Short answers, pulled from the story.
A Tribe Called Quest was formed in Queens, New York City, in 1985. The original members were Q-Tip (Kamaal Fareed), Phife Dawg (Malik Taylor), Ali Shaheed Muhammad, and Jarobi White.
Their debut album, People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm, was released on the 17th of April, 1990. The Source magazine awarded it five mics, making it the first album in the magazine's history to receive that rating. NME called it "near perfection."
Kierna Mayo, former editor-in-chief of Ebony, credited The Low End Theory and Midnight Marauders with giving birth to neo soul, stating that D'Angelo, Erykah Badu, Maxwell, Lauryn Hill, and later Andre 3000 and Kanye West all trace back to Tribe. Dr. Dre also stated that The Low End Theory inspired his debut album, The Chronic.
The group decided to record the album in secret on the 13th of November, 2015, the same night as the Paris terrorist attacks, describing themselves as feeling "charged." Phife Dawg died on the 22nd of March, 2016, before the album was finished. The surviving members completed it, and it was released on the 11th of November, 2016, featuring posthumous contributions from Phife Dawg.
The name A Tribe Called Quest was coined in 1988 by the Jungle Brothers, who attended the same high school as Q-Tip and Ali Shaheed Muhammad. Before that, the group had gone by "Crush Connection" and then simply "Quest."
A Tribe Called Quest was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2024. The group had also won the Founders Award at the 2005 Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Awards, been honored at the 4th VH1 Hip Hop Honors in 2007, and won the 2017 Brit Award for International Group.