The group's debut album, People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm (1990), established them as a critically acclaimed act, earning the first five 'mic' rating in The Source's history.

Thank You 4 Your Service, which received critical acclaim and became its second album to top the Billboard 200; it featured posthumous contributions from Phife Dawg, who died eight months before its release.

[13] John Bush of AllMusic called them "the most intelligent, artistic rap group during the 1990s",[14] and Kris Ex of Pitchfork regarded them as "one of the greatest acts that hip-hop has ever produced".

[18][19] Q-Tip (Kamaal Fareed) and Phife Dawg (Malik Taylor) were childhood friends who grew up together in the St. Albans neighbourhood of Queens, New York City.

[5][14] Shortly after, A Tribe Called Quest, Jungle Brothers, De La Soul, Queen Latifah and Monie Love formed the Native Tongues collective, known for their like-minded Afrocentrism, positivity and eclectic sampling.

[20] Their debut album, People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm, released on April 10, 1990,[20] was marked by a playful lyrical approach and light-hearted content such as safe sex, vegetarianism and youthful experiences.

[20][30] A Tribe Called Quest's second album, The Low End Theory, was released on September 24, 1991, with "Check the Rhime" as the lead single; the song largely established the lyrical interplay between Q-Tip and Phife Dawg.

[17] Musically, the album fused hip hop with the laid-back atmosphere of jazz, particularly bebop and hard bop, combined with a minimalist approach to production that stripped the sound down to vocals, drums and bass.

[5][32] Mixing engineer Bob Power played a major role on the album, as he was tasked with removing surface noise and static that is typically heard on hip hop songs sampled from old vinyl records.

[20] Guests on the album included Leaders of the New School, Brand Nubian, Vinia Mojica and Ron Carter, who played double bass on the song "Verses from the Abstract".

[22] The Source gave the group its second consecutive five mic rating, praising their "progressive sound" and "streetwise edge", also noting that "Those who questioned Phife's microphone techniques on the first album will swallow those doubts as he practically steals the show on this one.

[31] The production, still rooted in jazz, was a return to the eclectic sounds found on People's Instinctive Travels, with a more prominent funk influence, including grittier drums.

[5] At the suggestion of Q-Tip, Jay Dee later joined him and Muhammad, forming a production unit known as The Ummah (Arabic for "the [worldwide] Muslim community"), in which each member produced songs individually and received a songwriting credit for their work.

Phife Dawg, who rapped on "Oh My God" that he owned "more condoms than TLC", made an appearance on the song "Intro-lude" from that group's album, CrazySexyCool, in 1994.

It was recorded during the turbulent East Coast–West Coast hip hop rivalry, with the tracks "Get a Hold", "Keeping It Moving" and "Baby Phife's Return" referring to it.

[58] That year also saw the first reunion of the three Native Tongues groups since 1989, when Jungle Brothers invited A Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul to guest on "How Ya Want It We Got It", a song from their album Raw Deluxe.

[17] The album, which was centered on the theme of love, was promoted by the single "Find a Way", a song that "innocently wonders about the point at which friendship spills over into sex".

[30] Critical reception was mostly positive; Rolling Stone remarked that "the mature, accomplished niceness of The Love Movement proves that the Tribe still have the skills – they're just short on thrills.

[62] Under the management of Violator, Q-Tip launched a successful solo career, which saw two Billboard Hot 100 hits, "Vivrant Thing" and "Breathe and Stop", and the release of the gold-certified album Amplified in late 1999.

[17] The group scored two hit singles with "Dance Tonight" and "Don't Mess with My Man", from their self-titled album, which was certified gold a few months after its release in 2000.

In 2003, Q-Tip and Phife Dawg put aside their differences and A Tribe Called Quest briefly returned to the studio, recording the song "I C U (Doin' It)", featuring Erykah Badu.

[87] We Got It from Here featured guest appearances by André 3000, Kendrick Lamar, Jack White, Elton John, Kanye West, Anderson .Paak, Talib Kweli, Consequence and Busta Rhymes.

[88] Promoted by the hit single "We the People....", which opposed Donald Trump's presidential campaign, the album received widespread acclaim from critics.

[89] Lyrically, Rolling Stone believed that the group "maintain the attitude of the Bohemian everydude funkonauts" that inspired many prominent hip hop artists.

[81] Speaking with Billboard, Q-Tip revealed plans for the group to do a final world tour, to promote the album and honor Phife Dawg, before permanently disbanding.

[95] After disbanding, a short film for the album's opening track, "The Space Program", was released on March 29, 2018, and billed as the group's final video.

[32][97] The group's production influenced their contemporaries, thus changing the sound of hip hop; Dr. Dre produced his highly regarded debut The Chronic after being inspired by The Low End Theory,[98] and Pete Rock stated, "There were times when I would walk into a record store and see Tip sitting on the floor with his glasses on, going through albums, looking for beats ...

[99] Lyrically, A Tribe Called Quest has been regarded for addressing many social issues through Q-Tip's philosophical viewpoints and Phife Dawg's everyman perspectives.

"[100][101] Kierna Mayo, former editor-in-chief of Ebony, said that The Low End Theory and Midnight Marauders "gave birth to neo-everything.... That entire class of D'Angelo, Erykah Badu, Maxwell, and Lauryn Hill—and moving on to André 3000, Kanye West, and Talib Kweli—everything that is left of everything begins with Tribe.

[102][52] The Roots drummer Ahmir Thompson's stage name "Questlove" was inspired by A Tribe Called Quest, whom he cited as his favorite group, stating, "They're my Beatles.