Tribe NYC are breathing fresh life into ’90s hip hop culture
- Text by Alex King
- Photography by Nicolas Heller/Tribe NYC
“The blueprint that was given to our generation was the ’80s and the ‘90s,” explains musician Kid Love. “They knocked it out for us, how to do it. You wanna have a good time? You wanna get people together? You wanna make good music? This is how you do it!”
For Kid Love and his retro-culture-inspired crew, hip hop’s golden era is the touchstone for a shared vision that comes together in Tribe NYC. Each member of the six-person Brooklyn-based art and music collective – Kid Love, Manolo Mike, Chill, Prynce, Teddy and Paulie – interprets the culture in their own discipline; as a musician, artist, dancer, poet or stylist.
Hip hop nostalgia is certainly on the rise, as kids raised on a diet of A Tribe Called Quest, boomboxes and big sneakers come of age. But for Tribe, this is more than just a trend. “Trends don’t have progression, they just die out,” Kid Love explains. “That’s why you know the ‘90s and stuff, it wasn’t a trend. It was when hip hop was fresh, it was brand new. People were given the hip hop vision, so thirty years later people it still has that same vision. Because it was just real, it was authentic and that stuff lasts forever.”
Check out the story over on Rolling Stone.
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