Last week, the members of influential hip-hop group A Tribe Called Quest announced their final album, We Got It From Here, Thank You For Your Service. The group—which reunited last year after an appearance on Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show—had been working on the new music in the months before and after the death of the group’s co-founder, Malik “Phife Dawg” Taylor in April.
Today, The New York Times has more details on the album, including the news that Jack White, André 3000, Kendrick Lamar, Elton John, and Busta Rhymes (a long-time collaborator, with a noteworthy cameo on the band’s 1992 hit “Scenario”) will all appear on its songs. The piece also notes that the album’s title was suggested by Taylor, and kept in his honor. When asked about its meaning, Phife Dawg’s lifelong friend and band co-founder Q-Tip simply said, “I don’t know. We’re just going with it because he liked it.”
The New York Times piece also delves into the grief and emotions underpinning the production process. “It’s so hard for me to sit in there and hear his voice,” said Q-Tip. “Sometimes I just have to like take a break and walk away. It gets heavy. It doesn’t necessarily get sad, it just gets heavy. I literally feel the energy from him when I hear his voice.”
We Got It From Here, Thank You For Your Service will be A Tribe Called Quest’s sixth studio album, and its first in 18 years. It’s currently set to release on November 11.