Butter at the Borough Market, London

Fresh butter for sale at a farmer's market in the Czech Republic

Butter is a dairy product made by churning fresh or fermented cream or milk. It is generally used as a spread and a condiment, as well as in cooking, such as baking, sauce making, and pan frying. Butter consists of butterfat, milk proteins and water.

Most frequently made from cows' milk, butter can also be manufactured from the milk of other mammals, including sheep, goats, buffalo, and yaks. Salt, flavorings and preservatives are sometimes added to butter. Rendering butter produces clarified butter or ghee, which is almost entirely butterfat.

Butter is a water-in-oil emulsion resulting from an inversion of the cream, an oil-in-water emulsion; the milk proteins are the emulsifiers. Butter remains a solid when refrigerated, but softens to a spreadable consistency at room temperature, and melts to a thin liquid consistency at 32–35 °C (90–95 °F). The density of butter is 911 g/L (56.9 lb/ft³).^[1]

It generally has a pale yellow color, but varies from deep yellow to nearly white. Its unmodified color is dependent on the animals' feed and is commonly manipulated with food colorings in the commercial manufacturing process, most commonly annatto or carotene.

Etymology[link]

Butter is often served for spreading on bread with a butter knife.

The word butter derives (via Germanic languages) from the Latin butyrum,^[2] which is the latinisation of the Greek βούτυρον (bouturon).^[3][4] This may have been a construction meaning "cow-cheese", from βοῦς (bous), "ox, cow"^[5] + τυρός (turos), "cheese",^[6] but perhaps this is a false etymology of a Scythian word.^[7] Nevertheless, the earliest attested form of the second stem, turos ("cheese"), is the Mycenaean Greek tu-ro, written in Linear B syllabic script.^[8] The root word persists in the name butyric acid, a compound found in rancid butter and dairy products such as Parmesan cheese.

In general use, the term "butter" refers to the spread dairy product when unqualified by other descriptors. The word commonly is used to describe puréed vegetable or nut products such as peanut butter and almond butter. It is often applied to spread fruit products such as apple butter. Fats such as cocoa butter and shea butter that remain solid at room temperature are also known as "butters". In addition to the act of applying butter being called "to butter", non-dairy items that have a dairy butter consistency may use "butter' to call that consistency to mind, including food items such as maple butter and witch's butter and nonfood items such as baby bottom butter, hyena butter, and rock butter.

Production[link]

Churning cream into butter using a hand held mixer

Unhomogenized milk and cream contain butterfat in microscopic globules. These globules are surrounded by membranes made of phospholipids (fatty acid emulsifiers) and proteins, which prevent the fat in milk from pooling together into a single mass. Butter is produced by agitating cream, which damages these membranes and allows the milk fats to conjoin, separating from the other parts of the cream. Variations in the production method will create butters with different consistencies, mostly due to the butterfat composition in the finished product. Butter contains fat in three separate forms: free butterfat, butterfat crystals, and undamaged fat globules. In the finished product, different proportions of these forms result in different consistencies within the butter; butters with many crystals are harder than butters dominated by free fats.

Churning produces small butter grains floating in the water-based portion of the cream. This watery liquid is called buttermilk—although the buttermilk most common today is instead a directly fermented skimmed milk. The buttermilk is drained off; sometimes more buttermilk is removed by rinsing the grains with water. Then the grains are "worked": pressed and kneaded together. When prepared manually, this is done using wooden boards called scotch hands. This consolidates the butter into a solid mass and breaks up embedded pockets of buttermilk or water into tiny droplets.

Butter is mainly a triglyceride (fat) derived from fatty acids such as myristic, palmitic, and oleic acids

Commercial butter is about 80% butterfat and 15% water; traditionally made butter may have as little as 65% fat and 30% water. Butterfat is a mixture of triglyceride, a triester derived from glycerol and three of any of several fatty acid groups.^[9] Butter becomes rancid when these chains break down into smaller components, like butyric acid and diacetyl. The density of butter is 0.911 g/cm³ (0.527 oz/in³), about the same as ice.

Types[link]

Hand-made butter

Chart of milk products and production relationships, including milk

Before modern factory butter making, cream was usually collected from several milkings and was therefore several days old and somewhat fermented by the time it was made into butter. Butter made from a fermented cream is known as cultured butter. During fermentation, the cream naturally sours as bacteria convert milk sugars into lactic acid. The fermentation process produces additional aroma compounds, including diacetyl, which makes for a fuller-flavored and more "buttery" tasting product.^[10] Today, cultured butter is usually made from pasteurized cream whose fermentation is produced by the introduction of Lactococcus and Leuconostoc bacteria.

Another method for producing cultured butter, developed in the early 1970s, is to produce butter from fresh cream and then incorporate bacterial cultures and lactic acid. Using this method, the cultured butter flavor grows as the butter is aged in cold storage. For manufacturers, this method is more efficient, since aging the cream used to make butter takes significantly more space than simply storing the finished butter product. A method to make an artificial simulation of cultured butter is to add lactic acid and flavor compounds directly to the fresh-cream butter; while this more efficient process is claimed to simulate the taste of cultured butter, the product produced is not cultured but is instead flavored.

When heated, butter quickly melts into a thin liquid.

Dairy products are often pasteurized during production to kill pathogenic bacteria and other microbes. Butter made from pasteurized fresh cream is called sweet cream butter. Production of sweet cream butter first became common in the 19th century, with the development of refrigeration and the mechanical cream separator.^[11] Butter made from fresh or cultured unpasteurized cream is called raw cream butter. While butter made from pasteurized cream may keep for several months, raw cream butter has a shelf life of roughly ten days.

Throughout continental Europe, cultured butter is preferred, while sweet cream butter dominates in the United States and the United Kingdom. Therefore, cultured butter is sometimes labeled "European-style" butter in the United States. Commercial raw cream butter is virtually unheard-of in the United States. Raw cream butter is generally only found made at home by consumers who have purchased raw whole milk directly from dairy farmers, skimmed the cream themselves, and made butter with it. It is rare in Europe as well.^[12]

Several "spreadable" butters have been developed; these remain softer at colder temperatures and are therefore easier to use directly out of refrigeration. Some modify the makeup of the butter's fat through chemical manipulation of the finished product, some through manipulation of the cattle's feed, and some by incorporating vegetable oils into the butter. "Whipped" butter, another product designed to be more spreadable, is aerated via the incorporation of nitrogen gas—normal air is not used, because doing so would encourage oxidation and rancidity.

All categories of butter are sold in both salted and unsalted forms. Either granular salt or a strong brine are added to salted butter during processing. In addition to enhanced flavor, the addition of salt acts as a preservative.

The amount of butterfat in the finished product is a vital aspect of production. In the United States, products sold as "butter" are required to contain a minimum of 80% butterfat; in practice, most American butters contain only slightly more than that, averaging around 81% butterfat. European butters generally have a higher ratio, which may extend up to 85%.

Clarified butter

Clarified butter is butter with almost all of its water and milk solids removed, leaving almost-pure butterfat. Clarified butter is made by heating butter to its melting point and then allowing it to cool; after settling, the remaining components separate by density. At the top, whey proteins form a skin which is removed, and the resulting butterfat is then poured off from the mixture of water and casein proteins that settle to the bottom.^[13]

Ghee is clarified butter which is brought to higher temperatures of around 120 °C (250 °F) once the water has cooked off, allowing the milk solids to brown. This process flavors the ghee, and also produces antioxidants which help protect it longer from rancidity. Because of this, ghee can keep for six to eight months under normal conditions.^[13]

Cream may be skimmed from whey instead of milk, as a byproduct of cheese-making. Whey butter may be made from whey cream. Whey cream and butter have a lower fat content and taste more salty, tangy and "cheesy".^[14] They are also cheaper than "sweet" cream and butter.

European butters[link]

There are several butters produced in Europe with Protected geographical indications; these include:

• Beurre d'Ardenne, from Belgium
• Beurre d'Isigny, from France
• Beurre Charentes-Poitou (Which also includes: Beurre des Charentes and Beurre des Deux-Sèvres under the same classification), from France
• Beurre Rose, from Luxembourg
• Mantequilla de Soria, from Spain
• Mantega de l'Alt Urgell i la Cerdanya, from Spain

History[link]

Traditional butter-making in Palestine. Ancient techniques were still practiced in the early 20th century. National Geographic, March 1914.

The earliest butter would have been from sheep or goat's milk; cattle are not thought to have been domesticated for another thousand years.^[15] An ancient method of butter making, still used today in parts of Africa and the Near East, involves a goat skin half filled with milk, and inflated with air before being sealed. The skin is then hung with ropes on a tripod of sticks, and rocked until the movement leads to the formation of butter.

In the Mediterranean climate, unclarified butter spoils quickly— unlike cheese, it is not a practical method of preserving the nutrients of milk. The ancient Greeks and Romans seemed to have considered butter a food fit more for the northern barbarians. A play by the Greek comic poet Anaxandrides refers to Thracians as boutyrophagoi, "butter-eaters".^[16] In Natural History, Pliny the Elder calls butter "the most delicate of food among barbarous nations", and goes on to describe its medicinal properties.^[17] Later, the physician Galen also described butter as a medicinal agent only.^[18]

Historian and linguist Andrew Dalby says most references to butter in ancient Near Eastern texts should more correctly be translated as ghee. Ghee is mentioned in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea as a typical trade article around the first century CE Arabian Sea, and Roman geographer Strabo describes it as a commodity of Arabia and Sudan.^[16] In India, ghee has been a symbol of purity and an offering to the gods—especially Agni, the Hindu god of fire—for more than 3000 years; references to ghee's sacred nature appear numerous times in the Rigveda, circa 1500–1200 BCE. The tale of the child Krishna stealing butter remains a popular children's story in India today. Since India's prehistory, ghee has been both a staple food and used for ceremonial purposes, such as fueling holy lamps and funeral pyres.

Middle Ages[link]

Woman churning butter; Compost et Kalendrier des Bergères, Paris, 1499

The cooler climates of northern Europe allowed butter to be stored for a longer period before it spoiled. Scandinavia has the oldest tradition in Europe of butter export trade, dating at least to the 12th century.^[19] After the fall of Rome and through much of the Middle Ages, butter was a common food across most of Europe, but one with a low reputation, and was consumed principally by peasants. Butter slowly became more accepted by the upper class, notably when the early 16th century Roman Catholic Church allowed its consumption during Lent. Bread and butter became common fare among the middle class, and the English, in particular, gained a reputation for their liberal use of melted butter as a sauce with meat and vegetables.^[20]

In antiquity, butter was used for fuel in lamps as a substitute for oil. The Butter Tower of Rouen Cathedral was erected in the early 16th century when Archbishop Georges d'Amboise authorized the burning of butter instead of oil, which was scarce at the time, during Lent.^[21]

Across northern Europe, butter was sometimes treated in a manner unheard-of today: it was packed into barrels (firkins) and buried in peat bogs, perhaps for years. Such "bog butter" would develop a strong flavor as it aged, but remain edible, in large part because of the unique cool, airless, antiseptic and acidic environment of a peat bog. Firkins of such buried butter are a common archaeological find in Ireland; the Irish National Museum has some containing "a grayish cheese-like substance, partially hardened, not much like butter, and quite free from putrefaction." The practice was most common in Ireland in the 11th–14th centuries; it ended entirely before the 19th century.^[19]

Industrialization[link]

Like Ireland, France became well known for its butter, particularly in Normandy and Brittany. By the 1860s, butter had become so in demand in France that Emperor Napoleon III offered prize money for an inexpensive substitute to supplement France's inadequate butter supplies. A French chemist claimed the prize with the invention of margarine in 1869. The first margarine was beef tallow flavored with milk and worked like butter; vegetable margarine followed after the development of hydrogenated oils around 1900.

