Kamaal/The Abstract

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Kamaal/The Abstract
Studio album by Q-Tip
Released	April 23, 2002 (shelved) September 15, 2009
Recorded	2001
Genre	Fusion, neo soul, jazz, funk, hip hop
Length	41:03
Label	Arista/BMG 07822-14685 (unreleased) Battery/Jive/SME 88697 55519
Producer	Q-Tip
Professional reviews
Allmusic [1] The A.V. Club (favorable)[2] Blender [3] Entertainment Weekly (B)[4] New Zealand Herald [5] Pitchfork Media (6.3/10)[6] PopMatters (7/10)[7] Slant [8] Tiny Mix Tapes [9] Vibe [10]
Q-Tip chronology
The Renaissance (2008) Kamaal/The Abstract (2009)
Original cover
Artwork of shelved issue

Kamaal/The Abstract is the third studio album by American hip hop artist Q-Tip, released September 15, 2009 on Battery Records. Recorded in 2001,^[11] the album is a departure from his debut album Amplified (1999). Kamaal/The Abstract is an eclectic fusion album that features Q-Tip rapping, singing, and exploring his jazz influences. The album exhibits introspective themes and a lyrical maturity in his songwriting.

Initially planned for release on April 23, 2002 as the follow-up to Amplified, Kamaal/The Abstract was shelved by Q-Tip's record label at the time, Arista, and it eventually leaked onto the internet. The label based their decision to shelve the album on doubts of its mainstream appeal and commercial potential. The distribution of promotional copies led several publications to run reviews of the album. Following its initial reaction, Kamaal/The Abstract received generally positive reviews from music critics, based on an aggregate score of 79/100 from Metacritic.

[edit] Music

[edit] Musical style

An eclectic fusion album,^[12][13][14] 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.^[9][13] The album has Q-Tip rapping, singing, and exploring his jazz influences.^[15] While it contains elements of hip hop, pop, and rock music, the album's improvisational sound is generally rooted in jazz and funk.^[16][17] The album's songs mostly feature loose arrangements that provide space for improvisation.^[1][10] Its instrumentation is characterized by electric piano, flute playing, deep organs, guitar-fuelled grooves, and improvised solos.^[4][18] 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".^[1]

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),^[17] as well as the hip hop/neo soul work of the Soulquarians collective.^[19] 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's 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.^[20]

[edit] Lyrical themes

Kamaal/The Abstract exhibits introspective themes and a lyrical maturity by Q-Tip.^[14] Opening with the album's only rock chord,^[9] 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.^[21] It introduces Q-Tip on his way to a recording studio,^[9] 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".^[22] The lyrics are based on an experience that Q-Tip had with a policeman.^[12] 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.^[12] 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".^[9] On its relation to the album's general focus, Mahoney wrote:

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.^[9]

—Brendan Mahoney

Songs such as "Blue Girl" and "Heels" demonstrate Q-Tip's female-identified perspective on Kamaal/The Abstract.^[10] "Do U Dig U?" has philosophically-minded lyrics that deal with existential detatchment.^[12][21] "Barely in Love" concerns the powerful nature of love with lyrics about two lovers that are together based on physical attraction.^[12][21] The album's closing track, "Even If It Is So", is an ode to single parenting and discusses a hard-working mother.^[14]

[edit] Release

Q-Tip began recording for the album after being signing to Arista Records by record executive Clive Davis.^[14] However, he was left to lobby the progressive project to Arista's new administration after Davis left the label.^[14] Originally scheduled for a October 23, 2001 release date,^[23] and later pushed back to April 23, 2002, the album was shelved by Arista, doubting its commercial potential.^[24] It was originally set to be released with the title Abstractions, which served as the title for the album's promo LP (2001).^{[25][unreliable source?]} In an interview for The Village Voice, Q-Tip discussed his label history and the release of the album, stating:

Well, I was on Arista, and I was there with Clive Davis. They were about to kick him out of Arista, and he called me and was like, 'Q-Tip, you need to come to J Records. I have an artist by the name of Alicia Keys, and you and her would just be great'. And I really wanted to go there because I thought Clive was a visionary; he definitely is. I was telling him about the band I wanted to do and stuff like that. And then Lyor Cohen, who runs Atlantic, used to be with Def Jam, used to manage us, and he called me and said, 'Q-Tip, you're crazy if you fuck wit' Clive. You need to fuck wit' LA [Reid]'. So me listening to some stuff that I thought was sage advice, I did that, stuck with LA. I did an album, Kamaal the Abstract, and he dug it. It went out to press. People were really liking it. It was, at the time, some other shit, and I guess he just got cold feet.^[26]

—Q-Tip

On his feelings towards its shelving, Q-Tip has stated "I am really disappointed that Kamaal wasn't released. LA Reid didn't know what to do with it; then, three years later, they release OutKast. What OutKast is doing now, those are the kinds of sounds that are on Kamaal the Abstract. Maybe even a little more out. Kamaal was just me, guerrilla".^[27] While it did not receive an official release, advanced promotional copies made their way into the public, leaking to the internet.^[28] It is worth noting that despite the album not receiving an official release, Arista did release promotional singles for the album.^[29] In 2006, Q-Tip announced that he was in negotiations to regain control of the album from Arista/BMG and planned on officially releasing it in 2007.^[30] On July 1, 2009, Jive Records announced that it would release the album through its Battery imprint.^[31] The U.S. compact disc release was issued with the bonus track "Make It Work",^{[32][unreliable source?]} and the double LP release was issued with the former and the bonus track "Damn You're Cool".^{[33][unreliable source?]}

[edit] Reception

The album received generally positive reviews from music critics, based on an aggregate score of 79/100 from Metacritic.^[34] Amid Kamaal/The Abstract's original planned release, promotional copies had been distributed and several publications ran reviews of the album.^[15] Allmusic writer John Bush gave it 4½ out of 5 stars and considered it superior to Q-Tip's debut album Amplified.^[1] Despite writing that it does not reach its potential, Karen R. Good of Vibe perceived it as a progression from Amplified and described it as "closer to the rooted, love-sexy album we, the people, expect from the musicologist".^[10] In giving it a B rating, Entertainment Weekly writer David Browne called the album "one of the most head-scratching albums ever made by a prominent rapper", and wrote that it "feels like a worthy experiment abandoned halfway through; it doesn't end so much as nod off".^[4] The A.V. Club's Nathan Rabin wrote that Kamaal/The Abstract "sounds like the sort of disc that gets rappers released from their contracts … it's invigorating to listen to a relaxed and playful Q-Tip follow his muse ever further off the beaten path".^[2]

Ben Brandt of Blender magazine commended Q-Tip for his musicianship and gave the album 4 out of 5 stars.^[3] Kamaal/The Abstract received 3½ out of 4 stars from the Toronto Star,^[18] and The New Zealand Herald gave it 4 out of 4 stars.^[5] The latter publication's Scott Kara wrote that Q-Tip "came up with something timeless then - and nine years on it sounds fresh, inventive and cosmic", writing that the album has a "unique coolness to it and it still sounds ahead of its time in 2009".^[5] Despite writing that it "seems a bit aimless at times", William Grant of Drowned in Sound gave the album a rating of 8/10 and praised its diverse sound.^[35] PopMatters writer Dave Heaton gave Kamaal/The Abstract a rating of 7/10 and wrote that it is "mainly about feeling. There’s no storytelling meat to the songs, less wit, not much of Q-Tip’s creative approach to language. It’s mostly about riding the groove, and that Q-Tip does well".^[7]

[edit] Track listing

[edit] Personnel

Credits for Kamaal/The Abstract adapted from Allmusic.^[36]

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Kamaal/The Abstract at Metacritic
• Q-Tip's Return to Grace at The Root
• The Making of Kamaal/The Abstract — By Q-Tip
• Q-Tip Finally Putting Out His Kamaal the Abstract 'Fusion' Album at MTV