Your Favorite White Boy

As a longtime fan of both A Tribe Called Quest and Q-Tip, I probably would pick up a copy of Kamaal The Abstract when it drops next week (September 15).   Tip’s The Renaissance was an incredible album and I highly respect Q-Tip as an artist.  Note what I said – I respect Tip as a rapper, for sure, but more so as an artist.   He is always ready to discover new ground musically and doesn’t worry that much about conformity.  I like that.

But the real reason I will pick it up is to really stick it in the face of the major labels. While I was obviously not privy to the inside discussions, its a pretty safe bet that Tip presented the product, which they likely expected to be another Amplified – and they had no idea whether it was worth putting out, as that would involve risk.  Labels don’t do risk well.

That annoys me.  In fact, it infuriates me.   As Tip himself points out, now OutKast has come out and it shows that live instrumentation and different creative direction can be embraced by the masses and can result in significant revenue sales.  Nothing against OutKast for doing their thing, but Tip lost out on his rightful place in hip-hop as an innovator and visionary because of label politics and a lack of foresight.

I don’t care how the record is reviewed or what it does in the first week.  I’m going to cop it to finally correct a mistake that happened close to a decade ago.  Who knows what could have happened if LA Reid or whoever had grown some stones and backed up a credible artist.

For that reason alone, hip-hop fans should be adding Kamaal The Abstract to their list of albums to grab this fall.

Tags: Kamal The Abstract, Q-Tip