Gustaf de Laval's centrifugal cream separator sped the butter-making process.

Until the 19th century, the vast majority of butter was made by hand, on farms. The first butter factories appeared in the United States in the early 1860s, after the successful introduction of cheese factories a decade earlier. In the late 1870s, the centrifugal cream separator was introduced, marketed most successfully by Swedish engineer Carl Gustaf Patrik de Laval.^[22] This dramatically sped up the butter-making process by eliminating the slow step of letting cream naturally rise to the top of milk. Initially, whole milk was shipped to the butter factories, and the cream separation took place there. Soon, though, cream-separation technology became small and inexpensive enough to introduce an additional efficiency: the separation was accomplished on the farm, and the cream alone shipped to the factory. By 1900, more than half the butter produced in the United States was factory made; Europe followed suit shortly after.

butter press and small churn

In 1920, Otto Hunziker authored The Butter Industry, Prepared for Factory, School and Laboratory,^[23] a well-known text in the industry that enjoyed at least three editions (1920, 1927, 1940). As part of the efforts of the American Dairy Science Association, Professor Hunziker and others published articles regarding: causes of tallowiness^[24] (an odor defect, distinct from rancidity, a taste defect); mottles^[25] (an aesthetic issue related to uneven color); introduced salts;^[26] the impact of creamery metals^[27] and liquids;^[28] and acidity measurement.^[29] These and other ADSA publications helped standardize practices internationally.

Butter also served as a source of extra income for farm families. Wood presses featuring intricate decoration were used to press the butter into pucks or small bricks to be sold at a nearby market or general store with the decoration identifying the farm which produced the butter. This continued until production was mechanized and butter was produced in less decorative stick form.^[30] Today butter presses continue to be used for decorative purposes.

Per capita butter consumption declined in most western nations during the 20th century, in large part because of the rising popularity of margarine, which is less expensive and, until recent years, was perceived as being healthier. In the United States, margarine consumption overtook butter during the 1950s,^[31] and it is still the case today that more margarine than butter is eaten in the U.S. and the EU.^[32]

Size and shape of butter packaging[link]

The examples and perspective in this section may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please improve this article and discuss the issue on the talk page. (September 2010)

Western-pack shape butter

In the United States, butter is usually produced in 4-ounce sticks, wrapped in waxed or foiled paper and sold four to a one-pound carton. This practice is believed to have originated in 1907, when Swift and Company began packaging butter in this manner for mass distribution.^[33]

Due to historical differences in butter printers (the machines which cut and package butter),^[34] these sticks are commonly produced in two different shapes:

• The dominant shape east of the Rocky Mountains is the Elgin, or Eastern-pack shape, named for a dairy in Elgin, Illinois. The sticks are 121 millimetres (4.8 in) long and 32 millimetres (1.3 in) wide and are typically sold stacked two by two in elongated cube-shaped boxes.^[34]

• West of the Rocky Mountains, butter printers standardized on a different shape that is now referred to as the Western-pack shape. These butter sticks are 80 millimetres (3.1 in) long and 38 millimetres (1.5 in) wide and are usually sold with four sticks packed side-by-side in a flat, rectangular box.^[34]

Both sticks contain the same amount of butter, although most butter dishes are designed for Elgin-style butter sticks.^[34]

The stick's wrapper is usually marked off as eight tablespoons (120 ml/4.2 imp fl oz; 4.1 US fl oz); the actual volume of one stick is approximately nine tablespoons (130 ml/4.6 imp fl oz; 4.4 US fl oz).

Elsewhere (outside the United States), butter is packaged and sold by weight only, not by volume (fluid measure) nor by unit (stick), but the package shape remains approximately the same. The wrapper is usually a foil and waxed-paper laminate (the waxed paper is now a siliconised substitute, but is still referred to in some places as parchment, from the wrapping used in past centuries; and the term 'parchment-wrapped' is still employed where the paper alone is used, without the foil laminate).

In the UK and Ireland, and in some other regions historically accustomed to using British measures, this was traditionally ½lb and 1 lb packs; since metrication, the pack sizes have remained the same because of consumer resistance, but they are labelled as 227g and 454g because EU food labelling law requires the use of metric units. In cooking (recipes), butter is specified and measured by weight only (grams or ounces); although melted butter could be measured by fluid measure (centiliters or fluid ounces), this is rare.

In the remainder of the metricated world, butter is packed and sold in 250g and 500g packs (roughly equivalent to the ½lb and 1 lb measures) and measured for cooking in grams or kilograms.

Butter for commercial and industrial use is packaged in plastic buckets, tubs, or drums, in quantities and units suited to the local market.

In regions where the ambient temperature precludes the unrefrigerated used of butter, it may be available preserved in tins.

Worldwide[link]

In 1997, India produced 1,470,000 metric tons (1,620,000 short tons) of butter, most of which was consumed domestically.^[35] Second in production was the United States (522,000 t/575,000 short tons), followed by France (466,000 t/514,000 short tons), Germany (442,000 t/487,000 short tons), and New Zealand (307,000 t/338,000 short tons). France ranks first in per capita butter consumption with 8 kg per capita per year.^[36] In terms of absolute consumption, Germany was second after India, using 578,000 metric tons (637,000 short tons) of butter in 1997, followed by France (528,000 t/582,000 short tons), Russia (514,000 t/567,000 short tons), and the United States (505,000 t/557,000 short tons). New Zealand, Australia, and the Ukraine are among the few nations that export a significant percentage of the butter they produce.^[37]

Different varieties are found around the world. Smen is a spiced Moroccan clarified butter, buried in the ground and aged for months or years. Yak butter is a speciality in Tibet; tsampa, barley flour mixed with yak butter, is a staple food. Butter tea is consumed in the Himalayan regions of Tibet, Bhutan, Nepal and India. It consists of tea served with intensely flavored—or "rancid"—yak butter and salt. In African and Asian developing nations, butter is traditionally made from sour milk rather than cream. It can take several hours of churning to produce workable butter grains from fermented milk.^[38]

Storage and cooking[link]

Butter curls created with a butter curler

Normal butter softens to a spreadable consistency around 15 °C (60 °F), well above refrigerator temperatures. The "butter compartment" found in many refrigerators may be one of the warmer sections inside, but it still leaves butter quite hard. Until recently, many refrigerators sold in New Zealand featured a "butter conditioner", a compartment kept warmer than the rest of the refrigerator—but still cooler than room temperature—with a small heater.^[39] Keeping butter tightly wrapped delays rancidity, which is hastened by exposure to light or air, and also helps prevent it from picking up other odors. Wrapped butter has a shelf life of several months at refrigerator temperatures.^{[citation needed]}

"French butter dishes" or "Acadian butter dishes" involve a lid with a long interior lip, which sits in a container holding a small amount of water. Usually the dish holds just enough water to submerge the interior lip when the dish is closed. Butter is packed into the lid. The water acts as a seal to keep the butter fresh, and also keeps the butter from overheating in hot temperatures. This allows butter to be safely stored on the countertop for several days without spoilage.

Once butter is softened, spices, herbs, or other flavoring agents can be mixed into it, producing what is called a compound butter or composite butter (sometimes also called composed butter). Compound butters can be used as spreads, or cooled, sliced, and placed onto hot food to melt into a sauce. Sweetened compound butters can be served with desserts; such hard sauces are often flavored with spirits.

Hollandaise sauce served over white asparagus and potatoes.

Melted butter plays an important role in the preparation of sauces, most obviously in French cuisine. Beurre noisette (hazelnut butter) and Beurre noir (black butter) are sauces of melted butter cooked until the milk solids and sugars have turned golden or dark brown; they are often finished with an addition of vinegar or lemon juice. Hollandaise and béarnaise sauces are emulsions of egg yolk and melted butter; they are in essence mayonnaises made with butter instead of oil. Hollandaise and béarnaise sauces are stabilized with the powerful emulsifiers in the egg yolks, but butter itself contains enough emulsifiers—mostly remnants of the fat globule membranes—to form a stable emulsion on its own. Beurre blanc (white butter) is made by whisking butter into reduced vinegar or wine, forming an emulsion with the texture of thick cream. Beurre monté (prepared butter) is melted but still emulsified butter; it lends its name to the practice of "mounting" a sauce with butter: whisking cold butter into any water-based sauce at the end of cooking, giving the sauce a thicker body and a glossy shine—as well as a buttery taste.^[40]

Mixing melted butter with chocolate to make a brownie

In Poland, the butter lamb (Baranek wielkanocny) is a traditional addition to the Easter Meal for many Polish Catholics. Butter is shaped into a lamb either by hand or in a lamb-shaped mould. Butter is also used to make edible decorations to garnish other dishes

Butter is used for sautéing and frying, although its milk solids brown and burn above 150 °C (250 °F)—a rather low temperature for most applications. The smoke point of butterfat is around 200 °C (400 °F), so clarified butter or ghee is better suited to frying.^[13] Ghee has always been a common frying medium in India, where many avoid other animal fats for cultural or religious reasons.

Butter fills several roles in baking, where it is used in a similar manner as other solid fats like lard, suet, or shortening, but has a flavor that may better complement sweet baked goods. Many cookie doughs and some cake batters are leavened, at least in part, by creaming butter and sugar together, which introduces air bubbles into the butter. The tiny bubbles locked within the butter expand in the heat of baking and aerate the cookie or cake. Some cookies like shortbread may have no other source of moisture but the water in the butter. Pastries like pie dough incorporate pieces of solid fat into the dough, which become flat layers of fat when the dough is rolled out. During baking, the fat melts away, leaving a flaky texture. Butter, because of its flavor, is a common choice for the fat in such a dough, but it can be more difficult to work with than shortening because of its low melting point. Pastry makers often chill all their ingredients and utensils while working with a butter dough.

Butter also has many non-culinary, traditional uses which are specific to certain cultures. For instance, in North America, applying butter to the handle of a door is a common prank on April Fools' Day.

