When an artist is on a major label, it can seem like they have to go walkin' in artistic no-mans-land sometimes, especially when you read reports that the new album you've been hearing about and clamoring for is getting shelved. This is what happened in 1999 to Q-Tip's record Kamaal The Abstract , the intended follow-up to his first solo outing, Amplified. And like most shelved albums, it leaked out there and became one of the famous lost albums. But recently, someone decided it was the time for the album to see the light of day and it is being released on September 15. You should hear it, just to see what all the fuss is about. The album leans more to the jazz/funk end of the spectrum with an almost spoken word vibe. That vibe feels like musical poetry (in that it tries to push you) and just like poetry, its not for everyone.
Here are some goodies for anyone who wants to know/hear more.
-A player that'll let you delve into 4 of the songs on the album. Link here.
-The story behind the album via MTV news for the music historians out there.
"In 1999, I just came out of putting out the song 'Vivrant Thing' and 'Breathe and Stop' off the Amplified album. Clive Davis signed me to Arista," Tip told us last week. "I'm a student of the game. I know what Clive did. He put out an album with Miles Davis called Bitches Brew in the '70s. It's considered to be the first fusion album of its kind. I said to Clive, 'I want to do the hip-hop album that's kind of like fusion in that way.' He co-signed it. In 1999, I started putting it together."
Before Tip could get the LP out, Davis got fired from his post. Tip had the option of going with the legendary mogul to J Records, but his old managers, Russell Simmons and Lyor Cohen, convinced him to stay at Arista because L.A. Reid was taking the post.
"He heard it, he dug it," Tip said of Reid. "We passed it out to press. L.A. was like, 'I need a single.' So we went in and started working on a single. I went in, worked on some songs. Played it for him. He kinda didn't say anything."
Tip said Reid just sat there smoking a cigar trying to gather his thoughts while the new material was being played. Unable to come to an agreement on a single, Tip left the label. He said he feels somewhat vindicated to see that Andre 3000 became successful years later using a similar idea to Kamaal the Abstract with The Love Below.
"To see the success of that, it made me feel like, 'Damn, I might have been a little too early, but at least I know I wasn't wrong, because dude did it and rocked with it and it was great.' "