Desert Island Discourse

CW: Homophobia, mention of r*pe We're mid-way through the first month of 2018, and already we're beset with strife on all sides. At times like these, we must ask ourselves the eternal question: can we kick it? To find our answer, we're going on a leader quest mission with Max's all-time favorite hip-hop group, A Tribe Called Quest. Like most journeys, this one starts all sunshine and roses and De La Soul shout-outs—but the ending may surprise you. Started in 1985 by teenage MC's Q-Tip, Phife Dawg, and Jarobi, as well as DJ-turned-NPR host Ali Shaheed Muhammed, A Tribe Called Quest quickly made a name for themselves as positive jammers with a relentlessly innovative aesthetic. Over the course of their first five albums they would pioneer a (mostly) progressive lyricism, bring jazz to the hip-hop world, and team up with a little-known producer named J Dilla to create some of the weirdest albums of the era. And it's that latter fact that makes them such perfect candidates for the island—they were one of the fe