Health and nutrition[link]

At the Minnesota State Fair for about 40 years to promote butter over margarine, Linda Christensen has sculpted each Princess Kay of the Milky Way in butter.^[41]

According to USDA figures, one tablespoon of butter (14 grams / 0.5 ounces) contains 420 kilojoules (100 kcal), all from fat, 11 grams (0.4 oz) of fat, of which 7 grams (0.25 oz) are saturated fat, and 30 milligrams (0.46 gr) of cholesterol.^[42]

Commercial butter-making is a carefully controlled operation.

Butter is considered unhealthy^{[by whom?]} unless consumed in moderation, due to consisting of 63% saturated fat and containing high levels of cholesterol, which increases the risk of heart disease. Margarine has been recommended as a substitute^{[by whom?]}, since it is higher in unsaturated fat and contains little or no cholesterol, though it may have higher trans fats instead.^[43]

Proponents of the consumption of butter, such as the nutritionist Mary Enig, state that butter is nutritious, "rich in short and medium chain fatty acids" and can have a positive effect on health and prevent disease.^[44] It is a good source of Vitamin A.

As butter is essentially just the milk fat, it contains only traces of lactose, so moderate consumption of butter is not a problem for the lactose intolerant.^[45] People with milk allergies still need to avoid butter, which contains enough of the allergy-causing proteins to cause reactions.^[46]

Butter may play a useful role in dieting by providing satiety. A small amount added to low fat foods such as vegetables may ward off feelings of hunger.^[44]

Notes[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Butter

Wikibooks Cookbook has a recipe/module on Butter

Look up butter in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Manufacture of butter, The University of Guelph
• "Butter", Food Resource, College of Health and Human Sciences, Oregon State University, February 20, 2007. – FAQ, links, and extensive bibliography of food science articles on butter.
• Cork Butter Museum: the story of Ireland’s most important food export and the world’s largest butter market
• Virtual Museum Exhibit on Milk, Cream & Butter

v t e Butter Beurre blanc Beurre noir Beurre noisette Beurre à la bourguignonne Bog butter Butter (2011 film) Butter churn Butter knife Butter lamb Butter lamp Butter rebellion Butter sculpture Butter tea The ButterCream Gang Buttered cat paradox Butterfat Chicago Butter and Egg Board Churning Clarified butter Compound butter Egg butter French butter dish Ghee Lurpak Manteiga-da-terra Niter kibbeh Paula Deen Scotch hands

A Tribe Called Quest
A Tribe Called Quest
Background information
Origin	St. Albans, Queens, New York, USA
Genres	Alternative hip hop, jazz rap
Years active	1985–1998 2006–present
Labels	Jive
Associated acts	Native Tongues, De La Soul, Jungle Brothers, Black Sheep, J Dilla, Beastie Boys, Leaders of the New School, Busta Rhymes,Pharcyde
Website	atribecalledquest.com
Members
Q-Tip (1988–1998, 2006–present) Phife Dawg (1988–1998, 2006–present) Ali Shaheed Muhammad (1988–1998, 2006–present) Jarobi White (1988–1990, 2006–present)

A Tribe Called Quest is an American hip hop group, formed in 1985, ^[1] and is composed of MC/producer Q-Tip, MC Phife Dawg aka Phife Diggy (Malik Taylor), and DJ/producer Ali Shaheed Muhammad. A fourth member, rapper Jarobi White, left the group after their first album but rejoined in 1991. Along with De La Soul, the group was a central part of the Native Tongues Posse, and enjoyed the most commercial success out of all the groups to emerge from that collective. Their innovative fusing of hip hop and jazz has had a lasting impact on hip hop music, helping to expand the art of hip hop production. Many of their songs, such as "Bonita Applebum", "Can I Kick It?", "I Left My Wallet in El Segundo", "Scenario", "Check the Rhime", "Jazz (We've Got)", "Award Tour" and "Electric Relaxation" are regarded as classics by the hip hop community.

They released five albums between 1990 and 1998. The first three LPs were highly acclaimed, but the group disbanded in 1998. In 2006, the group reunited and toured the U.S., and planned to release an album after some works in the studio. The group is regarded as iconic pioneers of alternative hip hop music, having helped to pave the way for innovative hip hop artists.^[2] John Bush of Allmusic called them "the most intelligent, artistic rap group during the 1990s,"^[3] while the editors of About.com ranked them #4 on their list of the "25 Best Rap Groups of All Time."^[4] In 2005, A Tribe Called Quest received a Special Achievement Award at the Billboard R&B Hip-Hop Awards in Atlanta.^[5] In 2007, the group was formally honored at the 4th VH1 Hip Hop Honors.

Biography[link]

History[link]

Q-Tip and Phife Dawg were childhood friends that grew up together in Queens, New York. Initially, Q-Tip performed as a solo artist (MC Love Child), occasionally teaming up with Muhammad as a rapper/DJ duo. While the duo frequently made demos with Phife (as Crush Connection), the sports enthusiast^[who?] was still courting professional basketball ambitions and remained somewhat reluctant to become a full member of the group. He only later relented after Jarobi also joined, thus making the group a quartet. The group's final name was coined in 1988 by the Jungle Brothers, who attended the same high school as Q-Tip and Muhammad.^[3] Q-Tip made two separate appearances on the Jungle Brothers' classic debut album, Straight Out the Jungle; the songs "Black Is Black" and "In Time", respectively. Afrika Baby Bam of the group introduced Q-Tip to De La Soul when he took the aspiring artist along to a studio session for the recording of the remix for the group's song "Buddy". Produced by Prince Paul, the remix of "Buddy" was to be an all-round Native Tongue affair, and the eccentric producer encouraged Q-Tip to contribute to the now-classic record.

In early 1989 they signed a demo deal with Geffen Records and produced a five song demo which included later album tracks including "Description Of A Fool", "I Left My Wallet in El Segundo" and "Can I Kick It?". Geffen however, decided against offering the group a full-fledged recording contract and the group was granted permission to shop for a deal elsewhere while retaining the Geffen financed songs.

After receiving lucrative offers for multi-album deals from a variety of labels both big and small, the group showed early savvy in opting for a modest deal offered by Jive Records. Jive Records was then known as an independent rap label that specialized in, and owed its success to, building careers of artists like Boogie Down Productions and Too Short, as well as an emphasis on longevity and attention to grass-roots fan bases.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm

In less than a year, and under the management of DJ Red Alert, the group released their first single, "Description of a Fool", to a lukewarm reception, and without a music video in advance of their debut album People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm. Similar to De La Soul's 3 Feet High and Rising, People's Instinctive Travels was marked by a playful lyrical approach (as on the call-and-response inspired "Can I Kick It?"), light-hearted content (safe sex, vegetarianism, youthful experiences), and to a lesser extent, an idiosyncratic sense of humor, free from much of the posturing of both hardcore hip hop, and the more left-wing aspects of conscious hip hop. Also of note, was the album's sample material, largely based around jazzy loops and snippets from artists such as Cannonball Adderley, Roy Ayers, Lou Reed, Rotary Connection, and Les McCann. Through these samples, the group employs the use of horns, Rhodes, bass guitar and vibes.

Although now critically acclaimed, at the time of its inception People's Instinctive Travels was met with mixed enthusiasm. Greg Tate of The Village Voice called the album "upliftingly dope" and "so sweet and lyrical, so user-friendly. You could play it in the background when you're reading Proust." The Source also gave it a positive reception, even awarding it a five-mic rating - the magazine's highest possible rating. It was only the third album ever to receive this rating.^{[citation needed]} However, Chuck Eddy of Rolling Stone wrote that the album "is one of the least danceable rap albums ever" and he went on to say "it's impossible to imagine how people will put this music to use."^[6]

The album largely offended the record buying public, and for the time being the group remained in the shadows of their Native Tongue brethren, Jungle Brothers, and De La Soul. It would gain some momentum only after the release of the singles "Bonita Applebum", "Can I Kick It?", and the group's later commercial success, eventually going gold six years after its release. After the release of the album, Jarobi left the lineup for personal reasons.The group soon changed its management from DJ Red Alert to Chris Lighty.

[edit] The Low End Theory

Following People's Instinctive Travels, the group continued to gather a loyal fan base through touring and guest appearances such as on De La Soul's "A Roller Skating Jam Named "Saturdays"". "Check the Rhyme" was the lead single from the group's landmark second album, The Low End Theory, released on September 24, 1991. Based around a sample from Average White Band's "Love Your Life", the song largely established the now familiar tag-team interplay between Q-Tip and Phife, as until then, most of the group's songs had only featured vocals by Q-Tip.

The two MCs, known for their engaging, and free-wheeling lyrical styles, began to focus on a range of social issues, from date rape ("The Infamous Date Rape") to consumerism ("Skypager"). The songs were noticeably shorter, more abrupt, and bass-heavy. Guests on the album included Leaders of the New School (which included Busta Rhymes), Brand Nubian, and Vinia Mojica. By now, the group had mastered their pursuits of rare records from which to sample or gain ideas and inspiration. Their innovative sampling, layering, and structuring of jazz records led many critics to label their style as jazz rap - a term which Q-Tip disapproved of, as although he felt it described groups such as Stetsasonic quite well, it misinterpreted Tribe themselves, who (aside from the song "Jazz (We've Got)") did not base most of their songs around the topic of jazz.

Helping to gain exposure was a performance of the single "Scenario" with Leaders of the New School on The Arsenio Hall Show at the time, at the height of its popularity. The performance was particularly memorable for the expressive energy of Busta Rhymes, and his famous "raow! raow! Like a dungeon dragon!" line^{[citation needed]}. Around this time, the group also began to make experimental and visually stylish music videos, one of the most memorable of which is the black-and-white promo clip for "Jazz (We've Got)", a duration of which is delegated to the song "Buggin' Out". This part of the video changes from black and white to color, and features the group members wearing prosthetics that make their eyeballs appear to be bulging out, relating to the song's theme about undergoing stressful situations.

Production wise, the album was a more confident effort than their debut, featuring less of a reliance on drum loops, and contributions from jazz great Ron Carter on upright bass. The album was produced by A Tribe Called Quest along with production from Skeff Anselm (co-production by A Tribe Called Quest), on two tracks. Producer Pete Rock also created the original rough draft version for "Jazz (We've Got)", and A Tribe Called Quest then recreated it. In contrast to most of the hip hop albums released in the early 90s, which featured rough beats that run at relatively fast tempos, such as the Bomb Squad-produced Amerikkka's Most Wanted, or the slow menacing funk beats of Dr. Dre's The Chronic, The Low End Theory featured low-key, bass-heavy, and plodding beats which emphasized the pensive nature of the record. The recording sessions and mixing for the album was handled by renown record engineer Bob Power at Greene Street Studios, and Soundtrack Studios, in New York City.

