Q-Tip and Dr. Dre used to be locked in a silent battle when they were both on the rise during the early parts of their careers. Q-Tip would use Dr. Dre and NWA's music as motivation to produce even better songs to beat out the competition, and vice versa. Q-Tip has made it known that the 1988 release of NWA's Straight Outta Compton greatly influenced A Tribe Called Quest's release of their 1991 album The Low End Theory. Dr. Dre later admitted that A Tribe Called Quest's musical works greatly influenced his 1992 album, The Chronic.
Back in those days rappers didn't always go at each other's heads like they do today. Instead they used each other's music as motivation to compete and become better than them. Q-Tip recalled his past competition with Dr. Dre on Shade 45's "All Out Show."
"Everybody deals with sh*t in a competitive way. But not in like an egregious way, how sh*t looks a little bit today. But more like one-upsmanship in the music. Tryin' to stay fresh...just keeping your eye on that dude. And for me, personally, when I went in, that dude was Dre. The group was NWA, and to me, that was the benchmark. And of course I was listening to everything else around. The bar was set very high. Musically, my main thing was Dre. That was like, trying to make something he would like and appreciate in a way. Musically."
Source: hiphopdx.com
