The Space Program

Album: We Got It from Here... Thank You 4 Your Service (2016)
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Songfacts®:

  • "The Space Program" finds Q-Tip, Jarobi White and the late Phife Dawg rapping about the state of the world from an African American's perspective. The song is the opening track from We Got It from Here... Thank You 4 Your Service …, A Tribe Called Quest's final album. The record was recorded on the back of the momentum from the rap group's successful live comeback on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon in November 2015.
  • A Tribe Called Quest gave their first live performance since the death of group MC Phife Dawg in March 2016, when they performed this song on the November 12, 2016 episode of Saturday Night Live.
  • The song ends with two different samples from the 1971 film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.
  • A Tribe Called Quest's intergalactic video for this song, directed by Warren Fu, was their final visual as a music collective. The star-studded clip features cameos from the likes of Erykah Badu, Pharrell, Janelle Monáe, Vince Staples, Common, Alicia Keys, Questlove, Black Thought, Rosario Dawson, and Consequence.

    The video is dedicated to Phife Dawg, referencing his government name Malik Izaak Taylor.

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