On its release, the album was met with a bevy of praises. Rolling Stone said of the album: "Each time Q-Tip rhymes over Carter's bass lines, the groove just gets deeper."^[7] The publication also named it #154 among the Best 500 Albums of All Time, and also as one of the Essential Recordings of the 90's.^[8] Further praises were given by Spin who listed it among the 90 Greatest Albums of the '90s.^[9] The praises continue to the present day with Allmusic calling it "one of the best hip-hop albums in history", and "a record that sounds better with each listen."^[10] Pop Matters music editor Dave Heaton has this to say about the album:

Anything really worth writing about is nearly indescribable; that's the conundrum of writing about music. Any 30-second snippet of The Low End Theory will go further to convince of the album's greatness than anything I can write. I could easily write an entire book on this one album and still feel like I've hardly said anything. Still, I could do worse things with my time than try to capture even an iota of the enthusiasm I feel each time I play this album. The Low End Theory is a remarkable experience, as aesthetically and emotionally rewarding as any work of music I can think of.

^[11]

Among the accolades awarded to the album were:

• 5 Mic Album award from The Source (1990)
• #2 in Ego Trip's Hip Hop's 25 Greatest Albums by Year 1980-98 (1999)
• #53 in Blender's 100 Greatest American Albums of All time (2002)
• #56 in Pitchfork Media's Top 100 Favorite Records of the 1990s (2003)
• #154 in Rolling Stone's Best 500 Albums of All Time (2003)
• Spin Magazine
  • #32 in Top 90 Albums of the 90s (1999)
  • #38 in Top 100 Albums of the Last 20 Years (2005)
  • #87 in 100 Alternative Albums (1995)

Propelled by "Scenario", and positive word of mouth, The Low End Theory performed very well on the charts, being RIAA-certified gold on February 19, 1992 (it reached platinum status by 1995). It exceeded all expectations, most of all for an album that offered little to no concessions towards the mainstream. In the aftermath of their unqualified success, the group once again hit the road and contributed the song "Hot Sex" to the soundtrack for the Eddie Murphy vehicle Boomerang, in 1992.

Interrupting the proceedings was an encounter with new jack swing group Wreckx-N-Effect (W-N-E), who had taken an exception to some lines in the song "Jazz (We've Got)". Viewed as a premier new jack swing group, W-N-E had misinterpreted the following couplets by Phife as a sideway diss:

I'm all into my music cuz it's how I make papes

Tryin' to make hits, like Kid Capri mix tapes

Me sweat another? I do my own thing

Strictly hardcore tracks, not a new jack swing

The misunderstanding resulted in a melee in which Q-Tip sustained an injury to one of his eyes. Thus, during the shooting of the promo clip for "Hot Sex", he wore a ski mask to cover up the abrasion. Soon after, Q-Tip was chosen to play the part of Markell, Janet Jackson's ill-fated partner, in the John Singleton-directed drama Poetic Justice, which also starred Tupac Shakur. The minor part would nevertheless showcase Q-Tip's natural flair for acting and he would later receive offers for more diverse supporting roles. This film also allowed for a friendship to blossom between Q-Tip and Jackson, and the pair would go on to collaborate on her song "Got 'Til It's Gone", from her album The Velvet Rope, in 1997.

During the ascendancy of ATCQ, other Native Tongue members were experiencing career-lows. The Jungle Brothers, once the trailblazers of the collective, were now becoming disaffected with their label due to the under-promotion of their previous effort. In addition, they distanced themselves from the collective, and their music began to lean towards the emerging, European-influenced trip hop sub-genre. However, ATCQ appeared to be maintaining an ongoing relationship with De La Soul.

[edit] Midnight Marauders

Trugoy of De La Soul appeared on the refrain of "Award Tour", the group's lead single from their third album Midnight Marauders, released on November 9, 1993. Coming on the heels of The Low End Theory, the album was highly anticipated and many were anxious to see if the group could maintain their artistic integrity in light of their commercial success. Boosted by their raised profile, "Award Tour" became the group's highest charting single to date, and helped to land the album within the US Top Ten. The critics proved to be as enthusiastic about the new set as the fans were. Entertainment Weekly said the album "sounds as fresh as their first... rappers Phife and Q-Tip manage to hold attention without resorting to gun references or expletives..."^[12] NME called it their "most complete work to date"^[12] Likewise, Melody Maker said "A Tribe Called Quest have expanded their vision with a lyrical gravitas and a musical lightness of touch that has hitherto eluded them across a whole album".^[12] The album was voted #21 by The Village Voice in that year's Pazz & Jop Critics Poll.^[12]

Musically, Midnight Marauders built upon many of the ideas that were present on The Low End Theory, although the results were noticeably different, and the music was more immediate. Whereas Theory had been an exercise in subdued minimalism, and simplicity, the grooves found on Marauders are mostly up tempo, and full of charging drums, suave basslines, melodious riffs, complementary horns, and catchy hooks, all delivered in an efficient 50 minute time frame. The intermittent voice of a tour guide (the titular 'midnight marauder') also serves to add further cohesion to the album.

The group was now famous for their unique choices of sample material on their albums and Midnight Marauders was no exception. Lead single "Award Tour" contained an infectiously sunny loop taken from Weldon Irvine's "We Gettin' Down". Irvine, a little known but well-respected jazz virtuoso was enthused to have been sought by the group and lent his assistance towards the sampling of the song. Another outside musician to contribute to the record was Raphael Saadiq (credited as Raphael Wiggins) of Tony! Toni! Toné!, on the song "Midnight". Aside from the aforementioned, producers Large Professor, and Skeff Anselm handled two tracks - "Keep It Rollin'" and "8 Million Stories" respectively, the former also rapping over his production.

Lyrically, the album benefited from an even more confident duo in Phife Dawg and Q-Tip, whose nimble verbal interplay is utilized to its fullest on songs like "Electric Relaxation" and "Oh My God". Opening song "Steve Biko (Stir It Up)" - which includes the lines "You know that I'm the rebel, throwin' out the wicked like God did the Devil" - is named after the slain South African human rights activist and political revolutionary Steve Biko. Some of the other topics on the album are police harassment and nocturnal activity ("Midnight"), religious faith ("God Lives Through"), and hip hop itself, as on the song "We Can Get Down" where Phife asks:

How can a reverend preach, when a rev can't define

The music of our youth from 1979

We rap about what we see, meaning reality

From people bustin' caps and like Mandela being free

Not every MC be with the negativity

We have a slew of rappers pushin' positivity

Another song, the sometimes controversial "Sucka Nigga", deals with the candid use of the word "nigga". In the song, Q-Tip notes the negative purpose of the word but subsequently emphasizes its subjective nature when he says:

It means that we will never grow, you know the word dummy

Other niggas in the community think its crummy

But I don't, neither does the youth cause we

Em-brace adversity it goes right with the race

And being that we use it as a term of endearment

Niggas start to bug to the dome as where the fear went

The three singles for the album received memorable music videos, such as the one for second single "Electric Relaxation" which was shot in black and white, and takes place mostly in a diner. The song was the cause of an amusing mystery, as few people were certain of what is said during the hook, which is more or less mumbled out by Q-Tip (although there is now a consensus that the words are "relax yourself girl, please settle down"). The third single to be released was "Oh My God", the video for which showed the group in a neighborhood setting and surrounded by young fans. It also included a cameo by a typically manic Busta Rhymes. The group performed as one of a handful of rap acts at the 1994 Lollapalooza Festival, among acts such as The Smashing Pumpkins, Stereolab and The Verve.

Intermission and The Ummah[link]

Midnight Marauders remains A Tribe Called Quest's fastest-selling album; it was certified platinum on January 11, 1995, less than two years after its release (it had taken The Low End Theory about twice the amount of time to get such a certification). The album's success allowed the group a greater financial freedom and the members took a short break before the recording of their next album began. Q-Tip produced several tracks for other artists including "One Love" for Nas, "Illusions (Remix)" for Cypress Hill, and three tracks on the Mobb Deep album The Infamous. He also went through a religious awakening and converted to Islam. Tragedy would strike when an improperly disposed cigarette at a house party escalated into a full-blown fire, burning down his home, a vast record collection, and many works in progress. Friends and producers like Pete Rock and Large Professor helped him building up a record collection by donating records to him.

Phife, who rapped on "Oh My God" that he owned "more condoms than TLC", made cameo appearances on that group's hugely successful album, Crazy Sexy Cool, in 1994. He would also marry his fiancee and relocate to Atlanta, Georgia.

Ali Shaheed Muhammad worked on outside projects with artists such as D'Angelo (Brown Sugar), Shaquille O'Neal ("Where Ya At?"), and Gil Scott-Heron ("Don't Give Up"). The group contributed to The Show soundtrack in 1995, before returning the following year with their fourth album.

While on tour, Q-Tip's friend Amp Fiddler would introduce him to a young producer from Detroit named Jay Dee. The pair clicked immediately and Q-Tip took the talented newcomer under his wing, and introduced him to the rest of Tribe, who agreed to the idea of forming a production unit and having Jay Dee as member, albeit under the guise of "The Ummah" (Arabic for "the [worldwide] Muslim community"). The Ummah would now handle all the production on the rest of the group's albums, although they would credit the production crew whether a song was a team effort by the three or a solo work from one of the producers. This was also the case for remixes and outside production the three members worked on during the few years The Ummah was active.

[edit] Beats, Rhymes and Life

Beats, Rhymes and Life, the group's fourth album, was recorded during the turbulent East Coast-West Coast hip hop rivalry, which engulfed many rappers from both coasts and even some from in between. The group saw it fit to address these issues, a decision based partly on principle, but also probably based on the fact that, despite being from the East, they were well respected on both coasts. Cuts like "Get A Hold", and "Keep It Moving" contain references to the state of affairs, and are some of the most sober songs the group has ever recorded.

In addition to the heavier subject matter, The Ummah's production style was now a smoother (but darker) hybrid of the group's previous incarnations, where the snare possessed a much sharper crack on most tracks. Jay Dee, a big fan of the Tribe, appeared to have had a hand in re-shaping the sound, charting new rhythmic territory with songs like "Keep It Moving", or "Wordplay". While these new beats fit the album's direction, another ingredient left many puzzled. Consequence, Q-Tip's cousin, and an aspiring rapper, was present on no less than six songs, including the second single "Stressed Out", which caused only Consequence to think he had been officially added to the lineup. This factor only magnified Phife's slightly reduced participation. After their breakup, Phife Dawg would reveal how he had begun to lose interest in recording as a part of the group by the fourth album:

I really felt like with Midnight Marauders I came into my own. By the time when Beats, Rhymes and Life came out I started feelin' like I didn't fit in any more. Q-Tip and Ali had converted to Islam and I didn't. Music felt like a job; like I was just doin' it to pay bills. I never want my music to feel like just a job. They would schedule studio time at the last minute. I'd catch a plane from Atlanta to be in New York and when I got to the studio, no one would be there. They would have canceled the session without telling me. Seemed like the management was concerned with other folks not me. But I never lost my confidence.

