This Is Book’s Music

When the decade started, it was announced that Q-Tip would be releasing a new album combining a bit of the old and the new. It would be called Kamaal The Abstract, and a number of tracks surfaced in the hopes of getting him into the spotlight after the mixed reviews of his debut solo album, 1999’s Amplified. But for whatever reason, even as a steady buzz was climbing and Q-Tip was doing the rounds of promoting the next wave for him, the album was shelved. Rumors started, and for the most part everyone was waiting even as Q-Tip got involved in other projects.

After an eight year delay, the album now finds a home with Battery Records, who will be releasing the album on September 15th. Back then, Q-Tip found himself in a wide range of magazines, including jazz magazines where he shared his love of playing music and the kind of set-up he had at home. Q-Tip had always been musical, and I say this because as a rapper you were once expected to do nothing else but rap, the stereotype being that if you rapped, you couldn’t play or do “real music”. But go back to the remix of De La Soul’s “Buddy” or him singing a bit of Funkadelic on an old home video by A Tribe Called Quest. It’s a musical side many rappers used to be afraid to share, so perhaps the world had to catch up to the reality that yes, someone in hip-hop can make “real” music. As Q-Tip might say, all music is real music and the eight year delay means the world will be able to get the reverb and echo that’s about to hit them.

Will this broaden Q-Tip’s musical horizons? He’s been able to share his talents with the world for the last 20 years, I don’t think the world would mind another 20.