Go Ahead in the Rain: Notes to A Tribe Called Quest
Hanif Abdurraqib
How does one pay homage to A Tribe Called Quest? The seminal rap group brought jazz into the genre, resurrecting timeless rhythms to create masterpieces such as The Low End Theory and Midnight Marauders. Seventeen years after their last album, they resurrected themselves with an intense, socially conscious record, We Got It from Here ... Thank You 4 Your Service, which arrived when fans needed it most, in the aftermath of the 2016 election. Poet and essayist Hanif Abdurraqib digs into the group's history and draws from his own experience to reflect on how its distinctive sound resonated among fans like himself. The result is as ambitious and genre bending as the rap group itself.
Award History
0 wins · 2 total
| Award | Year | Result | Category / Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kirkus Prize for NonfictionMajor | 2019 | Finalist | Official source |
| National Book Critics Circle Award for CriticismMajor | 2019 | Finalist | Secondary source |
Experimental book profileGenerated by GPT-5.4 nano · may contain inaccuracies
This is an unverified interpretation of the catalog description, offered as an opt-in discovery experiment—not as bibliographic fact.
01 Central figures
None extracted with sufficient confidence.
02 Central places
None extracted with sufficient confidence.
03 Suggested argument
No argument inferred with sufficient confidence.
This suggestion did not meet the normal display threshold and is more likely to be wrong.
A Tribe Called Quest’s genre-bending sound and socially conscious work, especially in We Got It from Here ... Thank You 4 Your Service, met a cultural need “when fans needed it most,” including for Hanif Abdurraqib.
Model confidence 52%
04 Reading orientation
45 / 100 academicTrade / academic crossover
An estimate of intended readership and scholarly apparatus—not quality or importance.
Confidence percentages are the model's own estimates. Profile confidence: 78%.