The
Five Foot Assassin also says that he "s hopeful the group will record a reunion
album.
A Tribe Called Quest scored one of its biggest singles with “Can I
Kick It?” in 1991, but they still haven’t received royalties for
the song. During a performance at London, England’s KOKO (via The Hip
Hop Chronicle UK), Phife Dawg performed the cut and explained how rocker Lou
Reed recouped all of the royalties from the group sampling “Walk on
the Wild Side.”
“That was on our first album [People "s Instinctive Travels and the
Paths of Rhythm] and the sample is Lou Reed. Fuck Lou Reed, man! Fuck him.
Because we didn’t see no money from that fuckin’ record yet. Really.
Here’s what happened - and I take back saying ‘Fuck Lou Reed,’
because Lou Reed has every right to say ‘Give me my motherfucking money,’”
he said. “So Lou Reed could have easily said, ‘Oh yeah, a rap
group use my shit? Alright.’ No. Anita Baker don’t let nobody
use her shit, period. […] So Lou Reed, instead of saying no altogether,
he was like, ‘Yeah, nice! Give me the motherfucking money.’ Like
Smokey in Friday.”
He also touched on the prospect of another A Tribe Called Quest album, referring
to the recent documentary Beats, Rhymes and Life and stating that while he
and Q-Tip are cool, they still can’t record together.
“What you have to realize with the movie is that we’re all human
beings, number one. We’ve known each other since we were two years old.
A lot of times, it seems like the people who are most close to you, you take
for granted and do some crazy things, you say some crazy things,” he
explained. “But at the end of the day, it’s all love. You have
to also realize that this movie started filming in 2008 and it’s now
2011, almost 2012. Me and Q-Tip is fine. But as far as when is A Tribe Called
Quest coming to London? I’m not exactly sure, because we can’t
even be in the same room at the same time. It’s very difficult, but
hopefully, there will be a new album.”
hiphopdx.com