Additional personnel: Faith Evans (vocals); Trugoy, Leaders Of The New School, Charlie Brown, Dinco D., Busta Rhymes (rap vocals).

Producers: A Tribe Called Quest, Hoods, Q-Tip, The Ummah.

Includes liner notes by Selwyn Seyfu Hinds.

Digitally remastered by Tom Coyne (1999, Sterling Sound).

Audio Remasterer: Tom Coyne.

Liner Note Author: Selwyn Seyfu Hinds.

Photographer: Carol Weinberg.

For those who haven't discovered that A Tribe Called Quest made several of the best LPs in hip-hop history, Anthology is a perfect way to encapsulate the trio's decade-long career into one manageable portion. All of their best and biggest songs are here, from the early neglected joint "Luck of Lucien" to classic jazz-rap from The Low End Theory like "Jazz (We've Got)," and their 45-rpm peak with "Award Tour," all the way to their last big hit, "Find a Way," from 1998's The Love Movement. Yes, anyone who enjoys hip-hop needs to own at least Midnight Marauders and The Low End Theory, but Anthology succeeds in delivering all the highest points from a great hip-hop group's career. The collection also includes the first solo track from Q-Tip, 1999's "Vivrant Thing." ~ John Bush

Emerging on the cusp of the '90s, Tribe quickly became that decade's hip-hop icons. While Phife, Q-Tip, and Ali displayed unquestionable lyrical skills, they possessed a social consciousness that eschewed thuggish gangsta sensibilities, more concerned with communication than "street" bravado. ANTHOLOGY opens with "Check the Rhime" from Tribe's masterful second album, THE LOW END THEORY. A quintessential Tribe cut, it features the trademark conversational interaction between Phife and Q-Tip, and observations that tell much about the group's philosophy, as Phife declares "I'm far from a bully, and I ain't a punk" and Q-Tip observes that "knowledge is the key."

Of course, Tribe was innovative and impressive straight out of the gate, as shown by its debut's warm love song "Bonita Applebum," which mixes smooth '70s R&B with a sitar sample and the belief that "love never dies." Pioneers of the jazz/hip-hop alliance, Tribe sampled everyone from Dizzy Gillespie to Lonnie Smith, achieving the complex, polyphonic tapestry of Public Enemy without the anger. ANTHOLOGY shows that Tribe was always able to find just the right elements to combine for the backdrop to their fast-moving raps. From the breezy jazz guitar chords of "Electric Relaxation" to the Average White Band horn section on "Check the Rhime."