Q-Tip

The longtime MC with pioneering alternative hip-hop trio A Tribe Called Quest, rapper Q-Tip was born Jonathan Davis in New York City on November 20, 1970. While a student at the Murray Bergtraum High School for Business Careers, he co-founded A Tribe Called Quest with fellow students Ali Shaheed Muhammad and Phife (Malik Taylor) in 1988; the following year, Q-Tip guested on De La Souls groundbreaking 3 Feet High and Rising LP, with the two groups forever linked through their association with the Native Tongues collective. Tribes debut single, Description of a Fool, appeared in the summer of 1989, and after signing to Jive Records, the trio issued their debut LP, Peoples Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm, a year later. With their fiercely intelligent, socially progressive lyrics and brilliant fusion of rap and jazz, the group emerged as one of the most popular and influential in all of hip-hop, producing such classic LPs as 1991s The Low End Theory and 1993s Midnight Marauders before disbanding in 1998. Q-Tip then mounted a solo career with the 1999 release of Amplified.