Q-Tip Releases "Kamaal the Abstract," 10 Vivrant Songs

There are very few artists who can have the beautiful mix of funk, jazz, blues, and hip hop all laced into one album, but hip hop artist Q-Tip manages to do it every time. It wasn't until I completed my weekly check of AOL's Music Listening Party that I saw his new CD, "Kamaal the Abstract" recently released. The only two people I know who come this close to being able to get away with blending so many genres together is hip hop group Outkast. There are so many hip hop artists who are scared to branch out past the norm or give me the same old recycled lyrics about one of three subjects: haters, being rich, or how rough it is in the hood. Frankly, I'm bored with most hip hop.

But then there are those lyricists who make me love it all over again, like Q-tip, Mos Def, Outkast, Jay-Z (although he tends to depend on those three subjects listed above sometimes), Q-Tip, and Ludacris. However, Q-Tip is getting his grown man on with this latest release. He even goes so far as to include a singsong clap-a-long on "Barely in Love" that sounds like it's borderline country. His music is the type of stuff that makes me want to sit in a lounge with a whiskey sour and just zone out. Like Chicago's own Rockstar Poetry Project, Q-Tip gives equal time to thank musicians as well as his own lyrical ability. There are moments on "Kamaal the Abstract" where we hear the musicians go to work, and it really is like sitting in a lounge.

According to AOL's Music Listening Party, this CD was shelved in 2001 and then resurfaced to release in 2009. Although there are only 10 singles on this CD, and I'm getting a little frustrated with artists bringing out a few songs on a CD instead of waiting to get a reasonable amount of songs on one CD (ex. Maxwell who left for four years and had nine songs on "BLACKsummer's Night"), both artists bring quality music. So when you're paying $9.99 for CDs like these, if there are 10 songs on here that could be singles, that's no different than $1 singles. And although sometimes Q-Tip has come out with an occasional song that has no lyrical merit (ex. "Vivrant Thing") but gets the body rocking, when he does snap and give us music to rewind like "Even If It Is So," it's a beautiful thing. And "Kamaal the Abstract" has ten beautiful, danceable, lyrically thought-provoking "Vivrant Thing(s)."