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Concept
Soulquarians
Summary
The Soulquarians were a rotating collective of experimental Black music artists active during the late 1990s and early 2000s. Members of the collective included singer and multi-instrumentalist D'Angelo, drummer and producer Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson, producer J Dilla, singer-songwriter Erykah Badu, trumpeter Roy Hargrove, keyboardist James Poyser, singer Bilal, bassist Pino Palladino, rapper-producers Q-Tip and Mos Def, and rappers Talib Kweli and Common. Prior to its formation, Q-Tip, Common, Mos Def, and Talib Kweli were members of the Native Tongues collective, while Q-Tip's original group A Tribe Called Quest served as another inspiration behind the Soulquarians.
Stylistically, the collective's music has been variously described as neo soul, alternative hip hop, progressive soul, avant-garde, soul, conscious rap, and jazz fusion. Their members often collaborated on each other's recordings, holding extensive and innovative sessions at Electric Lady Studios in New York, which produced several well-received albums. Questlove of the hip hop band the Roots acted as the "musical powerhouse" behind several of the collective's projects, including the Roots' Things Fall Apart (1999), D'Angelo's Voodoo (2000), Badu's Mama's Gun (2000), and Common's Like Water for Chocolate (2000). Reflecting on their recordings, Common told Spin in 2008: "It was one of those time periods that you don't even realize when you're going through it that it's powerful".
The name of the collective is derived from an astrology sign. The founding members of the collective—Questlove from the Roots, D'Angelo, James Poyser, and J Dilla—share the sign of Aquarius. Questlove, D'Angelo, Poyser, and J Dilla came together after discovering they had a common interest for the unconventional—offbeat rhythms, irregular chords, and other traits often exhibited by the underground urban music scene.
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