A Tribe Called Quest released their new and final album,&nbsp;We Got It From Here, Thank You 4 Your Service, last week, and they&#39;re marking this momentous occasion in music history with new visuals and new live performances.

ATCQ released a new lyric video for &quot;We The People,&quot; one of the new tracks off of their new and highly anticipated final album,&nbsp;We Got It From Here, Thank You 4 Your Service. The socially conscious track addresses America&#39;s culture of racism and the media that enables it. While much of the new album was recorded earlier this year before Phife Dawg&#39;s sudden, tragic death, the song seems especially prescient and important now, less than a week after a Presidential candidate was successfully elected following a campaign run on racist rhetoric.

<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&amp;q=http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/a-tribe-called-quest-we-the-people/3424958&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1479254505314000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEsY7l9WQ2Pk3Eq6ei18IXRggFlOg" href="http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/a-tribe-called-quest-we-the-people/3424958" target="_blank">Watch ATCQ perform live on SNL here.</a>

ATCQ also honored the fallen band mate when they performed live&nbsp;on Saturday&nbsp;Night Live this weekend. During a live performance of &quot;We The People...,&quot; a banner of Phife Dawg was displayed on stage while his pre-recorded verses played. The remaining members of the band, Q-Tip, Ali Shaheed Mohammed, and Jarobi White, were also joined by frequent Tribe collaborator Busta Rhymes for a performance of &quot;The Space Program,&quot; another track off of the new album. This week&#39;s episode of SNL was hosted by comedian Dave Chapelle, a long time vocal fan of Tribe. 
 
By Michael Lacerna for RAPstation.com

A Tribe Called Quest released their new and final album,&nbsp;We Got It From Here, Thank You 4 Your Service, last week, and they&#39;re marking this momentous occasion in music history with new visuals and new live performances.

ATCQ released a new lyric video for &quot;We The People,&quot; one o...

A Tribe Called Quest releases first video from final album, performs live

The Native Tongues posse - a collection of musicians that include legendary hip hop acts like A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, and Queen Latifah, among others - is one of the most important and influential groups in hip hop history, and they need your help in getting their story told.

The Native Tongues posse was comprised of a variety of artists and groups, including A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, Queen Latifah, Black Sheep, Monie Love, and Chi Ali, who were all dedicated to maintaining hip hop&#39;s unique identity in the face of the increased commercial and corporate pressure that the art form faced in the 80&#39;s and 90&#39;s as it gained mainstream popularity.

A group of filmmakers wants to make a documentary highlighting the contributions of this culturally defining group of musicians, but they need help securing funding. They are currently asking for donations via Kickstarter, and need more support in getting to their $48,000 goal.

The film will be directed by the award winning director of BET&#39;s &quot;The Message.&quot; The film is also being produced by music industry veteran Norman Parrish and prolific music video director Benny Boom, who has directed videos for Nas, LL Cool J, Busta Rhymes, and countless others. The documentary will also feature work from acclaimed photographer and cinematographer Ramulas Burgess.

There&#39;s only four days left before the filmmakers&#39; Kickstarter campaign ends, and they&#39;re hoping that renewed interest in A Tribe Called Quest stemming for their upcoming new (and final) album will help them meet their goals. The Native Tongues are undeniably one of the most influential collectives of artists in modern pop culture history, so fans of classic hip hop are urged to get the word out and help make this movie happen. Fans who donate can earn themselves a variety of awards, including limited edition DVDs, t-shirts, posters and more.

<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&amp;q=https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/589799990/the-native-tongue-posse-documentary?ref%3Dproject_link&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1479248645181000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFLKUwzSlbnMnIOIwsBcbd2lZKgDw" href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/589799990/the-native-tongue-posse-documentary?ref=project_link" target="_blank">Donate to Speaking Tongues: The Legend of The Native Tongues Posse here.</a> 
 
By Michael Lacerna for RAPstation.com

The Native Tongues posse - a collection of musicians that include legendary hip hop acts like A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, and Queen Latifah, among others - is one of the most important and influential groups in hip hop history, and they need your help in getting their story told.

The Native...

