Q-Tip's lost rock 'n' soul album

haven't heard any of it, but it was(?) called "kamaal the abstract". i find it amusing to imagine Q-tip as a rockstar so i'm assuming it's more soulbased but obv without any sort of filthy mothership FUNK in that mannered sexless Raphael Saadiq fashion. Altho' Mos def, who was supposed to have his Blackrock johnson persona up and running could be a credible rockstar... certainly has a cross-board charisma there

Then again he could go the Automator route and put out any old crap he spends a couple weekends recording with his mates (Lovage).

I always hate when record labels stop release on an album after it's finished & been hyped, it kinda helps imply in people's minds that the record is gonna suck; from what I've heard of the Black Jack Johnson Band record, it most definitely (ha ha "mos def") should NOT be anywhere near "suck".

And this statement...
Then again he could go the Automator route and put out any old crap he spends a couple weekends recording with his mates (Lovage).
...wrongly presupposes that Lovage isn't actually one of the greatest albums of the past 5 years.

(Plus it reminds me that Dan the Automator & Mike Patton's Peeping Tom album was most unfortunately dropped by Reprise records and that makes me ready to kick squirrels.)

new album isnt bad.

I have the "lost" album, it's a nice companion piece to shit like Blowout Comb & Do You Want More?!?!?!.

ie it sounds like it walked out of 1993-7

i heard the lost album back in audiogalaxy days, i remember it being kinda terrible? but all i can recall is long jams and kenny garrett solos.

The new Q-Tip album gets four stars in the Grauniad today but I've not heard anything off it yet and I don't trust Angus Batey. Is it worth getting?

Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees.

"Getting Up" is the best thing he's released since tribe...

no.

http://www.thefader.com/articles/2008/10/30/exclusive-stream-q-tip-s-the-renaissance

can hear whole thing

the beat for move is seriously ridiculous. assuming it's a dilla beat?

and like the fast disco beats like in vivrant thing. man/woman boogie is pretty great

That's Sexy and Official remain my jams

"Gettin' Up" is just great. Not quite up to "Breathe and Stop" but still great.

i like this more then i thought i would.

The album is creamy and sumptuous – to a fault, maybe. "Gettin' Up" is more than a worthy sequel to "Electric Relaxation." This is easily the best album he's put his name on since Midnight Marauders, but I'm still wondering whether it's one of those albums that puts me in his awkward position: do I give'em props for how terrific his tone, timbre, production, and raps are yet am still unmoved by lots of it? He's entered the craftsmen phase of his career, and there's always a danger of overrating mere craft.

"Getting Up" is the best thing he's released since tribe...

― sonnyboy, Friday, October 31, 2008 2:34 PM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark

Really, Let's Ride trump's nearly all Tip output, sans Electric Relaxation.

Now that this album is officially released nearly 3 years after it leaked, when will his 2001 album finally hit shelves?

this is prob my favourite rap album all year but he doesnt seem to really be saying anything on here. hes playing it a bit safe. great production though.

Yeah, it's an excellent demonstration of skillz, no more.

"Let's Ride" is okay AT BEST. I think I like "Find My Way" more!

i try to forget the hidden korn collabo

I always thought it odd that Find My Way didn't credit Bebel Gilberto the way Got til it's Gone credited Joni Mitchell.

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"Getting Up" is the best thing he's released since tribe...

― sonnyboy, Friday, October 31, 2008 2:34 PM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark

Still stand by that...It has that uplifting transcendental vibe that informed the best Tribe records vis a vis "Electric Relaxation"

2nded

i just discovered people on the internet do not always share my opinion :-(

I love Let's Ride and was pissed that I couldn't find a download of it when searching the other week.

okayish interview -
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/nov/15/q-tip-urban-music-hattie-collins

nice suit, mpc2k, sitting on a fender rhodes; this about sums up a certain sector of us these days

im all for rappers posing with their gear but who actually *sits* on a fender rhodes?

out next month, and utterly utterly wonderful.

Xgau:

January 2010

Dud of the Month

Q-Tip: 'Kamaal the Abstract' (Battery)
Grade: B MINUS

Arista didn't pull this jazzmatazz off its 2002 release schedule because major labels are evil. Arista pulled it because it stunk. Buried at Track 7, the developed rhyme, unkiltered time, unsettling keyboards, and Kenny Garrett sax coda of "Abstractionisms" deliver what the flowery "Caring" and the endless "Do You Dig U?" emphatically do not: the "brand new sound" the finale only brags about. In the narrow sense of rhythm tracks, the beats have some ass to them, but as music they revert to fusion kitsch whenever the artiste sees an opening: swamping the bridge of the trifling "Heels," hogging the back end of the working-girl praise song "Even If It Is So." Fact is, without his group this major rapper has been lost musically since 1999. In 2008, he denoodled some on "The Renaissance and the Abstract Innovations" mixtape. But though I'm sure there are other cameos I've forgotten or missed, for me his best work of the decade came fronting the Chemical Brothers and freestyling on Kanye West's "Touch the Sky," first immersed in an alien music, then relying on his naked voice.

Honorable mention:

Q-Tip
'Abstract Innovations' (free download)
Rhythm experiments, and later for the improvisation experiments ("Black Boy," "I Got Rhythm").

My conflicted response: Wish I'd read his pan a week earlier because I bought it on Dec. 31 thinking it was a Renaissance followup I'd missed and hate it, grateful to at least be pointed to a free and v cool mixtape, but think it's deeply rong to write off '00s Q-Tip when The Renaissance was so good (and his dismissal of that as lite jazz was as rong-eared as his relative indifference to Tribe).

i remember seeing the promos around CMJ circa 2002 and feeling like an idiot for years for not listening to it.

