The Ummah was a music production collective, composed of members Q-Tip and

Ali Shaheed Muhammad Ali Shaheed Muhammad (born August 11, 1970) is an American hip hop DJ, record producer, and rapper, best known as a member of A Tribe Called Quest. With Q-Tip and Phife Dawg (and sometimes Jarobi White), the group released five studio albums ...

of A Tribe Called Quest, and the late Jay Dee (also known as

J Dilla J, or j, is the tenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its usual name in English is ''jay'' (pronounced ), with a now-uncommon vari ...

) of the

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

-based group Slum Village. Occasional members included

Raphael Saadiq Raphael Saadiq (; born Charles Ray Wiggins; May 14, 1966) is an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer. He rose to fame as a member of the multiplatinum group Tony! Toni! Toné! In addition to his solo and group ...

, and D'Angelo. In addition to producing nearly the entirety of A Tribe Called Quest's fourth and fifth albums, the Ummah provided backing tracks and remixes for a notable array of hip hop and

contemporary R&B Contemporary R&B (or simply R&B) is a popular music genre that combines rhythm and blues with elements of pop, soul, funk, hip hop, and electronic music. The genre features a distinctive record production style, drum machine-backed rhy ...

artists, including Busta Rhymes,

Whitney Houston Whitney Elizabeth Houston (August 9, 1963 – February 11, 2012) was an American singer and actress. Nicknamed " The Voice", she is one of the bestselling music artists of all time, with sales of over 200 million records worldwide. Houston i ...

, Keith Murray, the

Brand New Heavies The Brand New Heavies is an acid jazz and funk group formed in 1985 in Ealing in west London. Centered around songwriters/multi-instrumentalists Simon Bartholomew and Andrew Levy, the core members of the group since its founding, Brand New He ...

Michael Jackson Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Over a ...

, Janet Jackson, and

Jon B Jonathan David Buck (born November 11, 1974) is an American R&B singer, songwriter, and record producer. His debut album, ''Bonafide'' (1995), went platinum. Early life Born in Providence, Rhode Island, United States and raised in Altadena, ...

. The group was so named because two of its members (Tip and Ali) are devout

Muslims Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

. The word "

ummah ' (; ar, أمة ) is an Arabic word meaning "community". It is distinguished from ' ( ), which means a nation with common ancestry or geography. Thus, it can be said to be a supra-national community with a common history. It is a synonym for ' ...

" is

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

for "community", "nation", or "brotherhood". Generally, the term refers to the global Muslim population.

Biography

Background

The collective took shape around 1995; veteran

keyboardist A keyboardist or keyboard player is a musician who plays keyboard instruments. Until the early 1960s musicians who played keyboards were generally classified as either pianists or organists. Since the mid-1960s, a plethora of new musical inst ...

Amp Fiddler Joseph Anthony "Amp" Fiddler is an American singer, songwriter, keyboardist, and record producer from Detroit, Michigan. His musical styles include funk, soul, dance and electronica music. He is probably best known for his contributions to the ba ...

introduced Jay Dee (who at the time was shopping for a deal for his group) to Q-Tip during the 1994 Lollapalooza. Tip was impressed enough by Jay Dee's soulful productions to invite him as an addition to Tribe's music-production team, which until then consisted of Tip and occasionally Ali Shaheed.

Production work

According to Q-Tip, productions credited to the Ummah were made individually by its members.Q-Tip
Red Bull Music Academy. Accessed on August 12, 2017. Thus, the contributing member was given a songwriting credit for their work. Its first work, '' Beats, Rhymes and Life'', was criticized for moving away from the group's earlier, denser, and bottom heavy sound exemplified by tracks such as "

Scenario In the performing arts, a scenario (, ; ; ) is a synoptical collage of an event or series of actions and events. In the ''commedia dell'arte'', it was an outline of entrances, exits, and action describing the plot of a play, and was literally pi ...

" and " Oh My God." The new sound, which now leaned towards a more laid-back and polished tone, would be embraced a little more with the release of Tribe's " Find a Way" from its fifth album, '' The Love Movement'', although the album itself received a lukewarm reception, and no second proper single or video was released. Following this and the split of A Tribe Called Quest, Q-Tip and Jay Dee continued to collaborate under the Ummah moniker, producing all of Tip's solo album '' Amplified'', with the exception of two tracks from DJ Scratch. For several reasons, including label complications, Tip's solo career became largely inactive while Jay Dee and D'Angelo went on to form the Soulquarians with other like-minded artists. Although A Tribe Called Quest briefly reunited to release "ICU (Doin' It)" in 2003, the Ummah did not collaborate again after that, and Jay Dee's death on February 10, 2006 from complications of Lupus ended the project definitively. Despite the well-known projects and collaborations the collective did, people would erroneously assume that The Ummah was another name, or perhaps even an alter-ego of Q-Tip. As a result, many contributions by J Dilla would go overlooked and unnoticed. Looking back at the collective's formation and history, in an interview, Q-Tip stated:

Discography

Albums

* A Tribe Called Quest, '' Beats, Rhymes and Life'' (Jive, 1996) – RIAA certification: Platinum *A Tribe Called Quest, '' The Love Movement'' (Jive, 1998) – RIAA certification: Gold * Q-Tip, '' Amplified'' (Arista, 1999) – RIAA certification: Gold

Selected production

1996

Da Bush Babees Da Bush Babees is an American group of underground hip-hop artists loosely affiliated with the Native Tongues. The members of the group originally performed under the stage names Babe-B-Face Kaos (later Lee Majors), Mister Man (later King Khali ...

