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The Love Movement is the fifth studio album by American hip hop group A Tribe Called Quest, and their last album released during group member Phife Dawg's lifetime. Released on September 29, 1998, by Jive Records, it is a concept album, exploring the lyrical theme of love. Musically, it is a continuation of the group's previous album, Beats, Rhymes and Life, featuring minimalist R&B and jazz-oriented production by The Ummah. The lead single, "Find a Way", charted on the Billboard Hot 100 and was followed by a second single, "Like It Like That". The album debuted at number three on the Billboard 200 and was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on November 1, 1998. The group announced its disbandment a month before the album's release.
| The Love Movement | ||||
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | September 29, 1998 | |||
| Recorded | 1997−1998 | |||
| Studio | Sony Music Studios, The Hit Factory, Battery Studios and River Sound in New York City | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 48:10 73:44 (with bonus tracks) | |||
| Label | Jive | |||
| Producer |
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| A Tribe Called Quest chronology | ||||
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| Singles from The Love Movement | ||||
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The roots of The Love Movement trace back to 1997, when Q-Tip produced a beat intended for The Notorious B.I.G.'s album Life After Death.[1] The Notorious B.I.G. enjoyed the beat when it was played for him, however, Life After Death had already been completed and the beat was not used before his death later that year.[1] Eventually, the beat was used for the song "The Love" on The Love Movement.[1]
The album was originally slated for release in May 1998.[2] However, on February 7, 1998, a fire at Q-Tip's home recording studio destroyed his entire record collection and a computer containing many unreleased songs by the group, including collaborations with producer Jay Dee, delaying the album until September of that year.[3][4][5] A month before the album's release, the group announced that it was disbanding.[3]
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The Love Movement is a continuation of the stripped-down R&B and jazz-infused sound that The Ummah created on Beats, Rhymes and Life.[6] The album contains an instrumental track, "4 Moms", which features a guitar solo by jazz guitarist Chalmers "Spanky" Alford. Lyrically, love is the album's predominant theme, while Q-Tip and Phife Dawg were noted for their "mature", "subtle" and "laid-back" rhymes.[6][7] The featured rappers were given praise for making the album sound "livelier", as it was criticized for being "a little monotonous" overall.[6][7] Thomas Golianopoulos of Spin hailed the single "Find a Way" as the group's "final glorious moment" before breaking up.[8]
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| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |    [6] |
| Encyclopedia of Popular Music | [9] |
| Entertainment Weekly | B+[10] |
| NME | 7/10[11] |
| Rolling Stone | [7] |
| The Source | [12] |
| Spin | 4/10[13] |
| Tom Hull – on the Web | B+ ( )[14] |
| The Village Voice |  [15] |
The Love Movement debuted at number three on the Billboard 200 and was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), on November 1, 1998, with shipments of 500,000 copies in the United States.
The album received mostly positive reviews from music critics. Josef Woodard of Entertainment Weekly described it as "a slamming, seductively textured, and tough display of virtuosic rhyming and tale spinning."[10] Dele Fadele of NME praised it for demonstrating "the continued survival of hip-hop as an artform", calling the album's songs "drug-free psychedelic experiences in which subsonic bass and weird-sounding beats play a large part."[11] Rolling Stone's Rob Sheffield believed that the "mature, accomplished niceness" of the album "proves that the Tribe still have the skills — they're just short on thrills."[7] In a negative review, Tim Haslett of Spin wrote that the spontaneity that made The Low End Theory "so much fun" had been "replaced by a shiny patina and a flabby George Benson-esque seriousness, so that the record feels like it was conceived and executed around a major-label conference table."[13]
In a review for AllMusic, critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine noted that "there are plenty of pleasures to be had from careful listening" of the album, and despite its love concept, he felt that "the overall effect is quite similar" to Beats, Rhymes and Life.[6] Nathan Rabin of The A.V. Club stated, "While not as immediately accessible as Tribe's first three albums, it's still consistently solid enough to stand up to repeat listens."[16]
The Love Movement was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rap Album, presented at the 41st Grammy Awards in 1999.[17]
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- All songs produced by The Ummah, except track 11 produced by The Ummah and Bay-Lloyd.
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Start It Up" | Kamaal Fareed, Ali Shaheed Muhammad, Malik Taylor, James Yancey, Ben Bernie, Kenneth Casey, Maceo Pinkard | 3:18 |
| 2. | "Find a Way" | Fareed, Muhammad, Taylor, Yancey, Bebel Gilberto, Towa Tei | 3:23 |
| 3. | "Da Booty" | Fareed, Muhammad, Taylor, Yancey | 3:20 |
| 4. | "Steppin' It Up" (featuring Busta Rhymes & Redman) | Fareed, Muhammad, Taylor, Yancey, Trevor Smith Jr., Reggie Noble | 3:21 |
| 5. | "Like It Like That" | Fareed, Muhammad, Taylor | 2:46 |
| 6. | "Common Ground (Get It Goin' On)" | Fareed, Muhammad, Taylor | 2:49 |
| 7. | "4 Moms" (featuring Spanky) | Fareed, Muhammad, Taylor, Yancey | 1:49 |
| 8. | "His Name Is Mutty Ranks" | Fareed, Muhammad, Taylor, Yancey | 1:56 |
| 9. | "Give Me" (featuring Noreaga) | Fareed, Muhammad, Taylor, Victor Santiago Jr., Dallas Austin, Michael Bivins, Shawn Stockman, Nathan Morris, Sam Jones | 3:52 |
| 10. | "Pad & Pen" (featuring D-Life) | Fareed, Muhammad, Taylor, Ronnie Wilson, Oliver Scott | 3:23 |
| 11. | "Busta's Lament" | Fareed, Muhammad, Taylor, Yancey | 2:38 |
| 12. | "Hot 4 U" | Fareed, Muhammad, Taylor, Leon Sylvers III, Joseph Sylvers | 3:15 |
| 13. | "Against the World" | Fareed, Muhammad, Taylor, Yancey, James Smith, Dwayne Simon, Brian Latture | 3:58 |
| 14. | "The Love" | Fareed, Muhammad, Taylor, Douglas Davis, Richard Walters | 4:02 |
| 15. | "Rock Rock Y'all" (featuring Punchline, Jane Doe, Wordsworth & Mos Def) | Fareed, Muhammad, Taylor, Rashaan Truell, Latania Morris, Vinson Johnson, Dante Smith, Charles Wright, James Gadson | 4:17 |
| Total length: | 48:10 | ||
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 16. | "Scenario (Remix)" (featuring Kid Hood & Leaders of the New School) | Fareed, Muhammad, Taylor, Troy Hall, Bryan Higgins, James Jackson, Sheldon Scott, Smith Jr. | 5:17 |
| 17. | "Money Maker" | Fareed, Muhammad, Taylor | 4:22 |
| 18. | "Hot Sex" | Fareed, Muhammad, Taylor | 2:45 |
| 19. | "Oh My God (Remix)" | Fareed, Muhammad, Taylor | 4:01 |
| 20. | "Jazz (We've Got) (Re-Recording Radio)" | Fareed, Muhammad, Taylor | 4:18 |
| 21. | "One Two Shit" (featuring Busta Rhymes) | Fareed, Muhammad, Taylor, Smith Jr. | 4:31 |
| Total length: | 73:44 | ||
Notes
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Start It Up Find a Way
Steppin' It Up
Give Me
Pad & Pen
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Busta's Lament
Hot 4 U
Against the World
The Love
Rock Rock Y'all
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Credits are adapted from AllMusic.[19]
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Weekly charts
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Year-end charts
Certifications
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