Phife Dawg would’ve turned 46 last weekend. For a posthumous birthday gift, A Tribe Called Quest got their first No. 1 in 20 years. The gap is the longest ever for a hip-hop act, a record Jeezy held just two weeks ago (the eight years between Trap or Die 3 and The Recession).
Billboard reports that We Got It from Here… Thank You 4 Your Service sold 135,000 album-equivalent units, with 112,000 coming from pure album sales. A Tribe Called Quest’s previous No. 1 effort, 1996’s Beats, Rhymes, and Life, was then just the 20th hip-hop album to top the Billboard 200. Their follow-up, 1998’s The Love Movement, peaked at No. 3.
We Got It from Here will likely be knocked out of the top spot next week with Metallica, Miranda Lambert, and Bruno Mars looking to rake in big numbers from their debut weeks. But that doesn’t take away from how “A Tribe Called Quest’s New Album is No. 1” is a factual headline in 2016.
