A Tribe Called Quest have dropped their final music video and it's for the We got it from Here... Thank You 4 Your service opening cut “The Space Program.” The Warren Fu-directed visual opens with Q-Tip playing chess on a spaceship—later we see Q-Tip playing chess again, but this time with a faceless man in an empty field. It all builds towards a powerful, thought-provoking ending.
A lot of familiar faces pop up throughout, including Erykah Badu, Vince Staples, Pharrell, Common, Questlove, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Rosario Dawson, Janelle Monáe, Alicia Keys, Anderson .Paak, and more. At the end, we see a dedication that reads “For Malik,” or Phife Dawg, who passed away in 2016, followed by a collection of photos, which accompany the credits.
Q-Tip spoke with Zane Lowe on Thursday about the video and Phife’s passing.
“I miss my boy still. I doubt that there’s an acceptance but then if [you] lost someone you accept that, you deal with it, but then you have those moments that are pretty salient for you. And it just hits you and takes you there. I'm saying so [because] I don't think anybody could ever avoid that—one of the pitfalls of being human I guess, so I'm never going to stop loving them. Missing them.”
The video is part of the highly anticipated joint capsule between A Tribe Called Quest and Pharrell’s Billionaire Boys Club, with the collection aptly titled The Space Program. Preview the clip below, or watch the full eight-minute video on Apple Music. Listen to Zane Lowe and Q-Tip's full interview here.
