Tribe Albums:

The Love Movement (1998)

Beats, Rhymes and Life (1996)

Midnight Marauders (1993)

The Low End Theory (1991)

People’s Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm (1990)

Solo Albums:

Shaheeddullah and Stereotypes (2004)

Website: AliShaheed.com

This interview was done a while back around the beginning of the Tribe mini tour. We had some technical difficulties in the beginning of our recording so we’ll skip past the intros and right into the interview. Enjoy.

Halftime: So what’s up with the Tribe reunion? You guys recorded “I.C.U. (Doin It)” and then it was just like it’s on again then someone else is like its not happening. Are you guys coming back or what?

AS: That song was trying to set it off having Tribe come back on the Violator album, but that song was really the extent of it. Nothing beyond that ever occurred. So publicly it seems like it’s on and off because there are a lot of rumors saying yo their doing this and doing that and we were not active at all. That one song was as far as it went. Right now we have about five shows lined up that we’re doing just to let our fans know we love them back but as far as an album there is nothing happening.

Halftime: Do you think these live performances might get the juices flowing and spark something? I mean how did it feel to be back in the studio together after so long?

AS: Well for that one song the way it went down wasn’t the traditional way we do things. For me it was no experience I wasn’t even there at the session so I can’t even put mines on there like that. But as far as the live performances are concerned we’ve only had one show so far and it was such an emotional event. It definitely felt good to be out on stage and see that people are really loving you and not only singing the obvious single songs but we performed some album cuts we never performed before and people were singing it. That was a feeling that can’t be explained. So you never know the live performances and the love we receive from it may spark everyone to rethink the situation further. We’ve talked about another record internally but nothing beyond talk. So what I have been doing since I left Lucy Pearl was working on this Shaheed Allah album.

Marcus: That’s what I want to know. What happened with Lucy Pearl man ya’ll was funky! What’s really good?

Marcus: It’s not the same.

AS: Yea, what’s really good? We put together what I felt was a great album. The idea came together from Raphael, D’Angelo and I working together. We used to say it would be hot if we did a group together and at the time that everyone was contractually able to do it D was like yo I can’t do it because I’m about to put out this Voodoo record and I want to focus on that. So Raphael and I wanted to continue making music together and putting it out there so Raphael came up with an idea of adding Dawn Robinson in and that’s how it came to be. Through the course of doing that Lucy Pearl was signed to Raphael’s label and there were certain business issues that were incorrect. That was one of the reasons Dawn became somewhat frustrated by the situation and later on so did I. After I left I really can’t say what happened with Lucy Pearl.

Jbutters: I was reading this article where Dawn was saying she got kicked out the group but it seems like you see where she was going with those kinds of issues looming. What happened with her exit because it seemed like she tried to pit it on both of ya’ll?

AS: What happened with her exit was we were about to go on tour to Europe and this was supposed to be our European run. The night before we left she said that’s it for her and that she was going to record her solo record. It was always planned for her to go record her solo record, but she said that’s it for me. So it was like we have an album that we still need to promote so do Raphael and I call it quits right here or do we keep going because this was an idea we had for like four years. He was thinking of a few different singers and we talked to a couple people and the person we winded up dealing with came. We didn’t tell Dawn that Joy was stepping in because we felt we didn’t need to tell her because she told us that she was done. I guess maybe what she meant to say was I’m not trying to be out the group but I need to move on. But what she communicated was after such and such date it’s done it’s a wrap. So to me that’s sounds like I’m finished. I saw that article too how she said she found out she was replaced when she read it. I don’t understand why she said that when she was in the room, her manager was in the room, and Raphael and I were there and all heard what she said so go figure.

Jbutters: In that same article she said how she was gonna write a book about Raphael Saadiq’s ego problems and all of that. It’s like damn you have such talented musicians why does all this stuff get in the way.

AS: No matter what type of situation you are dealing with people and their personalities. There are certain people that will cast aside all of their personal feelings to go get money or to realize the goal whether it’s to get money or to make music. There are certain personalities that can do that and some that can’t. For me I understood the gripes that Dawn had. The stuff that she was beefing about I was clear on it. It wasn’t rocket science. I understood completely where she was coming from and I identified with her. I just had a different way of expressing it. After she left the group, I spent two years of my life trying to work it out it and it came to a point for me where I was frustrated as well. Pookie Records has to answer to Lucy Purl about certain things that are going down. Pookie Records had no answer and really Pookie Records is only two people, Raphael and his assistant. It came to the point where I’m seeing that the business is not right and our personal relationship is about to be affected by it so I opted to leave.

Marcus: Where did the name Lucy Purl come from?

AS: That’s just Raphael. It just came out. We were just sitting there trying to come up with a name and everyone had all kinds of ideas and Raphael said Lucy Purl. I think some of it is an homage Raphael paid toward his southern roots and the other half I don’t know what he thinks about sometimes. He said it and no one said no but no one said yes either. It was just like hmmm. So we lived with it for a week and it was really just everyone around us who was just like Lucy Purl. It kinda like attached itself after he said it.

Jbutters: I wanted to jump back on the Tribe thing for a minute. What are your feelings on a tribe reunion? And if you’re for it what do you feel needs to be in place for it to actually happen?

AS: I’m somewhat conflicted because I respect the Tribe Called Quest legacy and I wouldn’t want to tarnish what we’ve established. I think you get to the point where people’s expectations are so high that it’s almost unachievable. I don’t know if you guys are into X-games but you could see a border do the sickest trick on the planet and then next year he comes with something else but you don’t feel like ‘Ooooh!’ That part of me would rather leave it alone rather than compete with that. On the flip side of it I know where I am musically right now. I love where I am. I know what I hear in my head and where I’m trying to go, I know where Kamaal is and I know where Phife is and I think we would make a really ill album. It’s just a matter of timing and us really answering the question of whether this is what we need to do. Obviously we’re not there yet because we haven’t made any decisions. At this point I’m just focusing on my solo career and Kamaal is focusing on his. Phife is the flag holder for real. He’s been saying in all his interviews that he doesn’t want to do another solo until we do another Tribe album.

Jbutters: I got a few questions from fans and it touches on what you were saying in terms of where you are musically. The first is how hard is it for you to combat people’s perceptions of where your music should be (i.e. sounding like Lucy Purl or Tribe) versus the direction that your music is taking you now?

AS: There are a small amount of people that will be resistant to me doing anything other than what they have known of me. But I think the masses of people who happen to like what I do know that I engage myself in something different. Obviously, A Tribe Called Quest was different than anything else going on out there. Lucy Purl was different than A Tribe Called Quest and is still different than anything in R&B to this day. I think that people know I’m always going to take the music elsewhere and challenge it. I think people have been supportive of it and I think going forward that people will continue to be. I’m sure there will be naysayers because that comes with anything that you do. In the beginning with Tribe people hated us. They booed us and threw beer at us on stage. It takes a while for people to separate from the norm of what they know and allow something new to penetrate their soul. I make my music without even thinking about any type of listener. I just try to do me and that’s where the stereotypes aspect from the title of my album comes from. I don’t want people to stereotype me into just being a DJ or just a jazzy hip hop producer. I want to be seen as a musician. I think the fans will appreciate that and embrace that and I believe I’ve recorded an album that you can listen to from top to bottom. I haven’t heard too many people say they skipped past more than three songs. I think that’s a really good accomplishment and it shows that people listening aren’t boxing me into the past.

Jbutters: I read a couple of interviews and you were saying some labels were acting funny when you were shopping the idea of you doing a solo album. What kind of comments were you getting when you were telling people about your idea?

AS: The most frequent comment that I’ve gotten is there is no radio record on here. I’m like I understand what you guys mean when you say radio but I’ve been fortunate to have never made a song that was typical of radio throughout my career. So the day that I start doing that it’s a problem. So the fact that they told me that I was like thank you. Radio happens to play what I make and that’s the difference. It’s just shocking to know that you can achieve certain things in your career and you’ll still have people put up blocks and not really understand. And even if they don’t understand be smart enough to realize this person has a track record and if I don’t agree with where they are going musically they are going to bring my label a certain amount of cash. I’m a musician but I’m also a business person as well. I think about the budget. I’m the cat you want to bank on because I’m not gonna get stupid with a record budget. Another comment I heard was your music sounds like an artist development type of thing and the music industry is changing. So I’m like you guys don’t believe in developing artists? Don’t you think that’s what establishes long careers as opposed to these short term things where the artist is done after two albums? Unfortunately, that’s where a lot of record executives’ minds were. Not anymore though, now they are realizing they may need to take it back to artist development but I’m grateful that people responded to me in that way because it gave me the faith to go the independent route. I started Garden Seeker productions and took it from a production company to a label. I partnered up with intelligent people from Ryko and Penalty who understood where I was trying to go. Now I’m strictly independent and I don’t have people saying any of that negative stuff. It’s a beautiful thing.

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Posted by Jbutters on Thursday, March 16th, 2006 and is filed under HIP HOP ICON SERIES.