Customer Reviews

Kamaal the Abstract

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

ATCQ bought that jazz vibe. For those who were in their early 20's, Tribe was a perfection transition from rap to more grown up music. Admist the New Jack Swing and Chicago House stuff you had the conscious MCs. Great stuff! We can enjoy a few rap songs (and I'm saying rap as not in real hip hop)here and there but I always go back to Q. He's grown up too and he has realized his growth and wants to share it with the grown up world. To Q I say thank you. I still love the lyrical but I need it to make sense to me as a 40 yr woman.
This cd is perfect for me. Contemp and a lil traditional jazz, neo, funk and rhyming. The formula is just right. I give it 5 stars because it will be awhile before anyone else comes out that I can groove to at work.

Q-Tip's third album "Kamaal the abstract" was originally intended to be released as his second album in 2001, but was shelved by the record company over doubts about it's commercial viability. It finally gets released some 8 years later and finds Q-Tip twiddling production keys as well as playing some instruments.

The feel is Jazz/Funk a la Stevie Wonder or even Prince (especially on the Funk/Rock-laced "Heels" and on the guitar driven "Barely in love" with chunky/clunky percussion and hand claps), and finds Q-Tip doing more singing than rapping. Featuring no samples but live instrumentation, the presence of jazz legends Kenny Garrett, Gary Thomas and Kirk Rosenwinkel adds to the loose Jazzy feel.

The album comprises just 10 tracks and every thing stands out really, with variety. For lovers of Hip Hop, there's sing-song rapping on the horn/piano sprinkled "Abstractionisms" and "Do you dig u?" (lilting harmonies and funky rhodes) both set to a languid Neo-Soul sound with an incredibly groovy bassline, the melancholic piano ballad "Caring" features soothing female vocals/harmonies, while songs like "A million times" or "Even if it is so" (with a brilliant sax solo) wouldn't sound out of place on a D'Angelo or Erykah Badu CD.

This album is only "uncommercial" as compared to the uninspired clones being spit out of the musical conveyor belt, it will hardly get any airplay. Don't let that fool you though, this is music at it's finest, and I'm glad Q-Tip insisted on getting it finally released. An album you really should own.

what can I say Q-Tip always puts out music that is always good and what one would not here other rappers put out, and is no exception on this cd which is ot standing from the time you push play and here the first selection(Feelin) till the end of the cd you will just be dancing and moving along to his groove...I advise anyone to buy this cd, for it is one of Q-Tips best!!!!!!!!!!excellent

I have been watching for this to come out for years. I heard about Q-Tip's problems with the record company pulling it from distribution so i looked for any copy of it i could. Unfortunatly i couldn't find one i could afford ( copies were going for $50 and up!) Even though its years and years later im glad i got this one. I'm a long time big big big fan of TCQ. I love this one because it represents what i believe to be true Hip Hop. Q-Tip kinda ticked me off when he came out with those crappy solo projects like Amplified. He strayed to much from his deep Hip Hop roots with that one i think. He fell slave to the "bling bling", age and it didnt work. After that i figured he completely sold out. Not his fault though. gotta do what you gotta do right? LOL
Im glad this was finally released. This is truly "Grown Folks Music" that was released early 2000s when we really needed it but had to wait 7 to 8 more years!. Its a breath of fresh air and i hope to hear more like it. My favorite is Blue Girl....man that one is TIGHT! But i love the whole CD. (sorry no MP3s for me, im truly old school and like to read the liner notes). Plus i love that he's singing too. Not the best singer but you can tell he's sincere. If Pharell can pull it off so can Q! LOving this one all the way. Please keep it up Q-tip. This is that smooth hip hop sound us beatheads love to hear! Go on grown man!

So I have been hearing about this album for years and like most true Q-Tip fans were excited to know that this was going to be released. I'm glad that as an artist that he got to show his talent finally. I think that everything happens for a reason and this album is RIGHT ON TIME! I don't think it would have been appreciated back in 2001. Think Common's Electric Circus. Alot of what you will hear on this is heavy jazz grooves, much like we've heard on the Ummah and if you have liked what you have heard on the renaissance you'll like this too. I can appreciate the fact that he produced this himself and played alot of the instruments himself. I have much more of an appreciation for his expression.

The Renaissance and even amplified was definitely more "polished-up" and comprised more of music that's mainstream friendly and that's not to say that any of his work is diminished in any way, it just has a different energy to me than specifically that Amplified had. This is alot more laid back lounge music type of a vibe to it. So once again, most of us tribe-heads will hear the common theme and will love it. I think it's sad to think that this great work was shuffled around and put on the back burner by other record labels but as I said, everything in it's own time.

The album really shows alot of emotion too, like you can really feel what he is trying to say even though some tracks aren't very lyrically intensive. This album does have a strong jazz fell to it as well, tracks like "Blue Girl", "Do you dig u" "Even if it is so" show great instrumentation. Then of course you have the lyrical tracks like the verse on "Feelin", "Abstractisms" and "Make It work" show that the MC part of him has never left. Then "Heels" has that funk/synth sound somewhat reminicent of Cameo. Again, I think it's very raw and expressive. As a fan of Q-Tip's emcee skills I was hoping for some more lyrical content and like Renaissance it's too short. (We always want to hear more Q!) So I gave it 4 stars but it is definitely a must have for any Tribe/Q-Tip fan. Thanks to Amazon the CD is extremely affordable too!

The reason why I titled the review as such is that some people will expect "Amplified" and some people will expect "Renaissance" and it's neither, but it is Q-Tip.

This album is very good. It is really Funky though. Not as much lyricism as ATCQ albums, but it is still amazing. Mostly live band stuff, this is a very very funky funky album. It has a lot of jazz elements and groove to it. I think that if this album had came out on its original due date, it may not have been that well received. I really think this album is for true music lovers.

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+

... And I still love the sound. Think "I Left My Wallet In El Segundo" from A Tribe Called Quest debut release and mash it with the soft rock of the '70s from artists such as Steely Dan and Seals and Croft. If you're expecting and want that ill nasal flow and the jazz beats from Tip then you will be disappointed. If you want something away from the norm, then buy this CD. Tre Hardson, Cee Lo, Andre 3000, and Phonte from Little Brother have all "re-invented" their perspective of Hip Hop. Q-Tip has done the same and it's a musical success.

I'm just glad it ever officially came out. Makes you wonder how much good music is on the shelves. This should have come out in 2001. The music industry is full of sleazy idiots.

I was pleasently suprised by how awesome this album is, Kamaal has truly demonstrated his growth as both a man and an artist through this wonderful masterpiece.