Help promote hip hop history with Native Tongues doc

A Tribe Called Quest captured the moment and made a loud comeback guest performing for the Dave Chappelle special episode of&nbsp;Saturday&nbsp;Night Live.

The show marked its first broadcasting, Saturday November 12th, following Donald Trump&#39;s recent presidential victory, and Q-Tip, Jarobi White, and Ali Shaheed Muhammad made sure we all knew what&#39;s up, as they kicked off the show with a unifying introduction, &ldquo;We are all one, We are the people,&rdquo; as Q-Tip riled in the classic &ldquo;one fist in the air&rdquo; scene.

Featured on their latest album,&nbsp;We Got It From Here... Thank You 4 Your Service, the group performed &ldquo;We The People&rdquo;, a melodic satire targeted towards Trump&#39;s racial rhetoric which became a media spectacle throughout his campaign, and so they rapped, &ldquo;All you Black folks, you must go/ All you Mexicans, you must go/ And all you poor folks, you must go/ Muslims and gays, boy, we hate your ways/ So all you bad folks, you must go.&rdquo;

In the midst of the performance, Phife Dawg also made an appearance via artwork bearing the face of the five-foot-assassin himself as the camera zooms in when the rapper&#39;s verse are sung&mdash;an image of the tribe paying tribute to their late comrade.

Busta Rhymes and Consequence broke onto the scene during the tribe&#39;s second song, also from their latest album, &ldquo;The Space Program&rdquo;, which tackles the much-speculated idea of NASA&#39;s space exodus en route to Mars.

Check out A Tribe Called Quest&#39;s explosive performance at&nbsp;Saturday&nbsp;Night Live by&nbsp;<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&amp;q=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3DpQWOQ4H8cBg&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1479244276121000&amp;usg=AFQjCNH9pRCRL0JJH_C4syib-8CnQgDq6A" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQWOQ4H8cBg" target="_blank">clicking here.</a>

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By Jods Arboleda for RAPStation.com

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<center><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pQWOQ4H8cBg" width="560"></iframe></center>

A Tribe Called Quest captured the moment and made a loud comeback guest performing for the Dave Chappelle special episode of&nbsp;Saturday&nbsp;Night Live.

The show marked its first broadcasting, Saturday November 12th, following Donald Trump&#39;s recent presidential victory, and Q-Tip, Jarobi W...

ATCQ Spotted at Saturday Night Live Special Perfomance

Rising star, Brandon Tory, continues his climb with the release of his latest project,&nbsp;Yaga Season.

From ATL to LA, Tory&#39;s latest EP features five new tracks, including his pre-released single off&nbsp;Yaga Season, &ldquo;Swish&rdquo;, which showcases the young rapper parading to his newfound home in the West Coast Hip-hop scene. The single&#39;s production also features FADE, Johnny 5, and Paul Water rallying behind the new EP.

In an interview with&nbsp;HipHopDx, Tory shares details regarding the visuals to the pre-released single, &ldquo;That party in the video was called Yagapalooza, which is a party we do over the summer to premier the record and get energy going for&nbsp;Yaga Season. We had about 500 people come out and that video was a recap of the party.&rdquo;

The Yaga rapper also stressed the lighter tone the EP projects, as opposed to his previous mixtape,&nbsp;Shine, &ldquo;It&#39;s not really that deep as far as the title. It represents fun, chasing after your dreams and getting what you deserve.&rdquo;

The EP also signifies Tory&#39;s first release following his recent co-signing under prominent producer Timbaland, who found potential within the young artist upon encountering previous single, &ldquo;Comfortable&rdquo;, to which Tory continues sharing, &ldquo;He&#39;s been helping me with the sound and giving me guidance on what I should do. It&#39;s really just support.&rdquo;

Yaga Season&nbsp;released just last November 4th, and with the tunes Tory&#39;s been concocting, it&#39;s almost as if summer won&#39;t be leaving anytime soon&mdash;or perhaps in his case,&nbsp;Yaga Season.

Check out the music video for&nbsp;<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&amp;q=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3DkSJnTEggZ_k&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1479244276146000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEu_o56MHruQjXcg19hHO1OpPV3ew" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSJnTEggZ_k" target="_blank">Brandon Tory&#39;s &ldquo;Swish&rdquo;</a>, which gives us a taste of his brand new EP.

