The Space Program (2016)

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The Space Program" is a song by American hip hop group A Tribe Called Quest, from their sixth and final album, We Got It from Here... Thank You 4 Your Service.[1] Produced by Q-Tip and co-produced by Blair Wells, it is the opening track on the album, and includes posthumous vocals by group member Phife Dawg, who recorded the song with the group before his death in March 2016.[2]

Key Lyrics

Put it on TV, put it in movies, put it in our face

These notions and ideas and citizens live in this age

I chuckle just like all of y'all, absurdity, after all

Takes money to get it running and money for trees to fall

Imagine for a second all the people are colored, please

Imagine for a second all the people in poverty

No matter the skin tone, culture or time zone

Think the ones who got it would even think to throw you a bone?

Move you out your neighbourhood, did they find you a home?

Not safer, probly no place to

Interpretation

Described as "a treatise on black unity", the song is a metaphor for gentrification.[3] It begins with Q-Tip and Phife Dawg stating, "It's time to go left and not right", indicating the side of the political spectrum that the group supports.[4] Next, Q-Tip and Phife Dawg start chanting the chorus in unison, encouraging the listener to "make something happen." After a short verse by Q-Tip, Jarobi White delivers a verse, followed by another short verse by Q-Tip. A longer verse is then delivered by Q-Tip, before Phife Dawg repeats the chorus for two minutes, followed by the outro. The song also contains vocal samples from the musical fantasy film, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, and the blaxploitation film, Willie Dynamite.[5]

Reception

Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone hailed the song as "The triumphant return of the Tribe", and interpreted that the lyrics were "about the end of the world." At the end of 2016, Rolling Stone ranked it the 30th best song of the year, and in The Village Voice's annual Pazz & Jop critics poll, it was tied for 66th best song of the year.[6][7]

Reference

  1. Rodney Carmichael. "A Tribe Called Quest's Last Video Paints A Grim, Gripping Reality". 29 March 2018. NPR. Retrieved February 5, 2021.
  2. Michael A Gonzales. "A Tribe Called Quest's Soundtrack to the Resistance". The Village Voice. Retrieved February 5, 2021.
  3. Miles Marshall Lewis. "A Tribe Called Quest Stands United, One Last Time". 11 November 2016. NPR. Retrieved February 5, 2021.
  4. Kris Ex. "A Tribe Called Quest: We got it from Here... Thank You 4 Your service". 17 November 2016. Pitchfork. Retrieved February 5, 2021.
  5. Ray Rahman. "A Tribe Called Quest's We Got It From Here... Thank You 4 Your Service: EW Review". 14 November 2016. Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved February 5, 2021.
  6. Rob Sheffield. "50 Best Songs of 2016". 30 November 2016. Rolling Stone. Retrieved February 5, 2021.
  7. "Village Voice – Pazz & Jop Lists 2016". Rocklistmusic.co.uk. Retrieved February 5, 2021.