FBtA's Audio and Video History of the Native Tongue Collective - Part 4: Collective Lost

Last time in our multi-post series, the 1990s were in full swing and the Native Tongues were riding high. Our final narrative installment looks at the downward slide that ensued and what sort of legacy the Native Tongue Collective left behind.

[Part 1][Part 2][Part 3][Chi Ali Interlude][Part 5]

Stakes is High

In its first five years (1988-1993), the Native Tongues hip-hop collective was steadily on the rise.  The groups that formed the core of the Native Tongues -- A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, Jungle Brothers -- arrived on the scene, made names for themselves, then started calling themselves a collective with a hip Afrocentric name.  After that core trio each dropped a now-classic album, they would be joined by a growing cast of hip-hop rising stars who would claim the right to call themselves next-gen Native Tongue affiliates.  A few years into the '90s, some of these second-wavers appeared on the verge of joining their big bros in hip-hop's inner circle, like Black Sheep (when "The Choice Is Yours" crossed over), Queen Latifah (she'd reach stardom but through film) and Leaders of the New School (one member, Busta Rhymes, would soon get there).

Late in 1993, at the end of that five-year period, things still looked pretty solid for the collective.  A cover shot and long article in The Source painted a picture of a unified Native Tongues that seemed to be a good bet to keep rising in the hip-hop world.  The closing paragraph of the profile sums it up well.

c/o http://ifihavent.wordpress.com/

What?

Soon after though, cracks started showing. The constant vibe of "togetherness" and "unity" that surrounded Native Tongues was rattled by bouts of confrontation and bitterness.  In late 1993, promising next-generation Native Tongue group Leaders of the New School flamed out abruptly and effectively broke up. The Jungle Brothers ended up in a fight with their label, Warner, which delayed the release of their follow-up to 1989's Done by the Forces of Nature. When J. Beez wit the Remedy did finally drop in 1993, it was met with lukewarm reviews and confused even relatively open-minded hip-hop fans.  Latifah drifted off into movies.



Then the original Native Tongue groups started to drift apart.  Some of it had to do with A Tribe Called Quest severing its relationship with manager Red Alert, who was Jungle Brother Mike Gee's uncle.  A few lyrics popped up that alluded to the strained relationships.  De La's line about "Jungle Brothers on the run" on "Breakadawn," from 1993's Buhloone Mind State, had to do with that beef.  Posdnuos also rapped about it on "I Am I Be":

Or some tongues who lied

And said "We'll be natives to the end"

Nowadays we don't even speak

I guess we got our own life to live

Or is it because we want our own kingdom to rule?

Every now and then I step to the now

For now I see back then I might have acted like a fool

Now I won't apologize for it

This is not a bunch of Bradys

But a bunch of black man's pride

Another factor in the decline of Native Tongues was that the hip-hop scene had changed.  In 1993, hip-hop had finally hit the mainstream. It did it on the back of the latest trend though, so-called (for better or worse) "gangsta rap."  Africa medallions were out.  Forties and blunts were in.  It wasn't just the West Coast that had hardened either.  Back on the East Coast, the sounds coming out of cars were the sparse, menacing beats of Wu-Tang Clan and the confident thump of Biggie.  And one small side effect was that Native Tongue-style hip-hop, by comparison, looked increasingly like a fringe musical movement that had already seen its peak.





On top of the beefs and the change in music climate, many felt the core Native Tongue groups' music was starting to fall off a bit.  Like J. Beez wit the Remedy, De La's 1993 release, Buhloone Mind State, was solid, but perhaps not up to the lofty standard set by 3 Feet High and Rising and De La Soul is Dead.  And Tribe -- the only one of the three charter Native Tongue members to hit platinum, which it did with both Low End Theory and Midnight Marauders -- fell a bit flat with 1996 release Beats, Rhymes and Life.  After releasing The Love Movement in 1998, A Tribe Called Quest broke up when tension grew between old mates Tip and Phife.  By then, the notion of a Native Tongues collective was largely nostalgia.  De La kept on going, putting out some decent material and eventually reaching new audiences when they appeared on Gorillaz' sophomore album Demon Days in 2005, and Q-Tip put out some good music, but the JBs and Phife (not to mention many of the secondary Native Tonguers) were rarely heard from in the Aughts.