- "Gravity", "3 MCs" **''

Gravity In physics, gravity () is a fundamental interaction which causes mutual attraction between all things with mass or energy. Gravity is, by far, the weakest of the four fundamental interactions, approximately 1038 times weaker than the stro ...

'' *

Grant Green Grant Green (June 6, 1935 – January 31, 1979) was an American jazz guitarist and composer. Recording prolifically for Blue Note Records as both leader and sideman, Green performed in the hard bop, soul jazz, bebop, and Latin-tinged idioms ...

- "Down Here on the Ground (The Ummah Remix)" **Various artists - '' The New Groove: The Blue Note Remix Project'' * Keith Murray - "Dangerous Ground", "The Rhyme (Remix)" **''

Enigma Enigma may refer to: *Riddle, someone or something that is mysterious or puzzling Biology *ENIGMA, a class of gene in the LIM domain Computing and technology * Enigma (company), a New York-based data-technology startup * Enigma machine, a family ...

'' * Busta Rhymes - " Ill Vibe", " Still Shining", "Keep It Movin'" **''

The Coming ''The Coming'' is the debut studio album by American rapper Busta Rhymes. It was released on March 26, 1996, by Elektra Records. The album contains contributions by Def Squad members Redman, Keith Murray, and Jamal, Q-Tip, Zhané, Leaders of th ...

'' *Busta Rhymes - " Woo Hah!! Got You All in Check (The Jay-Dee Bounce Remix)", "Woo Hah!! Got You All in Check" (The Jay-Dee Other Shit)" **12"/CD single *Busta Rhymes - "It's a Party (The Ummah Remix)", "Ill Vibe (The Ummah Remix)" **12"/CD single

1997

*A Tribe Called Quest - "Same Ol' Thing" **Various artists - '' Men in Black: The Album'' * Janet Jackson - " Got 'Til It's Gone (Ummah's Uptown Saturday Night Mix)", "Got 'Til It's Gone (Ummah Jay Dee's Revenge Mix)" **12"/CD single *

- "

HIStory History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...

(The Ummah Radio Mix)", "HIStory (The Ummah Urban Mix)", "History (The Ummah DJ Mix)" **12"/CD single * Mint Condition - "Let Me Be the One (Ummah Remix Featuring Phife)", "Let Me Be the One (Ummah Remix Featuring Q-Tip)" **12"/CD single *Busta Rhymes - "So Hardcore" **'' When Disaster Strikes...'' *

- " Sometimes (The Ummah Remix)" **12"/CD single * Jon B. - "Cool Relax" **''

Cool Relax ''Cool Relax'' is the second studio album by Jon B. It was released by Tracey Edmonds' label Yab Yum Records and distributed by Epic Records subsidiary 550 M ...

'' *

Towa Tei is a Japanese artist, record producer, and DJ. Born in Yokohama, Japan, Towa debuted as a member of Deee-Lite, from the US label Elektra Records in 1990 and shot to fame via their international hit single, "Groove Is In the Heart". He made his s ...

- "Happy (Q-Tip Remix Dub)" **12"/CD single

1998

Jamiroquai Jamiroquai () are an English funk and acid jazz band from London. Formed in 1992, they are fronted by vocalist Jay Kay, and were prominent in the London-based funk and acid jazz movement of the 1990s. They built on their acid jazz sound in th ...

- "Deeper Underground (The Ummah Mix)" **12"/CD single

1999

*Raphael Saadiq & Q-Tip - " Get Involved" **'' The PJs: Music from & Inspired by the Hit Television Series'' *

Heavy D Dwight Arrington MyersCuda, Heidi Sigmund Keeping it reel. '' Vibe'' ("born Dwight Arrington Myers")Samuels, Anita M. (January 12' 1996)Heavy D, the C.E.O. ''New York Times'' (May 24, 1967 – November 8, 2011), known professionally as Hea ...

- "Listen" **''

Heavy Heavy may refer to: Measures * Heavy (aeronautics), a term used by pilots and air traffic controllers to refer to aircraft capable of 300,000 lbs or more takeoff weight * Heavy, a characterization of objects with substantial weight * Heavy, ...

2000

- " Fine" **'' Whitney: The Greatest Hits''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ummah, The J Dilla American hip hop record producers African-American record producers Record production trios American musical trios East Coast hip hop groups Midwest hip hop groups African-American musical groups Musical groups established in 1996 American songwriting teams Musical collectives