Hip-hop tour in harmony

Hip-hop reconciliation and reformation will be the marquee draws at this year’s Rock the Bells, the top-grossing hip-hop event in the country last year.

A year after the multi-platinum-selling rap-metal band Rage Against the Machine played on the traveling festival’s stage, two late, great rap groups that splintered in the ‘90s are getting their acts together for Rock the Bells.

The Los Angeles alterna-rap quartet the Pharcyde will perform as “special guests,” while the Queens, N.Y., “abstract poetic” trio A Tribe Called Quest will come together at the festival for the second consecutive year; in 2007, the group reformed for Rock the Bells after a six-year absence.

At a news conference for the event in Claremont on Tuesday, organizer Chang Weisberg of Guerilla Union promised that unlike in previous years, 85% to 90% of the headliners would perform in every city.

“Rest assured there will be surprises,” Weisberg said. “Music history could be made every night.”

Other featured headliners for the tour, which kicks off in Chicago on July 19 and reaches Los Angeles on Aug. 9, include De La Soul, Rakim, Nas, Mos Def, Murs and Raekwon from Wu-Tang Clan.

“Everybody up here is legends in their own right,” Murs said at the event. “Being part of this is awesome.”

Ali Shaheed Muhammad, A Tribe Called Quest’s DJ-producer, put into perspective how special it was to reunite with the members of De La Soul -- the group’s confreres in the Native Tongues hip-hop collective, leaders of the so-called “conscious” rap movement in the ‘90s.

“We haven’t been in the same room together since 1994,” Muhammad said. “I’m really amped right now. I can’t wait to get to it.”

Added the ne plus ultra freestyle MC Supernatural, another Rock the Bells headliner: “It’s going to be the best summer vacation I ever had.”

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chris.lee@latimes.com