A Tribe Called Quest notched their second number one album on the Billboard 200 chart with We Got It From Here… Thank You 4 Your Service, their first since Beats, Rhymes and Life went platinum in August of 1996. The project debuted at number one after moving 135,000 units from release day (Nov 11) through November 17. Of the 135,000 units sold, 112,000 were traditional record sales of the Epic Records project, according to Nielsen Music.
The 20 years between top charting acts is the longest gap between number ones in hip-hop music’s storied history. Young Jeezy held the record for about two weeks in the genre with eight years and two months between The Recession in September of 2008 and Trap or Die 3, which released this month. Dead or alive, the longest draught between number ones in music is owned by Ray Charles, who went more than 42 years between top albums with Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music in 1962, and Genius Loves Company in 2005.
NYC street is now officially named after Phife Dawg of A Tribe Called Quest. pic.twitter.com/TznbPgEPSP
— Daily Rap Pics (@DailyRapPics) November 19, 2016
We Got It From Here… Thank You 4 Your Service is expected to be the group’s final culminating act and was the first project released since the death of founding member Phife Dawg in March, who also had an NYC street named in honor of him, revealed Saturday (Nov 19). During troubling days, the album couldn’t have come at a better time, preaching good vibes and a light at the end of the tunnel.
Late @ATCQ rapper Malik “Phife Dawg” Taylor gets a street named after him in Queens https://t.co/QwzJEgysRw pic.twitter.com/cuXdsOPFce
— New York Daily News (@NYDailyNews) November 20, 2016
If you haven’t heard the euphonic goodbye album yet, purchase We Got It From Here… Thank You 4 Your Service from iTunes now.