Sorry but I quite like this album...'Feelin', 'Barely In Love' and 'Blue Girl' are great...reminds me of the 'Don Blackmon' album for some reason...

Same here. I love Kamaal the Abstract and have no use for The Renaissance, but then I'm far more averse to poor rapping than I am to fusion kitsch.

I guess that's not really true, how averse I am to either of those entirely depends on context, but it's certainly true in Q-Tip's case.

love love love the kamaal album, 'barely in love' one of my favourite songs last year

it's deeply rong to write off '00s Q-Tip when The Renaissance was so good (and his dismissal of that as lite jazz was as rong-eared as his relative indifference to Tribe

Relative to what, though? The Tribe Called Quest fan club president? He gave Anthology an A and ranked it third for 1999, B+ and A- for the albums. That doesn't sound rong-eared. Also, I think it's pretty easy to write off Q-Tip in the 00s given his low output no matter how great one thinks The Renaissance was.

As for Kamaal, 'poor rapping' >>> fusion kitsch. In fact, Chunky A >>> fusion kitsch.

the rapping on KTA is better than on the renaissance. renaissance was ok-ish but it sounded like something tip had to work really hard to do. this fusiony style is obv what hes more into these days. the thing about kta is that a fair amount of it just sounded a bit dated production wise. it has some great material on it still, and is prob his best solo album of the 00s, but the 90s sounding sonics ruin it a little bit.

definitely. if it had come out pre-Speakerbox/Love Below or Badu's post-Mama's Gun output it would sound less so.

It was recorded in 2001.

its something about the kicks, the way he tried to give them that bob power tribe thump, but it just made them sound dated.

y'know i just listened to this on headphones while walking to the barbers and it sounds fine.

barely in love is maybe the best song on there, but i think i love blue the most. so good.

"Blue Girl" is great esp. the out of nowhere coda

'feelin''s pretty special too...

Nah this is a really solid album and for me the best post Tribe thing he's done...love 'Gettin Up' but the best tracks on 'The Renaissance' are the ones that have that Kamaal vibe...as Darcus say...'What Say you'...

Amplified is a dope album, too. Don't sleep on that!

i like kamaal ok as a "lost album." as a real album ... it's still just ok.

(do like amplified a lot, never got around to the renaissance because i suspected the title was a lie.)

"Gettin' Up" is a spectacular track; it's Tip's best love rap since "Electric Relaxation."

i like kamaal ok as a "lost album." as a real album ... it's still just ok.

Echoing this. It's sorta boring, given all the hype leading up to it.

Kevin, I didn't mean to either overstate the case or sound judgmental about my favorite critic, to whose conscientious diligence, honesty, and art I aspire. But yeah, I feel he overrated the Anthology and underrated the albums, and you don't have to be a superfan to agree.

http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?name=A+Tribe+Called+Quest

and underrated The Renaissance,

http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?name=Q-Tip

I didn't even like the first Q-Tip solo album, so go figure.

first three tribe lps are A+ imo, last two definitely A- at least

yeah, I feel he overrated the Anthology and underrated the albums, and you don't have to be a superfan to agree.

And I have no evidence, of course, but the ridiculous A for Amplified felt like catching up.

'barely in love' is great

Overrated the Anthology too? Ok I wasn't expecting that. Do Tribe fans, super or otherwise, find limited use value in it? (honest, non-snarky question) Me, I think greatest hits are often the best way to go with an artist, even an album artist (see also the latest Marsh singles poll). And fwiw, I think he's overrated solo Q-Tip overall including Amplified so maybe I'm just waiting for a Tip Anthology.

tribe greatest hits was pointless

tribe = led zep of rap

(even though ive read tip analogising tribes discography to the beatles more)

as for the kamaal album, its interesting but not really 'good.' but xgau is wrong about tip, he basically was tribe

i dont get how they are led zep of rap. that comparison makes no sense

i just heard an unreleased zep track where they rail violently against gay hobbits

people always go on about how led zep only worked as an album band, how their songs dont work alone (which i dont totally agree with tbh), how they had to be heard in the context of each LP, etc etc. same thing with tribe. well for the first 3 (and last one too imo) albums anyway.

I think The Anthology is poorly sequenced, where the flow of those first four albums is often hypnotic, and I'd swap in any number of tracks for "Stressed Out" and "Vivrant Thing," but I don't hate it as much as Christgau hated, say, The Story of the Clash, which is beautifully sequenced. How you use the albums and relate to them obviously plays a part.

don't know if zep songs don't work on their own, but i don't think they work well on greatest hits comps, but - like tribe i guess - i know the albums themselves, backwards and upwards and inside out, so...

How 'bout I love Zep and Tribe songs whether they're on albums, comps, or released as singles?

If you don't like "Vivrant Thing", fuck you. That basically how I break it down to an extent.

Sweeter than Ben n Jerry.

A rappin nigga for real
You would catch me in the cypher if I didn't cop a deal

I like "Vivrant Thing," it's just not a Tribe song.

The Story of the Clash, which is beautifully sequenced.

Wha??? Ok I know this isn't the place but you HAVE to explain this! I've long agreed with Rob Sheffield (from the Spin Alternative Record Guide): "The dumbly selected and programmed Story of the Clash is literally unlistenable." And what happened to Vol. 2? What would even have be on Vol. 2?

Also, the Tribe fans I knew were pretty cold to The Love Movement at the time. But I'm getting the feeling people here are fairly in love with it. Has its rep grown?

And thankfully I will not have to engage in coitus with myself for I love "Vivrant Thing."

Also, the Tribe fans I knew were pretty cold to The Love Movement at the time. But I'm getting the feeling people here are fairly in love with it. Has its rep grown?

its the dilla effect, isn't it? i really love that album anyway (esp the instrumental, 'for moms')

Still like this...