^[13]

The album shot straight to #1 in the charts and went gold by the end of the year; it would go platinum by 1998. It was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rap Album, as was the lead single, "1nce Again", which received a nomination for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group. Critical reactions were largely divided but mostly positive. While some welcomed the new material, others found it to be a step below their past work. Rolling Stone called it "near-flawless", going on to say that "few hip-hop acts have so sharply captured the surreal quality that defines what it means to be African-American, a quality in which poker-faced humor and giddy tragedy play tag team with reality."^[14] The Source awarded it 4 out of 5 mics and called The Ummah "the most proficient in the rap game at using samples as instruments in themselves".^[14] Despite his apparent lack of motivation Spin thought Phife sounded "tougher and more playful than ever", while Melody Maker saw the album as "providing both their best and worst thus far", and "magnetic yet frustrating".^[14] In a 1998 farewell article in The Source, Questlove, drummer for The Roots, summarized the album's partially frosty reception:

1996 was full of memories whose soundtracks were more "gonna make you dance", whereas Tribe wanted "to make you think". Funny how if this was any other group there would be accolades galore. But by this time most attitudes were, "if Tribe ain't moving the world with each release, then we won't stand for nothing less."

Following Beats, Rhymes and Life, the group appeared on the Men in Black soundtrack with the song "Same Ol' Thing", and released, The Jam, a 4-track EP which included the aforementioned song, "Mardi Gras At Midnight" (with Rah Digga) and two songs from Beats, Rhymes and Life, "Get A Hold" and "Jam". 1997 also saw the first coming together of the three main Native Tongue groups since 1989, when the Jungle Brothers invited both Tribe and De La Soul to guest on "How Ya Want It We Got It", a cut from their album Raw Deluxe. The Ummah continued producing for a diverse range of artists such as Janet Jackson, Keith Murray, Faith Evans, and Whitney Houston.

[edit] The Love Movement and split

Prior to the unveiling of The Love Movement, the group announced that it would be their last album together. Fans were surprised, as the breakdown had been kept discreet. In an interview with The Source, the group cited their frustration with Jive Zomba as a significant factor in the breakup. Phife:

I felt like I was happy to be on, of course. It took me a minute to latch on to the business side of things, 'cause it was just a happy-go-lucky time. And then eventually, as time went on, it started to slap me in my face. But as far as record labels, or whoever, they're not gonna do us right... As far as our label, I really have no comment, duke.

The Love Movement was preceded by the fun-spirited "Find a Way"; a song memorable for its swirly otherworldly production and catchy staccato hook. It also received a stylish Paul Hunter-directed music video (the last video the group ever made). Musically, the somewhat somber tone of the previous album was largely absent and replaced by a familiar carefree optimism. Tracks like "Give Me", with Noreaga exemplify the group's approach for much of the album. Driven by a pulsing beat, the opening song "Start It Up" was perhaps even more minimal than anything found on The Low End Theory. Likewise, "Against The World" relies on little more than crisply mixed down drums and a two note bassline. The theme of the album was firmly focused around the topic of love; love for oneself, love for another, love for mankind, love in the face of hate.

Critical reception for The Love Movement was fairly positive, although some factions viewed the album as too subtle to be thoroughly effective. Rolling Stone, for example, remarked that "the mature, accomplished niceness of The Love Movement proves that the Tribe still have the skills – they're just short on thrills."^[15] The album was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rap Album, in 1999.

Solo ventures[link]

Q-Tip[link]

Under the management of Violator, Q-Tip launched a successful solo career, which saw two sizable hits ("Vivrant Thing", and "Breathe and Stop"), and the Gold-certified album Amplified, released in 1999. Some saw Q-Tip's arguably radio-friendly material as pandering to the mainstream; something his former group was highly respected for avoiding during their run. The album was produced by Q-Tip and Jay Dee (as The Ummah), and DJ Scratch.

After Amplified, Q-Tip changed directions and recorded 2002's Kamaal the Abstract, an album which saw him in the role of singer and bandleader. Unlike his work with Tribe, or even his own solo work, Kamaal was constructed around live music, and "abstract" song concepts, all orchestrated by Q-Tip himself. Unfortunately, Arista Records refused to release the album, fearing it would be unmarketable coming from a rapper. Undeterred, Q-Tip recorded 2005's Open, a slightly more accessible album, featuring contributions from André 3000, Common, and D'Angelo. Once again, the record was rejected by Arista, after which Q-Tip left the label. He subsequently signed to Motown/Universal and released the largely self-produced The Renaissance in late 2008.^[16]

Phife Dawg[link]

Ironically, the most notable of Q-Tip's critics was Phife, who took his former partner to task on his solo album Ventilation: Da LP, released in 2000. The Hi-Tek-produced lead single, "Flawless", contained the lines "Go 'head, play yourself with them ho-like hooks / sing ballads if it's all about the Maxwell look" (Maxwell was one of the founding fathers of neosoul). Ventilation also included production by Jay Dee and Pete Rock. Q-Tip and Phife soon patched up their differences. Since then, Phife, who is diabetic, has maintained a relatively low-profile whilst recording his long delayed follow-up album, Songs In The Key Of Phife: Volume 1 (Cheryl's Big Son).

Ali Shaheed Muhammad[link]

Teaming up with two other artists from former groups, Raphael Saadiq of Tony! Toni! Toné!, and Dawn Robinson of En Vogue, Ali Shaheed's next project was the "supergroup" Lucy Pearl. The group scored a huge hit single with "Dance Tonight", and a warm hit with "Don't Mess With My Man", and their one and only self-titled album was certified Gold a few months after its release in 2000. Following a dispute between Saadiq and Robinson, the latter left the group and was replaced by Joi, however this new incarnation would only last for the remainder of touring. Ali Shaheed then focused on developing a stable of artists, most of whom were showcased on his debut solo album Shaheedullah and Stereotypes, released independently in 2004.

Reunion[link]

The group first reunited on November 13, 2004, headlining the Rock the Bells concert held in the Angels Stadium parking lot in Anaheim, California. This was the night that Ol' Dirty Bastard died, and as such the group opened up with a 10-minute tribute set to the Wu-Tang Clan and continued a 2-hour highly energetic show.

In 2006, the group reunited and performed several sold-out concerts in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. A Tribe Called Quest was a co-headliner at the 2006 Bumbershoot festival in Seattle, but have not announced any plans to release a new album. The group is also appearing in 2K Sports' Bounce Tour promoting the NBA 2K7 game and a remix of their song, "Lyrics to Go", which is included in the game. According to Phife, ATCQ plans to release an album since they owe Jive Records one more in their six album contract. The date of its release is still unconfirmed, and Phife has urged fans to hold on as the group does not wish to release an LP which might damage their reputation. Speaking about the possibility of a new album showing up soon, Phife said:

Man, we was only 18-19 when we first got started. [When] We broke up we were still like 28. Now we are 35-36. It'd be real different being in the studio. It would be real interesting to see where Q-Tip is. It would all be on a much higher level. But we are all into such different stuff from way back then. We’d need at least a solid month to work on something. Trying to get all of us together for that much time… I don’t see that happening.

^[13]

ATCQ was the headlining act in 2008 at the Rock the Bells series of concerts,^[17] and were also co-headliners on the 2010 Rock the Bells festival series, alongside Snoop Dogg and Wu-Tang Clan.

Film[link]

The group was the subject of a 2011 documentary entitled Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest, directed by Michael Rapaport.

Discography[link]

Albums[link]

• 1990: People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm
• 1991: The Low End Theory
• 1993: Midnight Marauders
• 1996: Beats, Rhymes and Life
• 1998: The Love Movement

Compilations[link]

• 1992: Revised Quest for the Seasoned Traveller
• 1999: The Anthology
• 2003: Hits, Rarities & Remixes
• 2006: The Lost Tribes

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: A Tribe Called Quest

• A Tribe Called Quest - Official site
• A Tribe Called Quest at Jive Records
• A Tribe Called Quest at Discogs

John Lydon
John Lydon in 2011
Background information
Birth name	John Joseph Lydon
Also known as	Johnny Rotten
Born	(1956-01-31) 31 January 1956 (age 56) London, England, UK
Genres	Punk rock, post-punk, experimental rock, noise rock, alternative rock
Occupations	Musician, singer-songwriter
Instruments	Vocals, saxophone, guitar, bass guitar, violin, stroh violin, synthesizer, keyboards
Years active	1975–present
Associated acts	Sex Pistols, Public Image Ltd., Leftfield

John Joseph Lydon (born 31 January 1956), also known by the former stage name Johnny Rotten, is a singer-songwriter and television presenter, best known as the lead singer of punk rock band the Sex Pistols from 1975 until 1978, and again for various revivals during the 1990s and 2000s. He is the lead singer of the post-punk band Public Image Ltd, which he founded and fronted from 1978 until 1993, and again from 2009. Throughout his career, Lydon has made controversial or dismissive comments about the royal family and other subjects. There has been a recent revival of a 1980s movement to have Lydon knighted for his achievements with the Sex Pistols. Q Magazine remarked that "somehow he's assumed the status of national treasure."^[1]

Lydon's personally crafted image and fashion style led to him being asked to become the singer of the Sex Pistols by their manager, Malcolm McLaren. With the Pistols, he penned singles including "Anarchy in the U.K.", "God Save the Queen" and "Holidays in the Sun", the content of which precipitated the "last and greatest outbreak of pop-based moral pandemonium" in Britain.^[2] The band caused nationwide uproar in much of the media, who objected to the content of Lydon’s lyrics, and their antics, which included swearing on live television, in which Steve Jones called Bill Grundy a "fucking rotter". Due to the band's appearance in the media, Lydon was largely seen as the figurehead of the punk movement in the public image^[3] although this idea was not widely supported amongst the punk movement itself. Despite the negative reaction that they provoked, they are now regarded as one of the most influential acts in the history of popular music.^[4][5]

Lydon left the Pistols in 1978 to found his own band, Public Image Ltd, that was far more experimental in nature, and which has been described as "arguably the first post-rock group".^[6] Although never as commercially successful as the Pistols, the band produced eight albums and a string of singles, including "Public Image", "Death Disco", and "Rise", before they went on hiatus in 1993, reforming in 2009. In subsequent years, Lydon hosted a number of television shows in the UK, US and Belgium, as well as writing an autobiography, Rotten: No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs (1993), and producing some solo musical work, such as the album Psycho's Path (1997).

