So early on, Ali was the DJ. Same for Maseo of De La. Jazzy Jeff, Eric B, and so forth. I think for a while we assumed all the beats were made by the respective DJ's. But in 7th/8th grade, I began to question what Prince Paul was doing with De La if Maseo was the DJ. Then of course I asked the same question with Ali with Tribe. Especially later on when I realized that was Tip production on the early albums.

But then, if you hear Ali production on his own (D'Angelo's Brown Sugar, Jon B.'s Cool Relax), it sounds Tribe-like. So...