Q-Tip's Grammy-nominated solo album The Renaissance turned 10 in November.

Q-Tip's beloved second studio album The Renaissance turned 10 in November. The critically-acclaimed project was primarily handled by Tip himself — from the lyrics to the production (minus the J Dilla-produced "Move") — and featured guest appearances from Norah Jones, Raphael Saadiq, and D'Angelo (who recently made his return via a new song on the Red Dead Redemption 2 soundtrack).

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The A Tribe Called Quest member recently spoke about his second solo album and how it was a challenge doing something outside of the seminal hip-hop group.

"Living underneath or inside the corridors of A Tribe Called Quest is a lot, you know? People always judge me against what Tribe was," the rapper said. "I try not to pay attention to those shackles, but everyone else does. It is frustrating. I try to rely on the humanitarianism of the listen. Meaning, everybody else has those hangs ups on me, but I don't pay attention to it. When I see them pay attention to it, it is like wow. I just keep making music that moves me and hopefully it connects to people and changes their world too."

Tip also discussed where he was mentally while working on the album and how the album's celebratory tone reflected the day Barack Obama was elected (the album came out on Election Day).

"...it came out on Election Day, the day Obama was elected, so it spoke to that optimism. The renaissance, the changes I wanted to see in art, could be stretched to a social political sense too; we were really starting to drink that elixir. When we saw Obama accept his victory in Chicago, I remember playing the album and people were crying and celebrating," he said. "It felt like we were on the rise again. Oh, how quickly things change! If you look at The Renaissance and the last Tribe album [We Got It From Here… Thank You 4 Your Service], then the former is bright and the latter has a darker tone because we knew [the Trump years were approaching]. I think The Renaissance has an optimism that doesn't really exist anymore."

Elsewhere in the interview, Tip also gives his thoughts on the disconnect between old and young rappers.

"A lot of the young rappers are like 'fuck the old heads!' On songs they say stuff like 'I don't fuck with no old niggas!' I saw this clip where this rapper said he had never heard of the Wu-Tang Clan, and he said it with so much pride. He had a smile on his face. I guess their hate is just a personification of their fear, but I believe if you don’t do your due-diligence in hip-hop then you will only be here for a limited time," he said. "You don't have to like old school rap, but you should at least investigate it so it elongates your own career. If you're not a student of history then you can't have a fully developed story yourself."

Source: NME