FBtA's Audio and Video History of the Native Tongue Collective - Part 5: Audio Mix

Before we turn our attention again to things more local (like that little festival that rolls into town every March), we wanted to wrap up our Native Tongue Collective series with FBtA's Native Tongue Mix.  66 songs by artists who are closely affiliated with the Native Tongues, with the amount of attention the artist receives roughly proportional to that artist's significance in the collective.  So expect more from De La Soul than Chi Ali in other words.  There are lots of collaborations, and not just "Buddy" and "Doin' Our Own Dang."  Plus a few more rare cuts and mixes, and some appearances by a few unexpected guests.  Unless you were expecting Scotland indie power-pop band Teenage Fanclub.

Here it is below in big form.  A small one will go up on our main page soon.  See below for a bit more about the mix.

FBtA's Audio and Video History of the Native Tongue Collective

[Part 1][Part 2][Part 3][Part 4][Chi Ali Interlude]

So who's "closely affiliated with the Native Tongues?"


There are a few different ways to define who is a "member" of the Native Tongue collective and who is not.  Fans and press think of the collective in a sense as having a central core surrounded by a small number of concentric circles representing the degree of association to the collective and the closeness to the core members.  That's how we thought of it for purposes of building our mix.  If you aren't in one of the first two or three circles, chances are you're only in the mix by being a lucky guest.

To start off, one thing everyone can agree on is that there are three principal members of the Native Tongues:

Principal Native Tongue Members

• A Tribe Called Quest
• De La Soul
• Jungle Brothers

After that, opinions start to diverge.  The names most likely to appear in the next "circle," at least in my opinion, look something like this:

Secondary Native Tongue Members

• Black Sheep 
• Chi Ali
• Da Bush Babees
• Fu-Schnickens
• Leaders of the New School
• Monie Love
• Queen Latifah

There are a number of other groups and individuals that sometimes are mentioned in the above group.  These are folks with legit claims of association with the collective, but generally aren't considered close to its center.  We'll call these artists the "Affiliates."

Native Tongue Affiliates

• The Beatnuts
• Brand Nubian
• Common
• J Dilla
• Lucien Revolucien
• Mos Def
• Prince Paul

There are certainly other artists and associates who could make a reasonable claim of membership, but let's leave it at that.  Our blog, our rules.