I can't hold my tongue any longer. Q-Tip's Kamaal the Abstract is the best album I have heard recently. The whole album is made with live instruments, and it's a combination of beautifully realised jazz noodling with Q-Tip's typically incisive lyrics and flow. It's not even hip-hop. It's the modern equivalent of Miles Davis's Kind Of Blue - it's that good.
I would say at this point "Run out and buy a copy now!" But you can't, because it's never been officially released. It was supposed to come out in April 2002 - yes over 3 years ago - and there's still no sign. The official website claims it's still coming soon...
Q-Tip was, of course, one of the MCs in A Tribe Called Quest. He's also turned up in a number of other places, eg the Beastie Boys' Get It Together, De-La Soul's Buddy, and of course Deee-Lite's mighty Groove Is In the Heart.
Even given the jazz bent of Quest's classic album The Low-End Theory, this is a revelation. I cannot do justice to it in words, which is too bad as you can't go hear it on a listening post. Ha-ha, sucks to be you.
Weed album of the millenium - so far. Let's see what the next nine hundred and ninety-odd years bring us.
Posted by joey at June 15, 2005 4:50 PM