Jam

Recorded during the 1996 sessions for Beats, Rhymes and Life at Battery Studios in New York City, with A Tribe Called Quest working as The Ummah. Q-Tip and Phife Dawg trade verses over the group’s tightly built in-house production. “Jam” was one of the strongest tracks on Beats, Rhymes and Life and helped define the album’s more restrained, inward-looking sound. It also appeared on The Jam EP, where it helped extend the album campaign in the UK and Europe. The song endures as a fan-favorite deep cut from the group’s mid-1990s run. Its smooth Ummah production and conversational Q-Tip/Phife chemistry have kept it in rotation on Tribe compilations, playlists, and retrospectives.