Biography[link]

Early life: 1956–1974[link]

Lydon was born in London on 31 January 1956.^[7] His parents, John Christopher and Eileen (née Barry) Lydon, were working class immigrants from Ireland, and moved into a two-room Victorian flat with an outdoor toilet in Benwell Road, in the Holloway area of North London. At the time, the area was largely impoverished, with a high crime rate and a population comprised predominantly of working class Irish and Jamaican migrants. Lydon spent Summer holidays in his mother's native County Cork, where he also allegedly suffered abuse and name-calling for having an English accent, a prejudice he claims he still receives today even though he travels under an Irish passport.^[8] John was the eldest of four brothers, and as the eldest, he had to look after his siblings due to his mother's regular illnesses.^[9] As a child, he lived on the edge of an industrial estate, and would often play with friends in the factories when they were closed. He belonged to a local gang of neighbourhood kids, and would often end up in fights with other groups, something he would later look back on with fond memories: "Hilarious fiascoes, not at all like the knives and guns of today. The meanness wasn't there. It was more like yelling, shouting, throwing stones, and running away giggling. Maybe the reality was coloured by my youth."^[10] Describing himself as a "very shy" and "very retiring" kid who was "nervous as hell", he hated going to school, where he would get caned as punishment and where he "had several embarrassing incidents… I would shit my pants and be too scared to ask the teacher to leave the class. I'd sit there in a pants load of poo all day long."^[11]

When he was seven years old he contracted spinal meningitis and was hospitalised for a whole year in St. Anne's Hospital in Highgate. Throughout the entire experience he suffered from hallucinations, nausea and headaches, whilst the treatments administered by the nurses involved drawing fluid out of his spine with a surgical needle, something that left him with a permanent spinal curvature. The meningitis was also responsible for giving him what he would later describe as the "Lydon stare", and for him, this experience was "the first step that put me on the road to Rotten".^[12]

With his father often away on work, employed variously on building sites or oil rigs, Lydon got his first job aged 10 as a minicab dispatcher, something he kept up for a year whilst the family was in financial difficulty.^[13] He disliked his secondary school, the Sir William of York Catholic School in Islington, where initially he was bullied, but aged around 14 or 15 he "broke out of the mold" and began to fight back at what he saw as the oppressive nature of the school teachers, whom he felt instigated and encouraged the kids to all be the same and be "anti-anyone-who-doesn't-quite-fit-the-mold."^[14] Following the completion of his O-levels at school, he got into a row with his father, who disliked Lydon's long hair, and so, agreeing to get it cut, the teenager not only had it cut, but in an act of rebellion dyed it bright green.^[15] Growing up as a teenager, he listened mostly to rock bands like Hawkwind, Captain Beefheart, Alice Cooper and Iggy and the Stooges – bands his mother also used to like, a fact which somewhat embarrassed him – as well as more mainstream groups like T. Rex and Gary Glitter.^[16]

Aged 15, he was kicked out of the school after a run in with a teacher, and subsequently went to another state school, Hackney and Kingsway Princeton College, where he befriended John Simon Ritchie, who in later years would become better known as Sid Vicious. It was Lydon who gave him this nickname, after his parents' pet hamster.^[18] Lydon and Vicious began squatting in a house in the wealthy Hampstead area with a group of ageing hippies and stopped bothering to go to college, which was often far away from where they were living.^[19] Meanwhile, he began working on building sites during the summer, employment that his father was able to help him with. He also got a job at a children's play centre in Finsbury Park after friends had recommended him for the job. It was here that he taught woodwork to some of the older children, but he was eventually fired after parents complained that somebody "weird" with bright green hair was teaching their children.^[20] Lydon and his friends, including Vicious, John Gray, Jah Wobble, Dave Crowe and Tony Purcell, began going to many of the London clubs, such as the Lacey Lady in Ilford, and also frequented both reggae and gay clubs, the latter of which he enjoyed because in them "you could be yourself, nobody bothered you".^[21]

1975–1978: Sex Pistols and the punk movement[link]

In 1975, Lydon was among a group of youths who regularly hung around Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood's fetish clothing shop SEX. McLaren had returned from a brief stint travelling with American protopunk band the New York Dolls, and he was working on promoting a new band formed by Steve Jones, Glen Matlock and Paul Cook called The Sex Pistols. McLaren was impressed with Lydon's ragged look and unique sense of style, particularly his orange hair and modified Pink Floyd T-shirt (with the band members' eyes scratched out and the words I Hate scrawled in felt-tip pen above the band's logo). After tunelessly singing Alice Cooper's "I'm Eighteen" to the accompaniment of the shop's jukebox, Lydon was chosen as the band's frontman.^[22]

In 1977, the band released "God Save the Queen" during the week of Queen Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee. At the time, August 1977, Lydon commented –

^{[clarification needed][23]}

Lydon was also interested in dub music. McLaren was said to have been upset when Lydon revealed during a radio interview that his influences included progressive experimentalists like Magma, Can, Captain Beefheart and Van der Graaf Generator.^[24]

Tensions between Lydon and bassist Glen Matlock arose. The reasons for this are disputed, but Lydon claimed in his autobiography that he believed Matlock to be too white-collar and middle-class and that Matlock was "always going on about nice things like the Beatles". Matlock stated in his own autobiography that most of the tension in the band, and between himself and Lydon, were orchestrated by McLaren. Matlock quit and as a replacement, Lydon recommended his school friend John Simon Ritchie. Although Ritchie was an incompetent musician, McLaren agreed that he had the look the band wanted: pale, emaciated, spike-haired, with ripped clothes and a perpetual sneer. Rotten dubbed him "Sid Vicious" as a joke, taking the name from his pet hamster, named Sid the Vicious. During a brief meeting on 12 August 1977 in CBGB's according to Kit and Morgan Benson's biography, Ritchie got his name after Sid the hamster bit him on his hand, and he exclaimed: "Sid is really vicious!"^[25]

Vicious' chaotic relationship with girlfriend Nancy Spungen, and his worsening heroin addiction, caused a great deal of friction among the band members, particularly with Lydon, whose sarcastic remarks often exacerbated the situation. Lydon closed the final Sid Vicious-era Sex Pistols concert in San Francisco's Winterland in January 1978 with a rhetorical question to the audience: "Ever get the feeling you've been cheated?" Shortly thereafter, McLaren, Jones, and Cook went to Brazil to meet and record with former train robber Ronnie Biggs. Lydon declined to go, deriding the concept as a whole and feeling that they were attempting to make a hero out of a criminal who attacked a train driver and stole "working-class money".^{[citation needed]}

The Sex Pistols' disintegration was documented in Julian Temple's satirical pseudo-biographical film, The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle, in which Jones, Cook and Vicious each played a character. Matlock only appeared in previously-recorded live footage and as an animation and did not participate personally. Lydon refused to have anything to do with The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle, feeling that McLaren had far too much control over the project. Although Lydon was highly critical of the film, many years later he agreed to let Temple direct the Sex Pistols documentary The Filth and the Fury. That film included new interviews with the band members' faces hidden in silhouette. It featured an uncharacteristically emotional Lydon choking up as he discussed Vicious' decline and death. Lydon denounced previous journalistic works regarding the Sex Pistols in the introduction to his autobiography, Rotten – No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs, which he described as "as close to the truth as one can get".^[26]

[edit] 1978–1993: Public Image Limited, Time Zone and Copkiller

This section of a biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (September 2008)

John Lydon, 1986

In 1978, Lydon formed the post-punk outfit Public Image Limited (PiL). PiL lasted for 14 years with Lydon as the only consistent member. The group enjoyed some early critical acclaim for its 1979 album, Metal Box (a.k.a. Second Edition), and influenced many bands of the later industrial movement. The band was lauded for its innovation and rejection of traditional musical forms. Musicians citing their influence have ranged from the Red Hot Chili Peppers to Massive Attack.^{[citation needed]}

The first lineup of the band included bassist Jah Wobble and former Clash guitarist Keith Levene. They released the albums Public Image (also known as First Issue), Metal Box and Paris in the Spring (live). Wobble then left and Lydon and Levene made The Flowers of Romance. Then came This Is What You Want...This Is What You Get featuring Martin Atkins on drums (he had also appeared on Metal Box and The Flowers of Romance); it featured their biggest hit, "This Is Not A Love Song", which hit No. 5 in 1983.

In 1983, Lydon co-starred with Harvey Keitel in the movie thriller Corrupt, a.k.a. Copkiller and The Order of Death. While the film was generally panned, Lydon won some praise for his role as a psychotic rich boy. Lydon would act again occasionally after that, such as a very small role in the 2000 film, The Independent, and as the host of the skateboard film, Sorry, featuring the Flip Skate Team.

In 1984, Lydon worked with Time Zone on their best-known single, "World Destruction". A collaboration between Lydon, Afrika Bambaataa and producer/bassist Bill Laswell, the single was an early example of "rap rock", along with Run-DMC. The song appears on Afrika Bambaataa's 1997 compilation album, Zulu Groove. It was arranged by Laswell after Lydon and Bambaataa had acknowledged respect for each others' work, as described in an interview from 1984:

Afrika Bambaataa: "I was talking to Bill Laswell saying I need somebody who's really crazy, man, and he thought of John Lydon. I knew he was perfect because I'd seen this movie that he'd made (Corrupt, a.k.a. Copkiller and The Order of Death), I knew about all the Sex Pistols and Public Image stuff, so we got together and we did a smashing crazy version, and a version where he cussed the Queen something terrible, which was never released."

John Lydon: "We went in, put a drum beat down on the machine and did the whole thing in about four-and-a-half hours. It was very, very quick."^[27]

The single also featured Bernie Worrell, Nicky Skopelitis and Aïyb Dieng, all of whom would later play on PiL's Album; Laswell also played bass and produced. In 1986 Public Image Limited released Album (also known as Compact Disc and Cassette). Most of the tracks on this album were written by Lydon and Bill Laswell. The musicians were session musicians including bassist Jonas Hellborg, guitarist Steve Vai and Cream drummer Ginger Baker. Like the previous album, this also featured a hit, the anti-apartheid anthem "Rise". The band's performance on the dance/concert TV show American Bandstand saw Lydon giving up on lip synching not long into the performance and dancing with audience members instead.^{[citation needed]}

In 1987 a new lineup was formed consisting of Lydon, former Magazine, Siouxsie & The Banshees and The Armoury Show guitarist John McGeoch, Allan Dias on bass guitar in addition to drummer Bruce Smith and Lu Edmunds. This lineup released Happy? and all except Lu Edmunds released the album 9 in 1989. In 1992 Lydon, Dias and McGeoch were joined by Curt Bisquera on drums and Gregg Arreguin on rhythm guitar for the album That What Is Not. This album also features the Tower of Power on two songs and Jimmie Wood on harmonica. Lydon, McGeoch and Dias also wrote the song "Criminal" for the movie Point Break. After this album, in 1993, Lydon put PiL on indefinite hiatus.

1993–2006: solo album, autobiography and celebrity status[link]

In 1993, Lydon's first autobiography, Rotten: No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs, was published. Aided by Keith and Kent Zimmerman, and featuring contributions from figures including Paul Cook, Chrissie Hynde, Billy Idol and Don Letts, the work covered his life up until the collapse of the Sex Pistols. Describing the book, he stated that it "is as close to the truth as one can get, looking back on events from the inside. All the people in this book were actually there, and this book is as much their point of view as it is mine. This means contradictions and insults have not been edited, and neither have the compliments, if any. I have no time for lies or fantasy, and neither should you. Enjoy or die."^[28] In December 2005, Lydon told Q that he is working on a second autobiography to cover the PiL years.^[1]

In the mid-1990s, Lydon hosted Rotten Day, a daily syndicated US radio feature written by George Gimarc. The format of the show was a look back at events in popular music and culture occurring on the particular broadcast calendar date about which Lydon would offer cynical commentary. The show was originally developed as a radio vehicle for Gimarc's book, Punk Diary 1970–79, but after bringing Lydon onboard it was expanded to cover notable events from most of the second half of the 20th century.