By Jods Arboleda for RAPStation.com

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<center><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/kSJnTEggZ_k" width="560"></iframe></center>

Rising star, Brandon Tory, continues his climb with the release of his latest project,&nbsp;Yaga Season.

From ATL to LA, Tory&#39;s latest EP features five new tracks, including his pre-released single off&nbsp;Yaga Season, &ldquo;Swish&rdquo;, which showcases the young rapper parading to his new...

Brandon Tory Brings "Yaga Season"

California native Diamond Ortiz personifies funk in every way, shape and form. It&rsquo;s in his blood and pulses through his veins. The 31-year-old grew up playing bass in his family&rsquo;s band, Diamond Ortiz (named after his parents). According to the Bay Area native, they used to &ldquo;rock so hard,&rdquo; they&rsquo;d start walking on tables as the crowd would go crazy. He carries that same energy into his latest endeavor, which finds Ortiz at the helm of his own funk ship.&nbsp;

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Now living in Los Angeles, Ortiz continues to contribute to the resurgence of modern-funk and boogie, and is often mentioned in the same breath as Dam-Funk, Brian Ellis, XL Middleton, and others.&nbsp;Ortiz is preparing to release his first full length LP titled&nbsp;Loveline&nbsp;on&nbsp;November 18&nbsp;via MoFunk Records.&nbsp;

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His latest single, &ldquo;In The Cut Like Whaat&rdquo; featuring P-Funk&rsquo;s Reality Jones and The Revolution&rsquo;s John Payne, soars with an infectious G-Funk style that demands repeated listens. In part one of the RAPstation interview, he talks about how his environment shaped his musical style, playing in his family band and how he fell in the love with the funk.&nbsp;

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RAPstation (Kyle Eustice): First and foremost, where are you from and how did your environment shape your musical style?

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Diamond Ortiz: I&rsquo;m from San Francisco/Bay Area and born on California Street in San Francisco in 1985. My big brother taught me music and brought me around the older East Bay cats that he was playing with at that time when we were kids. The way those cats played was special and I knew i always wanted to play that certain way. It&#39;s blues based and firmly rooted in rich&nbsp;R&amp;B tradition.&nbsp;

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I was fortunate to be from a place where everything is at your fingertips, and I was exposed to and fell in love with all things old school from a very early age&mdash;about 13.&nbsp; As a kid, I&#39;d go to punk rock shows and the really cool kids were into Rockabilly. When I started absorbing that electrified music, I understood how eternally hip it is to make your art a hyper-stylized modern take on something traditional and rich. It&#39;s still totally similar and, in my mind, parallel to what I&rsquo;m doing now, but with that funk I grew up playing and loving.

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Where does your moniker come from?

Diamond-Ortiz is actually our real last name&mdash;my brothers and myself. It&#39;s just a hyphenated last name.&nbsp;My name is Jeremy Diamond-Ortiz. Our mom is Diamond and dad is Ortiz. People always think we made it up. People have told me I sound like a Mexican porn star or luchador with that name [laughs]. But whatever, we deal with the hands we are dealt, right? My dad is actually Italian, born in Rome. Our great-grandfather Domenico Colao was a well known, but unsung painter in Italy around the turn of the century and has paintings in all the famous museums. My dad&#39;s step-dad, who adopted him at a young age, was Mexican and named Ortiz. We have a big, loud, colorful, creative family. Thats where our Mexican last name comes from. Thats to answer all the homies that come up to me and ask, &lsquo;Ayy foo&hellip;so what&rsquo;s up, you Mexican? [laughs].&rsquo; On my moms side, our family last names are Diamond, Beer and Amsterdam. &nbsp;

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Diamond Ortiz was, for many years, the name of our family band. It was my big bro, me and a drummer. My big bro is a supremely amazing guitar player and band leader, and I was his bass player. I spent many, many years playing bass and singing. We&#39;d play everything from Hendrix &quot;Little Wing&quot; to Little Richard &quot;Send Me Some Lovin&#39;&quot; and everything in between. We rocked so hard and would put on a hell of a show. We had synchronized steps with our guitars, and would go into the&nbsp;dance floor&nbsp;and play on our knees and walk on tables. We had weekly residency gigs, where I&nbsp;really cut my teeth as a young player. Eventually, our loyal trio disbanded. My brother picked up writing novels as his creative pursuit in addition to guitar these days. And I just never stopped making funk in my studio around the clock as I always have. I never dropped the name of the original family band because it&rsquo;s still the funk that my brother taught me. That comes from our family business and years of rocking houses together.

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What initially drew you to the G-Funk sound?

The Bay&#39;s indigenous version of G-Funk is what we call MOB Music&mdash;that ice cold Vallejo, Oaktown, Frisco, late &lsquo;80s to mid &rsquo;90s funk, and it&rsquo;s the fucking best [laughs]. E-40, Too Short are up at the top, too. All that is such potent funk that was done so well and still sounds dope as ever. When you&#39;re from the Bay, that music is just part of your DNA and part of the soundtrack to your teenage years.

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One night, I was with my older brother and his friend who had a &rsquo;68 Buick big ass boat, and they put in something that literally changed me forever. It was E-40&#39;s&nbsp;In a Major Wayalbum.&nbsp;It blew my mind. In that moment I got it. How you can be pure funk and old school, but gangsta, and super sized, unique, fresh, bad, and all that at the same time? That spoke to me.&nbsp;And here I am all these years later just making gurped out playa-istic funk slaps [laughs]. That&rsquo;s still exactly where it is for me.

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What characteristics do you look for in a person when considering a collaboration?

I like folks who are spirited, like me. When its time to get it poppin&#39; in the studio, let&rsquo;s have some fun&mdash;drank a lil&rsquo; somethin&rsquo; somethin&rsquo; and light a little something up&mdash;do your thing and let&rsquo;s make some magic, you dig? And we&#39;re gonna use a dynamic mic in the middle of the studio&mdash;no headphones. We&rsquo;re going to keep the party popping with all of us singing. I want to spread some love and joy and funk and soul and flavor with this music 
 
 
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<center><iframe width="100%" height="450" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/292252812&amp;auto_play=false&amp;hide_related=false&amp;show_comments=true&amp;show_user=true&amp;show_reposts=false&amp;visual=true"></iframe></center>

California native Diamond Ortiz personifies funk in every way, shape and form. It&rsquo;s in his blood and pulses through his veins. The 31-year-old grew up playing bass in his family&rsquo;s band, Diamond Ortiz (named after his parents). According to the Bay Area native, they used to &ldquo;rock so...

RAPstation Exclusive Interview Pt. I: Diamond Ortiz

Some of Hip-hop&#39;s most magnum opus work come in the form of waves rippling new sounds and innovative concepts all throughout the Hip-hop scene. Gaining prominence through&nbsp;The Chase&nbsp;as well as his hit-single, &ldquo;Bang Exclusive&rdquo;, Kid Tsunami is shaping up to be a force to be reckoned with. Fortunately for us, the tides turn towards in our favor on this Rap Station Exclusive Interview with the wave-maker himself.

 
What&#39;s the story behind the name?

I started MC&#39;ing in 98 and called myself Tsunami just cause of the ferocious nature and the Japanese link (my mom used to tease me about my samurai looking eyebrows). A lot of people at the time would think my rhyming style was like a &quot;tsunami&quot; or a flood of syllables and word play that would just destroy. Now I have different ideas on my name...&nbsp;

&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;...Adding Kid is a direct influence from Kid Capri, and my own ideas of how a kid is spongelike, always wondering, always amazed, knowledge seeking and always asking questions about what is around him. To kid can mean to give birth to something ie. creation. Calling a person Kid means he&#39;s your homie. To kid can also mean to have fun...&nbsp;

&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;...For me now, Tsunami represents water. Vibrations, thoughts and intent affect water. Water can be soft and hard, peaceful and violent. I also enjoy the cool things Bruce Lee would say about water (Be like water my friend). I also enjoy the ideas of Krishnamurti, a guy Bruce got a lot of his ideas from...

