Community hub
Recent from talks
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Kamaal the Abstract
Kamaal the Abstract is the third studio album by American hip-hop artist Q-Tip, released on September 15, 2009, through Battery Records. Recorded in 2001, the album is a departure from his solo debut album Amplified (1999). Kamaal the Abstract is an eclectic album that features Q-Tip rapping, singing, and exploring his jazz influences. The album contains introspective and life-related lyrical themes.
The album was originally planned for release in 2002 as the follow-up to Amplified. However, it was shelved by Q-Tip's record label at the time, Arista, which doubted its commercial potential. It eventually leaked onto the internet, while the distribution of promotional copies led several publications to run reviews of the album.
After its official release in 2009, the album debuted at number 77 on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart, selling 6,000 copies in its first week. Upon its release, Kamaal the Abstract received positive reviews from most music critics.
An eclectic album, Kamaal the Abstract serves as a departure from Q-Tip's debut album Amplified (1999), which is more mainstream-oriented in its style and production approach. The album has Q-Tip rapping, singing, and exploring his jazz influences. While it contains elements of hip hop, pop, and rock music, the album's improvisational sound is generally rooted in jazz and funk. The album's songs mostly feature loose arrangements that provide space for improvisation. Its instrumentation is characterized by electric piano, flute playing, deep organs, guitar-fuelled grooves, and improvised solos. On its musical style, music critic John Bush wrote that Kamaal the Abstract "pays homage to the last gasp of organically produced mainstream pop in the '70s and '80s, paying a large compliment to Prince and Stevie Wonder".
The album has been compared by writers to soul and funk-oriented albums such as D'Angelo's Voodoo (2000), André 3000's The Love Below (2003), and Prince's Musicology (2004), as well as the hip hop/neo soul work of the Soulquarians collective. In his book To the Break of Dawn: A Freestyle on the Hip Hop Aesthetic (2007), music writer William Jelani Cobb cited Kamaal the Abstract, along with The Roots' Phrenology (2002), Mos Def's Black on Both Sides (1999), Common's Electric Circus (2002), and the work of Jill Scott and Erykah Badu, as a "genre-bending" effort at musical expansion of hip hop.
The 'profilin cop' who stops [Q-Tip] on his way there is just another mundane and too-predictable distraction in a world full of them. Kamaal is an album about sidestepping the cop and avoiding pettiness; the man is determined to overcome, any way he can. If that means letting the music speak for itself, then Tip doesn't rap.
Kamaal the Abstract contains introspective lyrical themes. Opening with the album's only rock chord, the opening track "Feelin' It" is one of the album's few tracks with him rapping and it contains one verse about common life experiences and hassles. It introduces Q-Tip on his way to a recording studio, during which he is stopped by a police officer who profiles him: "This profiling cop with his profiling ass / Figured the best thing he could do was find a cat to harass. / The little kitten was me, not that one in the tree / The black one with the promise and the wish to be free". The lyrics are based on an experience that Q-Tip had with a policeman. John Murph of Jazz Times interpreted the song's verse as a metaphor for Q-Tip's struggles for absolute creative freedom without resulting in critical backlash. Tiny Mix Tapes's Brendan Mahoney interpreted the "profilin' cop" in the song as "another mundane and too-predictable distraction in a world full of them".
Songs such as "Blue Girl" and "Heels" demonstrate Q-Tip's female-identified perspective on Kamaal the Abstract. "Do U Dig U?" has philosophically minded lyrics that deal with existential detachment. "Barely in Love" concerns the powerful nature of love with lyrics about two lovers that are together based on physical attraction. The album's closing track, "Even If It Is So", is an ode to single parenting and discusses a hard-working mother.
Hub AI
Kamaal the Abstract AI simulator
(@Kamaal the Abstract_simulator)
Kamaal the Abstract
Kamaal the Abstract is the third studio album by American hip-hop artist Q-Tip, released on September 15, 2009, through Battery Records. Recorded in 2001, the album is a departure from his solo debut album Amplified (1999). Kamaal the Abstract is an eclectic album that features Q-Tip rapping, singing, and exploring his jazz influences. The album contains introspective and life-related lyrical themes.
The album was originally planned for release in 2002 as the follow-up to Amplified. However, it was shelved by Q-Tip's record label at the time, Arista, which doubted its commercial potential. It eventually leaked onto the internet, while the distribution of promotional copies led several publications to run reviews of the album.
After its official release in 2009, the album debuted at number 77 on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart, selling 6,000 copies in its first week. Upon its release, Kamaal the Abstract received positive reviews from most music critics.
An eclectic album, Kamaal the Abstract serves as a departure from Q-Tip's debut album Amplified (1999), which is more mainstream-oriented in its style and production approach. The album has Q-Tip rapping, singing, and exploring his jazz influences. While it contains elements of hip hop, pop, and rock music, the album's improvisational sound is generally rooted in jazz and funk. The album's songs mostly feature loose arrangements that provide space for improvisation. Its instrumentation is characterized by electric piano, flute playing, deep organs, guitar-fuelled grooves, and improvised solos. On its musical style, music critic John Bush wrote that Kamaal the Abstract "pays homage to the last gasp of organically produced mainstream pop in the '70s and '80s, paying a large compliment to Prince and Stevie Wonder".
The album has been compared by writers to soul and funk-oriented albums such as D'Angelo's Voodoo (2000), André 3000's The Love Below (2003), and Prince's Musicology (2004), as well as the hip hop/neo soul work of the Soulquarians collective. In his book To the Break of Dawn: A Freestyle on the Hip Hop Aesthetic (2007), music writer William Jelani Cobb cited Kamaal the Abstract, along with The Roots' Phrenology (2002), Mos Def's Black on Both Sides (1999), Common's Electric Circus (2002), and the work of Jill Scott and Erykah Badu, as a "genre-bending" effort at musical expansion of hip hop.
The 'profilin cop' who stops [Q-Tip] on his way there is just another mundane and too-predictable distraction in a world full of them. Kamaal is an album about sidestepping the cop and avoiding pettiness; the man is determined to overcome, any way he can. If that means letting the music speak for itself, then Tip doesn't rap.
Kamaal the Abstract contains introspective lyrical themes. Opening with the album's only rock chord, the opening track "Feelin' It" is one of the album's few tracks with him rapping and it contains one verse about common life experiences and hassles. It introduces Q-Tip on his way to a recording studio, during which he is stopped by a police officer who profiles him: "This profiling cop with his profiling ass / Figured the best thing he could do was find a cat to harass. / The little kitten was me, not that one in the tree / The black one with the promise and the wish to be free". The lyrics are based on an experience that Q-Tip had with a policeman. John Murph of Jazz Times interpreted the song's verse as a metaphor for Q-Tip's struggles for absolute creative freedom without resulting in critical backlash. Tiny Mix Tapes's Brendan Mahoney interpreted the "profilin' cop" in the song as "another mundane and too-predictable distraction in a world full of them".
Songs such as "Blue Girl" and "Heels" demonstrate Q-Tip's female-identified perspective on Kamaal the Abstract. "Do U Dig U?" has philosophically minded lyrics that deal with existential detachment. "Barely in Love" concerns the powerful nature of love with lyrics about two lovers that are together based on physical attraction. The album's closing track, "Even If It Is So", is an ode to single parenting and discusses a hard-working mother.