A Tribe Called Quest – Bonita Applebum from Hip-Hop Music Videos on Vimeo.
Today is the thirteenth day of Black History Month. I tend to use this time as a way to remind readers – and everyone else of a couple of important facts:
- You can’t love Black artists and their work, and not see them as people
- Black lives — and Black art matters
- Black culture is American culture
So as we go through the month, I’m going to talk about a collection of Black artists. It’ll be fairly comprehensive and eclectic list — although it won’t be a complete list.
So far I’ve mentioned the following artists:
- Patti LaBelle
- Rick James
- John Lee Hooker
- Janet Jackson
- Aretha Franklin
- Chaka Khan
- Sister Rosetta Tharpe
- Curtis Mayfield
- Bob Marley
- J. Dilla
- De La Soul
- Ella Fitzgerald
- Dionne Warwick
- Grace Jones
- Whitney Houston
- Louis Armstrong
A Tribe Called Quest may arguably be one of the most beloved and influential hip-hop groups ever. Their production and their rhymes are unparalleled. And honestly, I don’t think they were ever capable of putting a bad song down to wax.
Their collaborations with De La Soul, Leaders of the New School and the rest of the Native Tongues crew were legendary. But “Bonita Applebum” was the song that you awkwardly slow danced at the house party with that first crush.
