Phife Dawg, who passed away last March due to complications from diabetes.

Last year, the group performed together for the first time in 18 years, doing a set on The Tonight Show. The group felt energy they “hadn’t experienced on stage together in some time,” Q-Tip writes, moving them to go to the studio. The late-night performance also happened to be on the same night as the devastating Paris terror attacks. “As we left 30 Rock I felt the need, we all did, to get back to the studio and start that cook up!!” he writes.

The album was “coming along nicely” until Phife’s passing. However, he “left us with the blueprint of what we had to do,” Tip shares. He also assures fans that the new album “isn’t filled with old Phife bars,” but rather new verses.

A.T.C.Q.’s reunion album follows a number of high-profile surprise releases from famous artists. In 2014, D’Angelo dropped new album Black Messiah after a 14-year hiatus. Punk group Sleater-Kinney also re-united last year after breaking up in 2006, dropping the critically lauded new album No Cities to Love.

Tribe’s new album will be the group’s first since 1998’s The Love Movement. The seminal hip-hop group became famous for hits like “Can I Kick It?” and “Bonita Applebum,” inspiring generations of artists like Kanye West and Pharrell.

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