Happy Birthday Ali Shaheed Muhammad!
Ali Shaheed Muhammad, 1/4 of A Tribe Called Quest, 1/3 of Lucy Pearl (with Raphael Saadiq of Tony! Toni! Toné! and Dawn of En Vogue), and 1/3 of the production team The Ummah with Q-Tip and the late great J Dilla. Ali Shaheed was always my favorite member of ATCQ because he was very laid back and cool. Nobody knows his business, nobody knows his next moves, I call him “The Mystery Man” cause you don’t even know whether or not he produced one of your favorite joints unless you buy someone’s album and read this credits. Speaking of credits, I just found months ago that he did “Brown Sugar” for D’Angelo back in 1995 for his debut album with the same title. I also remember reading somewhere that D’Angelo is one of Ali’s favorite singers. I had already mentioned in the 20th anniversary edition blog of ATCQ’s fourth album “Beats, Rhymes & Life” that ATCQ is my favorite hip hop group, so today I took a little trip down to Queens on Linden Boulevard and 192nd Street to visit the ATCQ mural. That mural came about because of one of the members of this hip hop group on Facebook I’m apart of called “Hip Hop Discussion Group.” Shoutouts to them for making this happen. It was a long ride out there from The Bronx. LMAO! I wore my custom made ATCQ t-shirt, a pair of plain black shorts and my fresh Air Force Ones sneakers, all white of course. I finally get to the mural and I was immediately blown away but the experience for me coulda been a whole lot better if I had someone to go with me, preferably another Tribe fan, that would’ve been dope. I took pictures, I recorded a video of me walking past the entire wall until I met this man standing nearby watching me named Terrence. He was cool and was nice enough to take a pic of me in front of the mural holding up 2 Tribe vinyls I own. I shook his hand, thanked him and went on my way back Uptown. All day on the train I was listening to Tribe, zoning out, having creative thoughts, getting inspired and thinking about what life would’ve been back in 1990 for me. I was listening to their debut album “People’s Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm” mostly. I always had this fantasy of hanging out with Tribe, even with Phife. I always considered Q-Tip my older brother, just because me and him share the same zodiac sign, we’re both an Aries. I would get tips from Q-Tip about how the industry is and how to survive it, Ali would show me his techniques on the turntables, Phife would be talking shit and cracking jokes and Jarobi would be cheffin’ up a bomb ass meal. That was my biggest fantasy but don’t tell the guys. Man do I miss Phife though. Cool ass guy he was. Rest In Phife and Happy Birthday Ali Shaheed. ATCQ 4 Ever!!!!