Beats, Rhymes & Life producer Michael Rapaport talks about the demise of Native Tongues

Legacy

Native Tongues will be remembered for a few different things.  They represent the prototype of the now-ubiquitous "hip-hop collective."  Long before there was a Flipmode Squad, Flava Unit, etc., there was Native Tongues.  The Tongues also found a niche by becoming an alternative to the more hardcore rap -- first the similarly Afrocentric but more militant Public Enemy and BDP, then the first wave of big-time "gangsta rap." While not the founding fathers of alt rap, they certainly are among the important historical stepping stones.  Writer Jeff Niesel sums it up well:

Without creating a rift with gangsta rap, the Native Tongues movement of the late 1980s articulated new ways of representing black masculinity.  [They] avoided using gangsta rap's epithets ....  Instead of competing with each other, they played on each others' albums to show support and inspire unity.  By calling themselves 'Native Tongues,' the rappers represented an attempt to spead a language that, for them, predated the street slang of gangsta rap.

Sonically, the Native Tongue groups left a mark as well.  Yes, many of the early Native Tongue recordings are now unquestioned hip-hop classics, but it goes deeper than that.  Things like the joyful pursuit of unmined samples and an emphasis on creative and generally positive lyrics perhaps did not originate with De La Soul or the JBs or Quest, but were championed by them and are now part of their legacy.  Aine McGlynn wrote this about Native Tongues in the 2007 book Icons of Hip-Hop:

They are a unique group of artists whose presence continues to be felt whenever an MC rhymes about something other than guns, diamonds, and the size of his rims.  The Native Tongues style lives on in tracks where the sample isn't an instantly recognizable tune from a fifteen-year-old hit single.  Native Tongues music has a playful and enlightening message that can still be heard in such artists as Lauryn Hill, Mos Def, Kanye West, Talib Kweli, POS and K-OS among others.

What else?  Well, Native Tongues did get a chapter in the aforementioned Icons of Hip Hop.  Apparently there's someone (Norman Parrish) interested in producing a documentary about them, Speaking in Tongues, although it's been a while since the official web site's been updated.  And people obviously still think about the Native Tongues.  The web is awash in Native Tongue audio mixes:

• If you have iTunes, there's Illvibe Collective's "The Best of the Native Tongues Mixtape Vol. 1."
• Looking for a different collective?  Clusterfunk Collective also has a mixtape out there, The Native Tongues Mix (Parts 1 & 2).
• There's a streaming mix on City Cat Radio.
• Devil's Pie Presents "The Native Tongues Tribute Mix":  33 NT songs, one MP3, mix by DJ Bonds.
• One more MP3 mix: So Much Soul - the Native Tongues Mix (Part I) and (Part 2).
• Joe Kollege (like that name) put together Hump Day Mix - "Native Tongues" after seeing the Tribe documentary Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest, consisting of \artists who Tribe identified as Native Tongues members in the film.

And as a collective, Native Tongues is dead and buried, right?  Well ... Black Sheep did put out a track in 2010 called "Birds of a Feather," and while "everyone" isn't on it, each of the three core Native Tongue groups is represented: Q-Tip from Quest, Dave from De La and the JBs' Mike Gee each take a turn on the mic.  So who knows?  If your dream is a bunch of kids in kente cloth dancing to "Buddy (Part 2)," there's hope just yet.

[Part 1][Part 2][Part 3][Chi Ali Interlude][Part 5]

Check back in.  We'll be posting our own Native Tongues audio mix soon.