Heds and Dreds: Annotated Tribe Called Quest for the Unseasoned Patois Interpeter

Words by Jesse Serwer

If you know your Jazz from your Rhime, you’re probably aware of Phife Dawg’s Caribbean roots. Sometimes thought to to be Jamaican due to his love for reggae and patois inflections, A Tribe Called Quest’s Five Foot Assassin is actually 100-percent Trinidadian. Lesser known is that Q-Tip, too, is of Caribbean heritage: his late father was from Montserrat. Catching the new Tribe documentary Beats, Rhymes & Life last week we were reminded of just how much patois, dancehall lyrics and general yard-isms the Quest MCs spiced their rhymes with. Michael Rapaport’s movie doesn’t delve into this aspect of Tribe’s background but it did have us pulling our Midnight Marauders, The Low End Theory and even The Love Movement LPs out of the crates, and even catching some references we’d never noticed before. Here’s a look at the 10 most yardwise (and Trini-wise) tunes in the Tribe catalog.

1. “Jazz (We’ve Got)”

The Low End Theory, as Rapaport’s movie notes, was the album where Phife Dawg really came into his own as an MC, after playing sideman on Tribe’s debut, People’s Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm. “Jazz” was the album’s second single and perhaps the first where Phife truly outshined his partner. The Five Footer got more than a little assist, though, from Ninja Man, opening his verse (Competition dem try fi come sideway/Competition dey mus come straight way–or is it, dem Phifer come sideway?) with lines paraphrased from the Don Gorgon’s classic sound bwoy killer “Murder Dem” (I tell yuh if yuh come wid yuh competition come straight way/Cause yuh come sideways rudebwoy, phenomenon a won…). Can’t forget these classic lines, either: I grew up as a Christian so to Jah I give thanks/Collect my banks, listen to Shabba Ranks/I sing, and chat, I do all of that…

2. “I Left My Wallet In Segundo (Vampire Remix)”

One of the earliest productions by Norman Cook, the future Fatboy Slim, this remix included on the 1992 remix album Revised Quest for the Seasoned Traveller was until recently a little known footnote. It took on new life in 2008 when producer Bangladesh slowed down a split second loop of Phife Dawg’s A-milli-billi-billi-bom chant, for the principal sample in Lil Wayne’s “A Milli.” For our purposes, it is most notable for Phifer’s convincing early ’80s skat-chat, and it’s bass-heavy reggae riddim. Come in, Mr. Deejay!

3. “Oh My God”

Jah lick—Jah lick, you wind up your hip. Leave it to Q-Tip to reference both Michigan & Smiley’s “Diseases” and Yellowman and Fathead’s “Sweet Reggae Music” in the same line. For his part on Midnight Marauders‘ hard hitting, Busta-featuring single, Phife famously identified himself as a Trini gladiator (Anti hesitator/Shaheed push the fader/From here to Grenada) in a verse that also included a famously un-PC and doubtlessly Buju Banton-inspired (and, on most versions of the album, censored) reference to gays.

4. “His Name is Mutty Ranks”

This is the closest Tribe ever came to putting a straight-up reggae chune on one of their albums. For this short Love Movement track, Phife reinvented himself as deejay Mutty Ranks, quoting the “Live and Direct” version of Aswad’s “Not Guilty” (Live and direct/You know what live and direct mean? Cooooommmeeeeee) for the dubplate-style intro, and moving between patois and American English: Have you ever wonder what make a crowd rock?/Tribe Called Quest we ah go do it nonstop/Listen to the radio we never going pop/Cause yuh no ready for dis yet, bwoy/Say you nuh ready/Say you nuh ready for this yet, bwoy.

5. “The Chase (Pt. 2)”

Both Phife ( Dem cyan touch we, no dem cyan touch we/Dem cyan hold we, no dem cyan hold we) and Tip (For sure mi ah go rock it, for sure mi ah go do it/Mi nuh deal with nuh changarang bangarang business, zagga) dipped into their patois bag on this Midnight Marauders classic.

6. “Scenario” featuring Leaders of the New School

Phife and Tip didn’t throw any explicit rude boy talk into their all-time top ranking party starter with LONS but the song’s undisputed star Busta Rhymes (Watch as I combine on the juice from the mind/Heel up, wheel up, bring it back come rewiiiind;…Eating Ital stew like the one Peter Tosh) sure did. Not to mention Charlie Brown’s pronouncement that the word is the herb and I’m deep like Bob Marley.

7. “Steve Biko (Stir It Up)”

In one of my personal favorite Phife verses, the Five Footer acknowledges deejay Mad Cobra’s then-recent crossover hit, “Flex” and makes a random reference to actress Nia Long’s own Trinidadian heritage: Rude boy composer/Step to me your over/Brothers wanna flex—you’re not Mad Cobra/MC short and black/There aint no other/Trini-born black like Nia Long’s grandmother

8. “Lyrics To Go”

Here, both Q-Tip (Bogle at the party, then you got the Bogle-ation) and Phife (This I dedicate to all the honeys that be Bogle-ing/Cause at the end of the night you know Malik will have his Trojans) riffed on the then-fresh phenomenon that was the Bogle dance, popularized in part by Buju Banton’s “Bogle.”

9. “Electric Relaxation”

Never-coy original rude bwoy Phife Dawg from the Zulu Nation used his verse on Midnight Marauders‘ smoothest track to express his affinity for ladies brown, yellow, Puerto Rican or Haitian.

10. “Ham & Eggs”

Phife don’t eat no ham and eggs cause their high in cholesterol but, in a show of Trini-Jamaican unity, he cites di roti and di soursop among his choice “tastings.”

HONOREBEL MENTION:  “One Two Shit” and “Steppin’ It Up”

There’s always going to be some yard vibes in the air when you have Busta and Phife in the same room, and both delivered on these slept-on Love Movement cuts. Check Busta doing the Kartel-style Ohhhhhooooo at 3:11 and 3:13 on “One Two Shit,” and Phife’s Mighty Sparrow reference at 1:29 on “Steppin’ It Up.”