NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at for further information. Relax yourself girl, please settle down.ĬORNISH: That's NPR's Marc Rivers talking about A Tribe Called Quest's "Electric Relaxation" on that song's 25th anniversary.Ĭopyright © 2019 NPR. Q-TIP: (Singing) Relax yourself girl, please settle down. It's you and your crew piling into the car and cruising down the street, the music giving rhythm and purpose to the road, everyone nodding along to the beat. It's the skyscrapers looming overhead and the corner store just up the block. "Electric Relaxation" is the neighborhood cutie catching everyone's eye. So what if no one can understand what they're saying in the hook? RIVERS: That bassline takes a permanent residence in your brain, riding along with you on the subway or sitting with you in a cafe. Word to God, hon, I don't get down like that. I hate when silly groupies want to run their yap. PHIFE DAWG: (Rapping) I said, how you figure? My friends told me so. You can almost hear Phife Dawg smile as his cheeky lyrics bounce across the baseline. Here, the Tribe sounds too busy just having a good time. RIVERS: Today, "Electric Relaxation" sounds a world apart from the club-seeking bops of Migos or Cardi B. PHIFE DAWG: (Rapping) Original rude boy, never am I coy. Q-TIP: (Rapping) You can be my mama, and I'll be your boy. RIVERS: Phife Dawg and Q-Tip's chemistry, always on point, proved so effortless here that in past interviews, Phife described how they sometimes wrote each other's lines. This is how the track hits me - cool and carefree like a bunch of your friends nodding along to a beat. RIVERS: Back in the '90s, A Tribe Called Quest belonged to an even bigger tribe, with groups like De La Soul and the Jungle Brothers, whose music conjured images of poetry slams or discussions of Malcolm X in your college dorm room. PHIFE DAWG: (Rapping) I like them brown, yellow, Puerto Rican or Haitian. Hey yo, my man Phife Diggy, he got something to say. Q-TIP: (Rapping) If I was working at the club you would not pay. Rappers Q-Tip and Phife Dawg can't get enough. You know the type - no frills, no fluff and no time for your nonsense. RIVERS: This song is an ode to those city girls. RIVERS: All of a sudden, you go from walking to floating. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ELECTRIC RELAXATION") Putting foot to pavement, you walk a steady stroll, taking in the city's sights and sounds. MARC RIVERS, BYLINE: The opening of "Electric Relaxation" hits like you just stepped out of your New York apartment on a breezy afternoon. (SOUNDBITE OF A TRIBE CALLED QUEST SONG, "ELECTRIC RELAXATION") The single came off the group's classic album "Midnight Marauders." NPR's Marc Rivers has this appreciation of his favorite Tribe track. A Tribe Called Quest's "Electric Relaxation" officially hit the airwaves 25 years ago this month.
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