Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth Have An “Awesome” Third Album Coming In 2017

Last month, A Tribe Called Quest released its first album in 18 years. We got it from Here…Thank You 4 Your service featured the founding three MCs of the Queens, New York collective. The Epic Records LP debuted at #1, setting a new feat for the genre.

Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth worked closely with Tribe. While the New York duo was not in the Native Tongues, Pete Rock, Q-Tip, and the late Phife Dawg all worked together throughout the years. C.L. and Pete’s faces were also included on 1993’s Midnight Marauders album cover.

Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth Are Back In The Studio, Together

It has been more than 22 years since the then-Elektra Records duo released a project. Collaborations have happened sporadically since, along with touring. Early in 2016, the pair was photographed, apparently recording in Showbiz, Lord Finesse, and Buckwild’s Bronx, New York D.I.T.C. Studios. Today, Pete Rock concretely signals it is all about the change.

“That’s coming in 2017, we been on the road—me and C.L. [Smooth],” said Pete on The Breakfast Club. He told the Power 105 morning show, “That album is gonna be awesome.” In late 1994, Pete and C.L. released The Main Ingredient. By the time the LP dropped, the group already appeared to be on the outs.

Angela Yee presses Pete about two decades of perceived bad blood between he and his partner. “Nah man. You know…no, no, no. See, the way the music game works [will mislead you]. That’s my guy right there. We been on the road, and we’ve just gotten closer and closer, and it’s all love—like when we first started.”

Q-Tip Describes The Shift In Music That Caused The End Of A Tribe Called Quest (Video)

Last week, Pete Rock and C.L. were featured by Spin. “We didn’t think like men,” Pete told reporter Pete Tosiello of the 1990s turmoil. “We thought like teenagers in terms of money, business, the people we surrounded ourselves with. We both had the wrong people in our ears and made decisions based on what they said.”

While Pete Rock has used the time since producing full-length projects for InI, Smif-n-Wessun, Camp Lo (forming a trio, 80 Blocks From Tiffany’s), and Smoke DZA, C.L. has been less prolific. The New Rochelle MC told Spin, “The breakup bothered me to the point where I fell out of love with music. I had to get a spark from somewhere else, and that spark was living my life. Once I started to live my life and get adapted to my children growing up, learning how to communicate with them, it gave me a reality check on what what was lacking in my life. It helped me understand how I lost my Rap group: communication.”

Rick Ross Raps On His First Pete Rock Track & Smokes It (Audio)

There appears to be ill communication in 2016 for Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth. After ATCQ re-formed to recreate their past magic, it appears to have opened the gates for another classic outfit to collect the props that the charts and Grammy’s might have missed.

Tomorrow (December 2), Smoke DZA & Pete Rock will release Don’t Smoke Rock.