# Native Tongues

The Native Tongues was a collective of late 1980s and early 1990s hip-hop artists known for their positive-minded, good-natured Afrocentric lyrics, and for pioneering the use of eclectic sampling and jazz-influenced beats. Its principal members were the Jungle Brothers, De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, Monie Love, and Queen Latifah. The collective was also closely tied to the Universal Zulu Nation. Rolling Stone cites the track "Doin' Our Own Dang" as "the definitive Native Tongues posse cut".

## Naming

The Native Tongues took their name from a line in the song "African Cry", by Motown-offshoot funk group New Birth, which features the lyric, "took away our native tongues".

## History

The New York City-based Native Tongues crew was a collective of like-minded hip hop artists who would help bring abstract and open-minded lyricism that addressed a range of topics—from spirituality and modern living to race, sex, and just having fun—to the mainstream. Together with the use of eclectic samples that would take on an increasingly jazzy sound, they would be pioneers of so-called conscious hip hop, alternative hip hop, and jazz rap.
De La Soul's Trugoy the Dove recalled: "The Native Tongues came about where, basically, we had a show together in Boston. [De La Soul], Jungle [Brothers] and we linked from there. We had a natural love for the art and a natural love for each other on how we put stuff together. So we invited [the Jungle Brothers] to a session, and when they hooked up with us, we happened to be doing "Buddy." It wasn't business; it wasn't for a check. It was just trading ideas and just seeing what you're doing. Bottom line, it was just having fun."
According to Q-Tip of A Tribe Called Quest: "I remember Afrika [Baby Bam] called me that night, like, two in the morning. "Yo these kids, De La Soul, you gotta meet ’em! I swear we're just alike!" I went there, met them, and it was just fuckin' love at first sight. It was disgusting. In hip hop, it praises individualism. I think that's the main achievement of the Native Tongues. It just showed people could come together."
Fostered by Kool DJ Red Alert, the success of the Jungle Brothers would pave the way for De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest; together, these three groups would form the core of the crew and continue the spirit of Afrika Bambaataa and the Zulu Nation. By 1989 they had been joined by Queen Latifah and the United Kingdom's Monie Love, and soon by the Black Sheep and Chi-Ali. Collectively, the members of the Native Tongues had a huge effect on the style and trends of hip hop during its most important period, the golden age of the late 1980s–early 1990s. A Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul's albums of this time are considered among the best and most important in the hip hop genre.
   If you’re old enough, recall the naive early-'90s moment when young rappers from Nassau County and so forth were so brave they considered mellow and humorous a righteous path as well as a commercial ploy.
While featuring an extensive discography, the collaborations of the Native Tongues have been fairly limited: the collective never recorded anything under that name, and the number of notable crew cuts can be counted on one hand. The various groups grew distant with time, and, by 1993, De La Soul's Trugoy the Dove proclaimed, "That native shit is dead."

## Legacy

The Native Tongues are regarded as one of the first alternative hip hop movements; by diverging from popular models of hard-edged braggadocio, pursuing more experimental subject matter, and sampling more diverse types of music, they renewed the focus on individualism in hip hop. The innovations of the Native Tongues have been credited with facilitating the emergence of artists such as OutKast, Kanye West, and Pharrell Williams.
In 2019, the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C., launched an annual Native Tongues Festival to celebrate the musical legacy of the Native Tongues.

## Members

* Jungle Brothers (Mike Gee, Sammy B, Afrika Baby Bam)
* A Tribe Called Quest (Q-Tip, Phife Dawg, Ali Shaheed Muhammad and Jarobi White)
* De La Soul (Posdnuos, Trugoy, and Maseo)
* Monie Love
* Queen Latifah
* Black Sheep (Dres and Mista Lawnge)
* Chi-Ali