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Dude, I can&rsquo;t find a bio about you anywhere online--mind if you share a little background story?

I had been a rap fan since the 3rd grade. I started MCing in 98 as mentioned previously and won local rap competitions and songwriting awards in Perth, Australia. I started music production in 2000 which then flowed into DJing...

&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;...My first official release was &quot;The Chase&quot; in 2013 followed by &quot;Songs For Celia&quot; in 2014, an ode to my mother who was at the time, fighting breast cancer. She survived. I am a qualified Youth Worker. I am qualified in Security and Risk Management. I am a former member of the Universal Zulu Nation. I am a former host of All City Hip Hop Show on RTRFM in Perth. I am also a former DJ for Hardcore Classic on 2SER in Sydney. I am a survivor of what the Western World calls Schizophrenia, Depression and Schizo-Affective Disorder. I am a knowledge seeker. Mysteries, miracles, meditation and more...

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Who would you say are your biggest influences in music?

Oath, Lewis Parker, Pete Rock, DJ Premier, A Tribe Called Quest, J Dilla, Large Professor, DITC, Klaus Layer, Propo 88, Es Nine, Marley Marl, Debonair P, Edan, Just Blaze, El RTNC, DJ Skizz, George Fields, Cloud City Projects...

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What type of message do you wish to send through your music?

Love, Positive Change, Fun and much more, but the artists I work with always have a degree of creative control...

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&quot;Bang Exclusive&quot;&#39;s been pretty big on our playlist, mind if you share a little about that? You know, the background, and working with Sean Price?

I reached out to Sean on social media then did the business over email. Little fuss. He liked the first beat i sent him and that became Bang Exclusive. He explained to me &quot;Backstage they served fried chicken and watermelon&quot; actually happened at a gig he had to do in Europe. When i hit NY I got to film the video with him and the great people at Noisemaker Media around DUMBO, Brooklyn, close to the Fat Beats Warehouse. He was mad friendly in person and worked fast (probably cos his 2 homies were hungry for lunch). He had these weed lollipops that i had never seen before (you see it in the video). My then manager Pocho copped one. A great loss. He was the most consistent rapper in the game until he passed. I was certain of new Sean Price heat on a monthly basis when i used to DJ &quot;All City&quot;. I dearly wish i had the opportunity to get to know him and his extended family better. He seems like a great father, a great husband and a great friend from all reports. Much love to Bernadette and their children...

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Tell me about&nbsp;The Chase, man

The Chase was spawned from one of my lowest periods in my life. I had just been released from hospital after a psychosis and was later diagnosed with Schizophrenia. The Chase started as an idea...&nbsp;

&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;...The Chase was my road to recovery...&nbsp;

&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;...The events that took place from the first song completed with Prince Po to the final release with Headbop Music amd Slice Of Spice Records was a dream come true. I was chasing a dream. Through positive thinking and taking action, everything naturally progressed for that end result...

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Any current/future projects we can look forward to?

I will be launching a new record label called Sedgwick Records in 2017, accompanied by a first up single called &quot;The Genesis&quot; featuring FAMO$O, D Strong, $amhill, Glad2Mecha, VViked and Wildelux...

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This one&#39;s just for fun, mind you share a random/interesting fact?

I believe in miracles...

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Any last words?

Blissings to you guys and to everyone that enjoys listening to or participating in making great rap music. Peace, Love, Unity and Having Fun :) 
 
 
By Jods Arboleda for RAPStation.com

Some of Hip-hop&#39;s most magnum opus work come in the form of waves rippling new sounds and innovative concepts all throughout the Hip-hop scene. Gaining prominence through&nbsp;The Chase&nbsp;as well as his hit-single, &ldquo;Bang Exclusive&rdquo;, Kid Tsunami is shaping up to be a force to be re...

A Tribe Called Quest releases first video from final album, performs live

Help promote hip hop history with Native Tongues doc

ATCQ Spotted at Saturday Night Live Special Perfomance

Brandon Tory Brings "Yaga Season"

RAPstation Exclusive Interview Pt. I: Diamond Ortiz

RAPstation Exclusive Interview: Kid Tsunami

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