DJ/producer Ali Shaheed Muhammad first came to prominence as the "sound provider" and conspicuously silent member of the renowned hip hop group A Tribe Called Quest (ATCQ). Formed in 1988, when high school friends Q-Tip (Kamal Fareed) and Muhammad joined forces with Tip's neighborhood friend Phife (Malik Taylor), the jazzy, afrocentric trio would go on to be one the most popular and critically-acclaimed rap groups in music history. The Brooklyn-bred Muhammad played a major role in shaping their genre-defining sound and ATCQ recorded 5 well-received albums for Jive Records before disbanding in 1998. Both during and after ATCQ, Ali lent his production talents to artists like Mos Def, Angie Stone, Faith Evans, Shaquille O'Neal and remixed material for Janet Jackson, Maxwell, Meshell N'Degeocello and KRS-ONE. In 1999 Muhammad formed Lucy Pearl, an R&B group infused with elements of hip-hop, funk and rock with former En Vogue member Dawn Robinson and ex-Tony Toni Tone member Raphael Saadiq. The group would earn Muhammad his fourth Grammy nomination (two for ATCQ, one for his work with D'Angelo and for Lucy Pearl) before they went their separate ways. In 2004 the somewhat reclusive Ali Shaheed Muhammad reemerged with a solo effort entitled Shaheedulah and Stereotypes which not only featured his production talents but also saw him stepping to the mic to rap for the first time.
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