Hanif Abdurraqib hails from Columbus, Ohio. An acclaimed poet, essayist, & cultural critic, he writes a riveting account of A Tribe Called Quest in Go Ahead in the Rain - Notes to A Tribe Called Quest. Although a biography at its core, the book digs deeper into the group's history and how its sound resonated, and Abdurraqib draws from his own experiences to make connections to the context in which the jazz-infused music from Phife Dawg, Q-Tip, Ali Shaheed Muhammad, and Jarobi came to be: "no one person's story exists in a vacuum," Rembert Browne notes on the book. Abdurraqib starts from the beginning, "from somewhere south of anywhere I come from," and while guiding readers through People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm," The Low End Theory, Midnight Marauders, Phife's death, We Got It From Here... Thank You 4 your Service, and etc., he is able to not just relay information but conjure up all the feelings that came along with fan-ing for perhaps one of the greatest groups to ever do it—a must read for not just Tribe heads but music lovers.

reviewed by singing in japanese 03/19