Q-Tip – Kamaal the Abstract

Album Reviews • Thursday September 10th, 2009 • 5:26 pm

Q-Tip delivers. Set to finally release this month, barring unforeseen snafus and acts of god, Kamaal the Abstract will be legal. Not that many of us – myself included – haven’t been listening to this historic album already for years, wondering if it would ever be officially released. And by that I mean cover art and liner notes. Reviewing Abstract is easy in this context. We’ve seen what it’s done to hip-hop. We’re already in the future looking back.

Before Abstract, which demolished Amplified (1999) artistically, hip-hop was an expansive landscape relatively unsettled. Q-Tip brought different elements to the table — namely jazz, soul, funk, and rock — and built himself an impressive homestead. He tapped artists like Kenny Garrett (alto sax), Kurt Rosenwinkle (guitar), and Gary Thomas (flute), nodding to Miles Davis in the process. He demonstrated that hip-hop was bigger than beats and rhymes; it was a place to collaborate and experiment with a much broader palette.

Take the jam-infused “Do u Dig U,” which features Thomas’ meandering improvisations. Or the funk rock grooves of “Barely in Love.” Or the dreamlike “Blue Girl.” Here are three opening tracks that betray nothing but sheer creative excursion. No wonder Q-Tip had such a hard time convincing the Big Label of his work’s value: “I am really disappointed that Kamaal wasn’t released,” Q-Tip said to RemixMag.com in 2004. “LA Reid didn’t know what to do with it; then, three years later, they release Outkast. What OutKast is doing [in 2004], those are the kinds of sounds that are on Kamaal the Abstract. Maybe even a little more out. Kamaal was just me, guerilla.”

And “guerrilla” isn’t an overstatement. Further into the album, Q-Tip is canonizing (high) “Heels,” drilling into his namesake on “Abstractionisms,” and painting hot urban obsession with “Even If It Is So.” And he’s not regurgitating. He’s singing. And layering brass. And focusing BGVs. And scatting. And paying attention to every little detail.

I think Kamaal the Abstract is still a groundbreaking album, relevant and inspirational in today’s scene. Studying it is deepening one’s musical understanding. Listening to it is exciting and foot-tap inducing. So… pretend it’s 2001 and you’re anticipating Kamaal the Abstract for the first time. You have no idea what to expect. But you hope it’s good—different, ya know? You’re so sick of the same old beats over and over. You want it to bounce. You want it to break. And you sure as hell hope it makes you cool.