By Hayden Wright
A Tribe Called Quest shook up the hip-hop game with the unexpected release of their sixth and final album We Got It from Here… Thank You 4 Your Service, just months after the death of founding MC Phife Dawg.
Related: 5 Best Songs on A Tribe Called Quest’s ‘We Got It From Here… Thank You 4 Your Service’
They’ve now dropped the video for “We the People,” which combines gritty visuals that match the sense of urgency of the song. Much of the clip is set in a dingy, crowded basement studio while a kind of technological zombie apocalypse sprouts outside — and the police appears to be fully militarized. Grim!
A street art mural of Phife Dawg is animated to “rap” his contributions to the track — a classy and inventive way to make his presence felt in the visuals. Lyrically, “We the People” tackles bigotry and divisions in the United States, a timely matter following the heated presidential election:
“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.”
As it turns out, A Tribe Called Quest gave us just the right album at exactly the right time. Watch the video for “We the People” here: