- THE RETURN OF THE ABSTRACT -
Modern hip-hop and R&B music can both arguably be divided into pre- and post-A Tribe
Called Quest, and the musical efforts of its lead MC and producer Kamaal
Ibn John Fareed—better known to the world as Q-Tip. Consider
the jazzy sampling, laid-back tempos and boho-chic vibe he introduced,
then mull over the bohemian posturing and sounds of the neo-soul movement,
plus any rap music that shies away from hardcore posturing. All roads
lead back to ATCQ and the beats, rhymes and life of one man: Q-Tip.
And now the time is ripe for The Renaissance, the Abstract MC’s
first solo album in nine years.
Back when rap production was all about
James Brown samples and dense, agitated sonic collages, Q-Tip
was digging deeper into the record crates for snatches of stand-up bass
and obscure jazz. The influence of that first sonic renaissance is still
being heard. “I see the Tribe legacy as one of the strongest in modern
music,” Q-Tip admits. “From us came so many artists, like Common,
Mos Def, Talib Kweli, the Fugees and Kanye West. I feel very honored
to have been able to contribute in such a way that, 20 years later,
it still is a reference point.” Produced primarily by Q-Tip
with plenty of live instrumentation and a love fixation, The Renaissance
is a stark portrait of the artist as an elder statesman.
One listen to the frenetic drumming
and strutting live bassline of a track like “ManWomanBoogie” reveals
that Q-Tip is on a mission to create original music as timeless
as the tracks he used to sample once upon a time. It’s also obvious
that the title of his latest album is no accident. “The Renaissance
is significant because for some time now people have questioned the
integrity of hip-hop,” he reveals. “I feel like the time is ideal
for something that has a revisionist spirit to it.”
Taking the same type of nonconformist
risks as Stevie Wonder, John Lennon and the mavericks of other music
genres, Q-Tip has always gone left when it comes to his position
in hip-hop culture. People’s Instinctive Travels and the Paths of
Rhythm, the 1990 debut of A Tribe Called Quest, introduced Q-Tip’s
iconoclast stance. The 20-year-old emceed about vegetarianism, French
expatriates and domestic violence at a time when (then as now) other
more standard rappers’ topics were marching lockstep in comparison.
Yet he always made absolutely sure to charm the Bonita Applebums and
practice the art of moving butts. The Renaissance goes to show
that the more things change, the more they stay the same.
On “Life Is Better,” singer Norah
Jones helps Q-Tip give a unique spin on the hip-hop love song:
a love of hip-hop itself, that is. “The state of hip-hop is in conception
now,” he says, discussing the regeneration and renaissance of the
culture. “Something else is happening to it and there’s a new approach,
a rebirth that’s going on. One of the many cool things about the digital
world is that it has grown the appetite for good music. Now people can
find an obscure Beatles song or an EPMD remix online, so everyone is
becoming more hip.”Q-Tip’s love of hip-hop only rivals
his love for the opposite sex, an adoration that’s clear and evident
on tracks like “Believe” featuring D’Angelo, or The Renaissance’s
first single, “Gettin’ Up”: “I like to watch everybody gravitate
towards you/Your magnetic presences make them come through/The same
way you got them, you got me too.”
Love talk is all around The Renaissance,
but Q-Tip remains as characteristically diverse as ever. “Fight/Love”
with Raphael Saadiq, for example, alludes to the ever-present realities
of the Iraq War. The sole track handled by a producer other than Q-Tip
himself is “Move,” a hyper-kinetic pastiche of diced-up Jackson
5’s “Dancing Machine” courtesy of the late, great J. Dilla. “A
Tribe Called Quest is no more,” says Q-Tip, putting a cap on
rumors sparked by their recent reunion shows on the recent Rock the
Bells Tour. Yet hardcore fans will still recall J. Dilla’s participation
in The Ummah, the production team (also including Q-Tip and DJ
Ali Shaheed Muhammad) that handled full chores on the final two ATCQ
albums. “Move” comes closest to reviving the head-nodding kick of
A Tribe Called Quest, a fitting testament to the funky skills of James
“J. Dilla” Yancey.
Q-Tip
is in his own extremely capable hands for the remainder of The Renaissance.
Long known as a grand talent behind recording-studio mixing boards,
Q-Tip has blessed a number of diverse artists with beats throughout
his 20-year career: Nas, Mariah Carey, Mobb Deep, Whitney Houston. Since
his start on the Jungle Brothers’ 1988 “Black Is Black,” music
fans have waited on solo Q-Tip in one form or another. His 1999
Amplified debut album—produced largely by J. Dilla and featuring the
career-defining hip-pop hits “Vivrant Thing” and “Breathe and
Stop”—still left many wondering how Q-Tip would sound without
commercial constraints. His nine-year time delay (Kamaal the Abstract
was recorded but went unreleased in the interim) may bring to mind other
missing-in-action masters of the hip-hop craft, but Q-Tip insists
it’s all good. “There hasn’t been a delay,” he says, “and
I think I can speak for myself, Lauryn Hill, Erykah Badu and D’Angelo
when I say that we make music when the spirit is with us. We are a lot
who are very observant as well as introspective. We paint intense, colorful
pictures, so it takes time.”
Some of that time has been spent chasing
the acting jones Q-Tip established locking lips with Janet Jackson
in director John Singleton’s 1993 Poetic Justice. In films like Disappearing
Acts (2000), Prison Song (2001) and Spike Lee’s She Hate Me (2004),
Q-Tip expresses another side of his renaissance-man persona, holding
his own against actors like Sanaa Lathan and Anthony Mackie.
“When I recorded my first album,
I was 19,” Q-Tip says. “So I was very much in the moment
and did not think about my career past the following year. I knew I
loved what I did and had big fun, but I never imagined this.” The
Renaissance marks the return of one of the most recognizable voices
and individualist figures in all of hip-hop. At this moment for change
in the hip-hop nation and the nation at large, The Renaissance
could not have come at a more appropriate moment. Leave it to Q-Tip
to be right on time.
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