Much to the dismay of many of us, thinking-persons’ hip-hop has been pushed deep into the underground over the last few years. So it’s especially heartening that Q-Tip’s The Renaissance, his first album since 1999’s Amplified, entered the Billboard album chart at a more-than-respectable No. 11. The disc is just about everything fans of the former Tribe Called Quest member could hope for — a no-filler (43 minutes) slab of velvety grooves (countered by some harder funk), snappy hooks (a few featuring guests like D’Angelo and Raphael Saadiq) and major helpings of clever rhymes delivered with optimum flow in Q-Tip’s distinctive nasal, pinched voice.
Q might be rockin’ the wit, but he’s not overly high-minded. He raps about women, but never goes into bitches-and-ho’s mode; he sprinkles in some socially conscious stuff but is not didactic; he offers hosannas to hip-hop but with twists. And he boasts — but, again, cleverly. Sometimes its even silly: “Corny rap style niggas they lack the pedigree/ What is they bein’ when they just a manatee/ Who me? I’m unaffected, the way of the hammerhead/ The magnanimous decision unanimous I am fed.”
I’ll take frivolous nonsense over bodily threat (and gunfire effects) any time.
Q-Tip produced all but one of the tracks, and shows his continued deft touch at the control board. He blends live instrumentation with well-chosen, rare-groove samples (Ruby Andrews’ “You Made a Believer Out of Me”) and even throws in a few well-placed turntable scratches, a nice homage to back in the day. It’s probably best not to read too much into the relative success of Q-Tip’s new hip-hop-for-grownups offering. But I’ll take it for now. (Motown) ***1/2
This article appears in Nov 19-25, 2008.