Go Ahead In The Rain: Notes To A Tribe Called Quest

“The Bomb Squad was using methods not at all unlike the methods Q-Tip was using at the same time with A Tribe Called Quest. Both were using samples as their primary weapons; it’s just that Q-Tip was using the samples as a razor, and the Bomb Squad was using samples as a machine gun. What Q-Tip’s ethos was – trimming the useful edges of a sample and blending multiple elements in the same song to create a type of harmony – was almost antithetical to what the Bomb Squad aimed for. While Q-Tip looked for connective tissue to create a single sound, the Bomb Squad was invested in piling noise on top of noise to create discord instead of harmony. […] Loops of sound would rest on top of other loops of sound. Samples were at odds with one another, seemingly speeding off a cliff but then coming together at the right moment.” (Abdurraqib 66-67)

I love Abdurraqib’s description of Q-Tip’s tedious, thoughtful process when it comes to using samples. “Connective tissue” is a beautiful description which reminds me of the body so to me it felt like Abdurraqib was trying to emphasize the careful, almost clinical precision that Q-Tip put into creating music. He contrasts it with the Bomb Squad’s less cautious approach but still gives them credit for creating a sound just as important and precise in its own way. Abdurraqib is showing us the way music began to evolve because they shared certain similarities that allowed them to grow in different directions.

Lost Notes: 1980

“Lyrics being kicked over an old instrumental in a car’s backseat. Impromptu free style battles at lunch with closed fists and open palms beating a rhythm out on a table’s surface. There is language forming a chain with other language until it makes a speaker feel limitless.”

Abdurraqib’s above description of the beginnings of rap music and the Sugarhill Gang’s is visceral. He uses a similar description in his book of palms beating on tables when he is talking about the inability to silence slaves by taking their drums and any other music resource.

I like the language he uses here because it feels primal and young. He is talking about young people and high school kids who just have what they have and make the most of it. The bonding of chains of languages also gets at transition of hip hop into rap like he talked about earlier. You’re taking this language that already exists (hip hop) and creating a new language (rap) over it.