Soul Supreme updates A Tribe Called Quest classics

Amsterdam-based DJ/producer Soul Supreme offers his own perspective on Tribe's "Lyrics To Go" and "Check The Rhime" 

Jazz runs deep through the music of A Tribe Called Quest. Two new tracks by Amsterdam-based, Jerusalem-born keyboardist, DJ & producer Soul Supreme is in its own way a reflection of that. The tracks are homages to iconic hip-hop tracks “Check The Rhime” & “Lyrics To Go” from a jazz perspective.

“I want to take the listener on a trip to overlook tracks they know, but from a different perspective,” says Soul Supreme. “I try to go 'in and out' of the ATCQ tracks so the listener never knows what’s going to happen next. My overall goal is to give existing music my own twist. I don’t want to sound like a rehash of something listeners have heard before.”

But to Soul Supreme, that’s far from science. He doesn’t sit down with a pad & pen to think of ways to switch things up, it happens through improvisation. In that sense, it’s A Tribe Called Quest’s hip-hop he loves, but a jazz influence that prevails.

Soul Supreme’s versions of “Check The Rhime” and “Lyrics To Go” follow the line of his The Message / Umi Says 7” release on Chicago-based imprint Star Creature Universal Vibrations last year. That record featuring instrumental tributes to Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five and Mos Def was sold out in a matter of days.