Funk, soul, and R&B show up in The Renaissance<\/i>, but rapper\/producer Q-Tip is ultimately a jazzman. His rapping reminds me of Miles Davis searching for notes in \u201cRight Off\u201d (A Tribute To Jack Johnson<\/i>). Only Q-Tip is much calmer during his journeys. Doesn\u2019t matter how fast he raps or how serious the subject of his lyrics is, Q-Tip has remarkable control. <\/p>\n
Check out \u201cYou\u201d for evidence. The song is Q-Tip\u2019s realization that his lover is killing the relationship: \u201cYou were doing so much to try to pin me \/ Going through all my stuff \/ But it was empty.\u201d In the first verse, he admits the truth got to him (\u201cI couldn\u2019t \u2026 even swallow \/ Had a lump in my throat, my stomach hollow\u201d), but his flow throughout the track is more soothing than it should be.<\/p>\n
I had a question before listening to The Renaissance<\/i> (my first exposure to Q-Tip\u2019s solo work): Am I going to miss Phife Dawg, the second essential piece of A Tribe Called Quest? For the most part, I didn\u2019t miss the Five-Foot Freak. Sure, The Renaissance<\/i> could use more humor, but you\u2019re in cool hands with Q-Tip. This is made damn clear with a few lines he delivers on the opening track, \u201cJohnny Is Dead:\u201d \u201cBut what good is a ear if a q-tip isn\u2019t in it? \/ So just stick it in \/ And inform your friend \/ Your boy from the hood \/ Is on that shit again.\u201d There are a few guests on the album, with Norah Jones standing out the most on \u201cLife Is Better\u201d (and even then, Q-Tip\u2019s slick robot rapping made me forget her mantra). <\/p>\n
For a while I thought this album was sort of lopsided. The first five songs are excellent. The sixth track, \u201cWe Fight\/We Love,\u201d is good, but unfortunately it follows \u201cYou,\u201d perhaps the best song on the record. Moreover, \u201cWe Fight\/We Love\u201d almost hits five minutes, so it tends to drag compared to previous tracks, which hovered around three minutes. <\/p>\n
Then the music takes another turn. \u201cManwomanboogie\u201d is very stripped down and funky, certainly blunter than everything before it. But Q-Tip takes his biggest risk on \u201cMove\u201d (produced by J Dilla), which soars like the beginning of the album before deconstructing halfway through, an odd whisper lingering behind Q-Tip\u2019s steady rap. Skip to the final track, \u201cShaka,\u201d and things are irrefutably psychedelic. <\/p>\n
So what about this lopsided business? I interpret that initial conclusion as my inability to keep up with progress. With The Renaissance<\/i>. And looking at the album length (12 tracks at about 43 minutes), it is clear Q-Tip wanted to blow my mind in a hurry. <\/p>\n
(Just wanted to quickly note that this two-line rhyme from \u201cWon\u2019t Trade\u201d is impeccable: \u201cThe physical ability with mental capability \/ Legitimately faces me inside of your vicinity.\u201d) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":73,"featured_media":30064,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[8463],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-41699","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-q-tip","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/73"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41699\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=41699"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=41699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}