In 1997 Lydon released a solo album on Virgin Records called Psycho's Path. He wrote all the songs and played all the instruments. In one song, "Sun", he sang the vocals through a toilet roll.^[29] It did not sell particularly well and received mixed reviews from critics. The US version included a Chemical Brothers remix of the song "Open Up" by Leftfield with vocals by Lydon. This song is heard during the title menu of the computer game All Star Baseball 2000 (Acclaim Entertainment). The song was also a club hit in the US and a big hit in England. John Lydon has recorded a second solo-album but it has not been released. One song from the album was released on The Best of British £1 Notes.

In November 1997, Lydon appeared on Judge Judy fighting a suit filed by his former tour drummer Robert Williams for breach of contract, assault and battery.^[30] Lydon won the case, although Judge Judy Sheindlin was not overly impressed with Lydon's antics and told him to keep quiet several times.

In 2000, Lydon hosted Rotten TV, a short-lived show on VH1. The show offered his acerbic commentary on American politics and pop culture. In one segment he attempted to take Neil Young to task for not appearing on the show, making fun of Young's singing style and pointing out that Young had once proclaimed Johnny Rotten "the king" in the song "Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black)".

In 2003 Lydon appeared as a panelist on an episode of Richard Belzer's ill-fated conspiracy-themed panel show, The Belzer Connection. The episode in question posed the query, "Was there a conspiracy involved in the death of Princess Diana?" For his part, Lydon responded to suggestions of British Royal Family involvement by proclaiming "If the Royal Family was going to assassinate someone, they would have gotten rid of me a long time ago." The series ran for only two episodes.^{[citation needed]}

In January 2004, Lydon appeared on the British reality television programme, I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!, which took place in Australia. He proved he still had the capability to shock by calling the show's viewers "fucking cunts" during a live broadcast. The television regulator and ITV, the channel broadcasting the show, between them received 91 complaints about Lydon's language.^[31]

In a February 2004 interview with the Scottish Sunday Mirror, Lydon said that he and his wife "should be dead", since on 21 December 1988, thanks to delays caused by his wife's packing, they missed the doomed Pan Am Flight 103.^[32] During this interview, Lydon said that the real reason for him leaving Get Me Out of Here! was his fear over the Pan Am incident and the "appalling" refusal of the programme makers to let him know whether his wife had arrived safely in Australia. In an interview previous to the show's first episode, he had described it as "moronic", and throughout the show's run he had displayed an indifferent attitude to staying and threatened to walk out on numerous occasions. Thirty hours following ex-football star Neil Ruddock's departure, Lydon left the show for unclear reasons, although he had been very visibly angry both to and about fellow star Jordan. British newspapers claimed that Lydon had won a £100 bet with Ruddock over who would stay in the longest. Lydon, however, stated on air that he felt he would win outright and that it would be unfair to the other celebrities for him to win.

After I'm a Celebrity..., he presented a documentary about insects and spiders called John Lydon's Megabugs that was shown on the Discovery Channel.^[33] Radio Times described him as "more an enthusiast than an expert". He went to present two further programmes: John Lydon Goes Ape in which he searched for gorillas in Central Africa, and John Lydon's Shark Attack in which he swam with sharks off South Africa.

In 2005, he appeared in Reynebeau & Rotten, a five episode documentary on Canvas, the cultural channel of the Flemish public broadcaster VRT, in which Lydon guided Belgian journalist Marc Reynebeau through Great Britain in a chauffeured Rolls Royce, having a go at things typically 'British'. When asked why he was chosen as a guide, he answered that he was the cheapest one available. After the show had been broadcast, Lydon claimed in an interview with the popular Belgian magazine HUMO that he was very unhappy with the way they handled post-production and was very angry with the way they depicted him in this particular show. He claimed that the creators mainly showed his humorous, sometimes clownish antics, instead of focusing on his personal opinions and arguably philosophical conversations he had with Marc Reynebeau. Lydon was reportedly infuriated that the production company used songs from the Sex Pistols' catalogue, without consulting all the remaining members of the band, including him.^{[citation needed]}

Lydon broadcast a short pod on Current TV in which he critiqued The Doors' keyboardist Ray Manzarek's previously broadcast pod. Manzarek's advice to young people had been to "fuck your brains out." He emphasised this especially for 25-year-old women, saying that "it won't last." Lydon had several choice words for Manzarek and told young people that the best thing they could do was get an education because knowledge is free. In late 2008 Lydon appeared in an advertising campaign for "Country Life", a popular brand of butter, on British television. Lydon was widely mocked as a sell-out for this move.^[34]

Lydon defended the move by stating that the main reason he accepted the offer was to raise money to reform Public Image Limited from the ground-up without a record deal. The advertising campaign proved to be highly successful, with sales of the brand raising 85% in the quarter following, which many in the media attributed to Lydon's presence in the advert.^[35]

2006–2009: Sex Pistols revival[link]

John Lydon (2008)

Although Lydon spent years furiously denying that the Sex Pistols would ever perform together again, the band re-united (with Matlock returning on bass) in the 1990s, and continues to perform occasionally. In 2004, Lydon publicly refused to allow the Rhino record label to include any Sex Pistols songs on its box set No Thanks!: The 70s Punk Rebellion. In 2006, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted the Sex Pistols, but the band refused to attend the ceremony or acknowledge the induction, complaining that they had been asked for large sums of money to attend^[36] and stating that it went against everything the band stood for.

In June 2007, Lydon, Jones and Cook re-recorded "Pretty Vacant" in a Los Angeles studio for the video game Skate and, in a radio interview in the same month, Lydon announced that the Sex Pistols may perform again over the Christmas period. They also re-recorded "Anarchy in the UK" for the video game Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. In September 2007, Lydon announced that the Sex Pistols would play a concert for the 30th anniversary of Never Mind the Bollocks at the Brixton Academy in London on 8 November 2007. Due to popular demand,^{[citation needed]} four additional concerts were added, as well as further shows in Manchester and Glasgow. The Sex Pistols appeared at the Isle of Wight Festival 2008 as the headlining act on Saturday night. They also appeared at the Peace and Love Festival (Sweden), Electric Picnic (Ireland), Lokerse Feesten festival in Lokeren (Belgium), the Live at Loch Lomond Festival (Scotland), Heineken Open'er Festival (Gdynia, Poland), Paredes de Coura Festival (Portugal), Traffic Free Festival (Turin, Italy), SZIGET Fesztival (Budapest, Hungary) and EXIT festival (Serbia), the same summer.^{[citation needed]}

2009–present PiL reformation[link]

John Lydon onstage with PiL at Guilfest 2011

In September 2009 it was announced that PiL would reform, including earlier members Bruce Smith and Lu Edmonds, for a number of Christmas shows in the UK.^[37] Lydon financed the reunion using money he earned doing a UK TV commercial for Country Life butter. "The money that I earned from that has now gone completely—lock stock and barrel—into reforming PiL,"^[38] said Lydon.

Controversies[link]

2008 Ritz Carlton Hotel incident[link]

On 23 January 2008 Lydon was reportedly involved in a string of offences, including sexual harrassment, physical assault and battery in Marina del Rey.^[39] Roxane Davis, who was a talent producer for the television program Bodog Battle Of The Bands, claimed that she was punched in the face by Lydon after being shouted at and called a "cunt" several times.^[39]

Lydon was one of three celebrity judges appearing on the reality show and Davis was responsible for "handling" them. According to the story appearing in the Belfast Telegraph, Lydon first refused accommodation at the Radisson hotel, stating it was sub-standard. After he and his personal assistant were relocated to the Ritz Carlton, Lydon reportedly became infuriated with the hotel staff after he was given a room lacking an interior connecting door to his assistant's room.^[39] According to the lawsuit, Davis heard Lydon screaming at a hotel employee, she approached him and he began screaming at her. After Davis apologised, Lydon and his assistant began screaming sexual epithets and obscene insults at Davis, and Lydon then punched her in the face.^[39] Davis reportedly initiated legal action on 19 causes of action, including retaliation, wrongful termination, assault and battery.^[39] Davis sued in June 2008 and filed an amended version about four months later. On 28 January 2010, however, Davis's lawyers filed papers in Los Angeles Superior Court stating that the case was resolved, although no terms were divulged.^[40]

2008 Summercase incident[link]

Bloc Party singer Kele Okereke claims he was left with severe facial bruising and a split lip following what he alleges was a verbal and physical racist assault by three members of Lydon's entourage. The incident occurred on the evening of 19 July 2008 at the Summercase festival in Barcelona while the bands were socialising backstage.^[41] In a statement to NME, Lydon denied the allegations of his involvement in this assault.^[42] After the report, Super Furry Animals lead singer Gruff Rhys came forward in support of Okereke's claim, saying "the statements Kele has said are absolutely true, it did happen."^[43]

A British tabloid accused Lydon of racism due to the incident, something he strongly denied during an appearance on The One Show, claiming that they were "atrocious" and "hurtful". He went on to say that:

He went on to say, when asked if he was racist, that:

2008 Duffy incident[link]

At the 2008 MoJo awards ceremony, Welsh singer Duffy attempted to say hello to Lydon when, according to her; "I was literally slammed against the wall, pinned by his arm at my throat. He called me a cunt."^[45] Other reports indicate a slightly different scenario, that Lydon "was being interviewed and he had his back to (the) door and she banged into him and then grabbed him. He then turned round in no uncertain terms to tell her to back off him".^[46] Lydon later claimed he had not realised who Duffy was, saying; "people are trying to pin something on me. I don't know who this Duffy person is, or why she'd want to get publicity from this. I was doing an interview and she came up behind me—I didn't see anything. I've been with my wife for 30 years and I've been brought up to be polite and have respect for people, especially women."^[47]

Adam Sherwin of The Times, witnessed the incident and has given an account which differs from that offered by Lydon, placing the blame for the physical assault on Lydon's personal assistant.^[48]

2010 performing in Israel[link]

Lydon played with Public Image Ltd in Tel Aviv, Israel, in August 2010. He refused to accept calls for him not to go to Israel.^[49][50]

^[51]

Lydon has also commented:

Origin of Johnny Rotten stage name[link]

The origin of John Lydon's stage name, Johnny Rotten, has had two longstanding explanations. One, given in a Daily Telegraph feature interview with Lydon in 2007, was that he was given the name in the mid 1970s, when his lack of oral hygiene led to his teeth turning green.^[52] Another story says the name was given to him by Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones, who saw Lydon's teeth and exclaimed, "You're rotten, you are!"^[53]

In 2008, however, Lydon had extensive dental work performed in Los Angeles, at a reported cost of US $22,000. Lydon explained that it wasn't done out of vanity: "It was necessity ... all those rotten teeth were seriously beginning to corrupt my system".^[54]

Personal life[link]

Lydon is married to Nora Forster, a publishing heiress from Germany.^[55] He is the stepfather of Forster's daughter, Ari Up, who herself had been the lead singer in the post-punk band The Slits before her death in 2010. Lydon resides in Los Angeles, California.^[52] Lydon's parents raised him and his brothers in the Roman Catholic faith, but he "never had any godlike epiphanies or thought that God had anything to do with this dismal occurrence called life."^[56]

Lydon has been a fan of Oscar Wilde since he studied his works at school, when he came to the conclusion that "his stuff was fucking brilliant. What an attitude to life!… He turned out to be the biggest poof on earth at a time when that was completely unacceptable. What a genius."^[15]

Political and social criticism[link]

Ever since his rise to public attention, Lydon has remained a critic of much in British politics and society. Coming from a working class background, he has remained heavily opposed to the class system, describing how private schools "tend to turn out little snobs. They're taught a sense of superiority, which is the kiss of death… They're absolutely screwed up for life."^[57] He is critical of the upper classes, stating that they "parasite off the population as their friends help them along", but he equally criticises the working classes, claiming that "We're lazy, good-for-nothing bastards, absolute cop-outs [who] never accept responsibility for our own lives and that's why we'll always be downtrodden."^[58] He opposes all forms of segregation in schools, not only through the private and state school division, but also with single-sex schools; "It doesn't make sense. It's a much better environment with girls in the class. You learn a lot more, as diversity makes things more interesting."^[59]

He has also criticised the paramilitary organisations involved in the Northern Ireland conflict, remarking that both the Irish Republican Army and the Ulster Defence Association were "like two mafia gangs punching each other out… They both run their extortion rackets and plague people to no end." He remarked that "The Northern Ireland problem is a terrible thing, and its only the ignorance of the people living outside of it that keeps it going", but that ultimately the British government's exploitative attitude to the problem was in his opinion the main cause.^[60]

Discography[link]

All chart positions are UK.

Sex Pistols[link]

Studio albums

• Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols (Virgin, 1977) Platinum No. 1

Compilations and live albums

• Flogging a Dead Horse (Virgin,1979)
• The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle (Virgin, 1979)
• Some Product: Carri On Sex Pistols (Virgin, 1979)
• Kiss This (Virgin, 1992)
• Never Mind the Bollocks / Spunk (aka This is Crap) (Virgin, 1996)
• Filthy Lucre Live (Virgin, 1996)
• The Filth and the Fury (Virgin, 2000)
• Jubilee (Virgin, 2002)
• Sex Pistols Box Set (Virgin, 2002)

Singles

• "Anarchy in the UK" – 1976 No. 38
• "God Save the Queen" – 1977 No. 2
• "Pretty Vacant" – 1977 No. 6
• "Holidays in the Sun" – 1977 No. 8
• "(I'm Not Your) Stepping Stone" – 1980 No. 21
• "Anarchy in the UK" (re-issue) – 1992 No. 33
• "Pretty Vacant" (live) – 1996 No. 18
• "God Save the Queen" (re-issue) – 2002 No. 15

Public Image Ltd.[link]

Studio albums

• First Issue (Virgin, 1978), No. 22
• Metal Box (a.k.a. Second Edition) (Virgin, 1979) #18, US No. 171
• Flowers of Romance (Virgin, 1981) #11, US No. 114
• Commercial Zone (PiL Records, 1983)
• This Is What You Want... This Is What You Get (Virgin, 1984)
• Album (Virgin, 1986)
• Happy? (Virgin, 1987)
• 9 (Virgin, 1989)
• That What Is Not (Virgin, 1992)
• This Is PiL (PiL Official, 2012)

Compilations and live albums

• Paris in the Spring (Paris au Printemps) (Virgin, 1980)
• Live in Tokyo (Virgin, 1983)
• The Greatest Hits, So Far (Virgin, 1990)

Singles

• "Public Image" – 1978 No. 9
• "Death Disco" – 1979 No. 20
• "Memories" – 1979 No. 60
• "Flowers of Romance" – 1981 No. 24
• "This Is Not a Love Song" – 1983 No. 5
• "Bad Life" – 1984 No. 71
• "Rise" – 1986 No. 11
• "Home" – 1986 No. 75
• "Seattle" – 1987 No. 47
• "The Body" – 1987 No. 100
• "Disappointed" – 1989 No. 38
• "Don't Ask Me" – 1990 No. 22
• "Cruel" – 1992 No. 49
• "One Drop" – 2012

The Lydons and The O'Donnells[link]

Studio albums

• Family Album (MBC records, 1986)

Time Zone[link]

Single

• "World Destruction" – 1984

Solo[link]

Studio albums

• Psycho's Path (Virgin, 1997)

Compilations

• The Best of British £1 Notes (Lydon, PiL & Sex Pistols) (Virgin/EMI, 2005)

Singles

• "Open Up" (with Leftfield) – 1993 – No. 11 UK
• "Sun" – 1997 – No. 42 UK

References[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Lydon, John (1993). Rotten: No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs. Hodder & Stoughton

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: John Lydon

• John Lydon – official website
• John Lydon discography on Discogs
• Johnny Rotten on The Hour
• interview with John Lydon at SuicideGirls
• John Lydon fronts UK butter campaign

Paula Hiers Deen

Paula Hiers (left) in a public service announcement for Civitan International.
Born	(1947-01-19) January 19, 1947 (age 65) Albany, Georgia, U.S.
Cooking style	Southern
Current restaurant(s) The Lady & Sons Restaurant, Uncle Bubba's Oyster House, Owens Shepard's Finest
Television show(s) Paula's Home Cooking (2002–present) Paula's Party (2006–present) Paula's Best Dishes (2008–present)
Award(s) won 2007 Emmy for Outstanding Lifestyle Host
Official website
http://www.pauladeen.com/

Paula Hiers Deen (born January 19, 1947) is an American cook, cooking show host, restaurateur, author, actress and Emmy Award-winning television personality. Deen resides in Savannah, Georgia, where she owns and operates The Lady & Sons restaurant with her sons, Jamie and Bobby Deen. She has published five cookbooks. Though married in 2004 to Michael Groover,^[1] she uses the surname Deen from her first marriage.^[2]

Early life[link]

Deen was born in Albany, Georgia.^[3] Her parents died before she was 23, and an early marriage ended in divorce. In her 20s, Deen suffered from panic attacks and agoraphobia. She then focused on cooking for her family as something she could do without leaving her house.^[4] In 1986, she took a job as a bank teller, and later moved to Savannah, Georgia, with her sons. In 1989, she divorced her husband, Jimmy Deen, to whom she had been married since 1965.^[1] She was left with only $200.^[3] She then started a catering service,^[5] making sandwiches and meals, which her sons Jamie and Bobby delivered. She was recently revealed as a sufferer of type-2 diabetes.^[6]

Lady & Sons restaurant in Savannah, Georgia.

Restaurants[link]

Deen's home business, The Bag Lady, soon outgrew her kitchen. In January 1996 Deen opened her own restaurant, The Lady & Sons, in downtown Savannah, on West Congress Street. Within a few years, the restaurant moved to a larger building in Savannah's historic district. USA Today named The Lady & Sons the "International Meal of the Year," in 1999. The specialty is a buffet, which typically includes sweet potatoes, macaroni and cheese, deep-fried Twinkies, fried chicken, cheesy meatloaf, greens, beans, and creamed corn. Every meal is served with a garlic cheese biscuit and a hoecake. Her sons are also involved in managing the restaurant, which is popular with tourists to Savannah.^[7]

In 2008, Deen parlayed her fame into another restaurant, the "Paula Deen Buffet" at Harrah's Tunica Casino in Tunica, Mississippi.^[8] Its entrance facade is modeled on Deen's home in Savannah and features Southern cooking.^[9]

In September 2009, Deen announced a new dessert line to be sold at Walmart including signature pies Apple Crunch Top, Dark Rum Pecan, Old Fashioned Fudge and Gooey Butter Cake bars.^[10]

Books and magazines[link]

In 1997, Deen self-published The Lady & Sons Savannah Country Cooking and The Lady & Sons Savannah Country Cooking 2. Both cookbooks featured traditional Southern recipes.^[11] She has since published two more, written with Martha Nesbit. Deen has appeared on QVC and on The Oprah Winfrey Show (first in 2002, twice in 2007 and once in 2010). Her life story is featured in Extraordinary Comebacks: 201 Inspiring Stories of Courage, Triumph, and Success (2007, Sourcebooks).

In April 2007, Simon & Schuster published Deen's memoir, It Ain't All About the Cookin'. She launched a lifestyle magazine called Cooking with Paula Deen in November 2005.^[12] which claimed a circulation of 7.5 million in March, 2009.^[13]

Food Network[link]

Deen's relationship with Food Network began in 1999, when her friend Erin Lewis introduced her to Gordon Elliott, who then introduced her to her current agent, Artist's Agency owner Barry Weiner.^[14] Elliott took her through the city for a series of Doorknock Dinners episodes. She also appeared on Ready, Set, Cook!. Deen was invited to shoot a pilot named Afternoon Tea in early 2001. The network liked it, and eventually gave Deen her own show, Paula's Home Cooking, which premiered in November 2002. Paula's Home Cooking was originally taped in Millbrook, New York at the home of Gordon Elliott, the show's executive producer.^[15][16] Deen mentioned in an on the March 13, 2006, edition of The Daily Buzz that the next batch of episodes of her show would be taped at her home in Savannah, Georgia. According to the first of those episodes, actual production at her new Savannah home began in November 2005.

Deen throwing out the first pitch at a Washington Nationals baseball game in Washington, D.C.

Since then, Deen has been given two more Food Network shows, Paula's Party and Paula's Best Dishes.^[17] Paula's Party premiered on the Food Network in 2006 and Paula's Best Dishes debuted on June 8, 2008.^[18]

A televised biography of Deen was aired on an episode of the Food Network's Chefography program, in March 2006.^[19]

In December 2007, Deen teamed with Cat Cora and faced Chefs Tyler Florence and Robert Irvine in battle Sugar on the holiday special of Iron Chef America. At the end, Deen and Cora won.

Deen also helped Pat and Gina Neely get their first Food Network show, Down Home with the Neelys.^[20] During the summer of 2006, her sons, Bobby and Jamie Deen, featured the Neelys' Bar-B-Que Nashville location on their Food Network show Road Tasted. In September 2006, Paula ate at the Neelys' downtown Memphis restaurant and was impressed. In January 2007, the Neelys were invited to appear on Paula's Party,^[21] which eventually led to the Down Home show. In July 2008, the Neelys would also take over Road Tasted from the Deen brothers.