Q-Tip - Kamaal the Abstract
List Price:
Our Price: $4.35
You Save: $12.63 (74%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $1.39 (click here)
Category: Music CD
See more CD details
Buy this Music CD at online store in your country
Canadian Music Store
Canadian Music Store
CD Details
Artist: Q-TipBrand: Baker & Taylor
Edition: Music CD
Audio: English (Unknown)
CD Release Date: 2009-09-15
Model: 886975551927
Music Label: Battery
Soundtracks:
- Feelin'
- Do You Dig U?
- A Million Times
- Blue Girl
- Barely in Love
- Heels
- Abstractionisms
- Caring
- Even If It Is So
- Make It Work
Music reviews of Kamaal the Abstract
Music Review: Can You Dig This?
Rating: 4 Stars
Way back in 2002, former leader of hip-hop/jazz fusion group A Tribe Called Quest, Q-tip, created his second solo album, Kamaal the Abstract. Abstract, with its sprawling and chunky stretches of instrumental jams, was conceived 6 full years before the interbreeding between hip-hop and other genres was as prevelant and well-received as it is today. In fact, this album was such a large departure from what was going on with rap music at the time, much less from what people expected to hear from Q-tip, that it was shelved by his label for fear of being a commercial disaster. LA Reid, who would go on only a few years later to oversee the release of Outkast's Speakboxxx/The Love Below (their most experiemental and unorthodox work to date, which is saying a lot), didn't believe the album could prevail while The Game and 50 Cent were topping the charts with their information-age spin on Gangsta Rap.
In 2009 Abstract has finally seen the light of day that it deserves. While Q-tip's prior release just last year, The Reneciansse, further explored the jazzy meoldies that have always been at the root of his music since his days with Tribe, it was still standard Q-tip through and through, with all the rubber-necking sample loops and soulful basslines that entails. Those looking for a looser version of that kind of instrumentation will be pleased with Abstract, but might be puzzled when Q disappears for noticeable stretches of time. However, the spontanaeity that having such an unhinged structure brings doesn't so much hurt the album, but instead lends it a live feel which reminds you when you least expect it that anything can happen.
Things ramp up right away during the opener "Feelin'." It starts off innocuously with Qtip on the mic as usual, but its not long before there is an extended organ solo and a distored guitar riff getting all the way under your skin. Q-tip sings us out and ends the song on his own, as if to remind you that, yes, this is still his album. "Do U Dig You" features a lengthy and aimless jam-session between Gary Thomas on flute and Kirk Rosenwinkel on guitar, and sounds like Prince's lost contribution to Bitches Brew. "Blue Girl" is typical Neo-soul a la Rafael Saadiq or D'Angelo (by now you shouldn't be expect a lot of actual rhyming on this album, although there is some), until Q-tip tacks a short verse on the end out of nowhere.
Q-tip takes further chances on "Barely in Love' which suggests Sly Stone as a Schoolhouse Rock cartoon and stops just short of being an all-out gospel jam with its light organ chord progressions and hand-clapping, foot stomping refrain. "Heels" sounds like an attempt 311's brand of palm-muted rap-rock, draped in a goatee stroking jam-bandish rhythm. The ending of the song sounds like everyone from P-Funk is on stage somewhere singing its hook. Synthesizers somehow make a very auspicous and unaplogetic appearance right in the middle of it all.
Even if it loses a bit of momentum with the last few tracks, Q-tip's Kamaal the Abstract (named after Q-Tip's self appointed nom de Islam) is pretty solid for an album that never misses a chance to take one. It stands tall next to any of the highly regarded work that his experiment prone contemporaries such as Outkast and D'Angelo were doing at the time, and it's avant-garde detours are what keep it fresh after 6 years. Just as the rest of the urban music world seems to be catching up with his experimental quirks, Q-tip points out, and helps ensure, that there isn't so much that's new under the sun.
