features

The Story Behind the Iconic Native Tongues Band Photo

The Story Behind the Iconic Native Tongues Band Photo

Published Wed, December 31, 1969 at 7:00 PM EST

It's one of the most iconic Hip-Hop photographs of all-time

Depicting the Native Tongues crew — De La Soul (Maseo, and Posdnuos), A Tribe Called Quest (Q-Tip and Ali Shaheed Muhammad), the Jungle Brothers;, Monie Love, and DJ Red Alert, the Janette Beckman image was taken during the photo shoot for the J.B.'s "Doin' Our Own Dang" single.

"The first thing that comes to mind with the photo shoot is Baby Chris (Chris Lighty) orchestrated it," Monie Love says.

Lighty, who founded storied Violator Management, was responsible for managing the careers of the aforementioned Jungle Brothers, A Tribe Called Quest, and De La Soul, after getting his start in the business by carrying crates of records for DJ Red Alert.

Like the group itself, fun was a core tenet of how Native Tongues carried themselves, with was a divergent tactic in an industry where seriousness equated artistry. However, as Monie Love tells it, the day was cool and informal — not unlike the very jam session thy depicted in "Doin' Our Own Dang" video.

"He just was, 'Pick an instrument that makes sense to you,'" Love says. "So I went and sat on the drums, because I played drums in my Catholic high school in England. Janette, she's one of my favorite people that I've ever been photographed by, because the sessions were just always so dope with her. I'll tell you this though, I don't hate any of my pictures, regardless to how young I was or what I looked like. I don't cringe, because I feel like, anything you could possibly find represents a point and a time in my journey. My personal journey in Hip-Hop."

See Monie Love and De La Soul at this year's Rock The Bells Festival. Tickets available here.

What's new