As he prepares to tour Australia with his band for the first time, Groupie’s Eileen Francisco caught up with DJ Ali Shaheed Mohammad, founding member of one of the world’s most influential hip-hop acts – A Tribe Called Quest. Here’s a preview of our feature in Groupie’s August issue out in a couple of weeks, but before we see what Ali has to say about existentialism in hip-hop – The Tribe’s music is very spiritual to its members, not to mention the rest of the world – here’s some tunes to play while you’re reading.

With a career spanning decades, Ali delved right into what hip-hop is all about and what he believes have been major influences in the evolution hip-hop today. We asked him if any particular artists or events he believes have shaped the genre. “For me, hip-hop has always been the voice of the struggle of the people. It originated as such, and it still is today… To say [hip-hop is influenced by] any particular event – the event is life in and of itself; life existing; life occurring.

Ali knows the life of a musician all too well. It means long tours and hours, weeks and months of recording – all for the entertainment of other people. I ask Ali what he hopes we, the listeners and fans, will take away from their music – he says the reason they create music for to inspire us to build our relationships with one another and “to draw dialogue, to be loving, to be faithful to one another, to be open-minded, to pick the time to listen to the other person and not be so quick to judge. To digest maybe what someone else experience, before you weigh in on something.”

This is an exciting and monumental tour of a truly innovative and influential act. Pick up your tix quiiiick.

Here’s the dates and details:
Wednesday, August 11: Hordern Pavilion, Sydney
Tix from Ticketek

Thursday, August 12: Festival Hall, Melbourne
Tix from Ticketmaster

More Tribe here.