Grade: B+
Description of Kamaal the Abstract
2009 release from the acclaimed rapper and former member of A Tribe Called Quest. This long-delayed album, slated originally for release in 2001, is finally dropping! A musical hybrid, Kamaal was commendably avant-garde at the time of its creation. Amazingly, it's even more apropos in 2009; given the dearth of musical merit and capable MCs in today's Hip Hop, the time is ever-so-right for Tip. Kamaal the Abstract is an intensely idiosyncratic and revealing record. To that end, Q-Tip produced the entire album himself, even playing several instruments. What comes from Kamaal is daring m?lange of Soul, supa-cool Jazz, head-nodding Hip Hop, and organic Pop magic in the vein of Stevie Wonder or Prince.Pop CDs
Music Genres
Bestsellers in Pop CDs
Yvette Freeman - Dinah Was (L.A. Theatre Works Audio Theatre Collection)Release date: 2005-04-12; Music CD
Best price: $18.61
Price in other shops:
Twin Sisters Productions - Building Character Music CDTWIN SISTERS PRODUCTIONS; Release date: 2007-01-01; Music CD
Best price: $6.75
Price in other shops:
Bernadette Peters in ConcertDVD
Best price: $92.90
Everything Must Go/ Two Against Natureby Steely Dan
Published: 2003; Music CD
Scattered Ashes: A Decade Of Emperial WrathRelease date: 2009-07-28; Published: 2009; Music CD
Best price: $13.06
Price in other shops:
![Christmas at the Biltmore Estate [VHS] Image](/images/Christmas-at-the-Biltmore-Estate-VHS-076700437X-X.jpg){kind=small}
Christmas at the Biltmore Estate [VHS]A&E Home Video; Release date: 1998-09-04; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $6.02
Price in other shops:
The Shadow: Rare Radio Gems (Rare Radio Gems)Release date: 2002-09-01; Published: 2002-09-01; Music CD
Best price: $20.00
Price in other shops:
On the Shoulders of Giants, Vol. 1: An Audio & Musical Journey Through the Harlem Renaissanceby Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Release date: 2011-09-06; Published: 2008; Music CD
Best price: $1.98
Price in other shops:
Francis Durbridge, Paul Temple & The Gilbert Case - Radio ShowRelease date: 2003-05-12; Music CD
Best price: $21.18
Price in other shops:
The Serenaders - My One and Only YouRelease date: 2011-05-28; Music CD
Best price: $8.59
Price in other shops:
Similar CDs
Tribe Called Quest - The AnthologyTRIBE CALLED QUEST; Release date: 1999-10-26; Music CD
Best price: $4.98
Price in other shops:
Robert Glasper Experiment - Black RadioRelease date: 2012-02-28; Music CD
Best price: $7.61
Price in other shops:
J. Period & Q-Tip - (Abstract) BestRelease date: 2011-06-14; Music CD
Best price: $12.07
Price in other shops:
Tribe Called Quest - People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of RhythmRelease date: 1990-03-12; Music CD
Best price: $6.04
Price in other shops:
Tribe Called Quest - The Low End TheoryTRIBE CALLED QUEST; Release date: 1991-09-24; Music CD
Best price: $5.75
Price in other shops:
Tribe Called Quest - Love MovementRelease date: 1998-09-29; Music CD
Best price: $6.98
Price in other shops:
Tribe Called Quest - Midnight MaraudersTRIBE CALLED QUEST; Release date: 1993-11-09; Music CD
Best price: $4.86
Price in other shops:
Tribe Called Quest - Beats Rhymes & LifeRelease date: 1996-07-30; Music CD
Best price: $5.78
Price in other shops:
Q-Tip - AmplifiedRelease date: 1999-11-30; Music CD
Best price: $3.03
Price in other shops:
Q-Tip - The RenaissanceRelease date: 2008-11-04; Music CD
Best price: $8.40
Price in other shops: