Formed in the late 1980s in New York City, the Native Tongues collective – including the Jungle Brothers, De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, Monie Love, and Queen Latifah – created a new route in the evolving world of hip-hop.
In interviews around the release of Public Enemy's 1988 album, It Takes A Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back, Chuck D declared rap was Black America's CNN, telling the stories popular media ignored. The Native Tongues (the name was taken from a lyric in New Birth's 1971 track, "African Cry") added to the conversation with their thoughts on consciousness, positivity, and optimism. This was the start of rap music's Daisy Age.
Running from 1989 to 1993, the Daisy Age took its name from the "D.A.I.S.Y. Age" track, off of De La Soul's debut album, 3 Feet High And Rising. An acronym of the phrase "da' inner sound, y'all", the motto summed up the movement. Daisy Age rap was about the sound of the soul, self-determination, the development of knowledge, and even humor.
