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As you may have heard - and how could you not, as it seems virtually every hip hop site has linked to it during the past 24 hours - J.Period recently put out his latest mixtape, The (Abstract) Best, a retrospective of Q-Tip's musical career up to this point featuring songs that he both appeared on and produced. Along with several classic Tribe songs and an unreleased version of Scenario (which first popped up a couple of months ago over at unkut) the mixtape also includes remixes from J.Period and a few "tribute" remakes featuring emcees that were either a part of the Native Tongues movement back in the day (Dres and De La Soul) or claim to be a sort of spiritual successor to the movement (Talib and Kid Cudi).
Without going into a full review of the tape, I'll say that J.Period's remixes are well done and are a must listen for any fan of Q-Tip's, or Tribe in general. Yet I was underwhelmed by the remakes, in particular Skillz' recreation of What?, and Blu's spin on Jazz (We've Got). In my opinion the original Tribe versions are nearly flawless, so I'd be hard pressed to come up with any emcee that I'd rather hear in place of Phife and Tip over the same beat. It's the short interview interludes, in which J.Period has pulled together audio snippets from Q-Tip, De La Soul and a handful of other Tribe associates (though notably absent are Phife Dawg and Ali Shaheed), that turns this mixtape from a decent effort into a must listen for rap nerds and ATCQ groupies alike. These segments don't offer up a whole lot of insight into Tip's music, necessarily, but they do provide tidbits of trivia that you'd be hard pressed to find anywhere else. Hopefully J.Period can get Q-Tip to open up on the Teddy Riley incident for the next installment of the series.
Here are a few of the interview segments:
Q-Tip discussing his failed attempt at Yiddish for the line "Kapelka makes you vomit" off of The Low End Theory's What?:
Q-Tip on What? (d/l link)
Bob Power, Tribe's sound engineer, discussing the "Bob Power, you there?" line from Midnight Marauders' The Chase, Part II:
Bob Power discusses The Chase, Part II (d/l link)
Q-Tip talking about Hood, a.k.a. Kid Hood, the "emcee in spiritual form" who died shortly after recording his verse for the Scenario remix:
Q-Tip on Kid Hood
Q-Tip on the making of Scenario and working with Leaders of the New School:
Q-Tip on L.O.N.S. and Scenario
Trugoy and Q-Tip on the first meeting between De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest, and the start of the Native Tongues movement:
Trugoy and Q-Tip discuss the Native Tongues
Q-Tip on how Pete Rock and Large Professor helped in the making of Jazz (We've Got):
Q-Tip on Jazz
Here's the link to download J.Period and Q-Tip: The (Abstract) Best mixtape (rapidshare)
Speaking of Kid Hood, there was a mixtape going around prior to his appearance on the Scenario remix that had a bunch of his demo songs. Discogs makes no mention of it, but I remember a few of the older kids around my way talking about it at the time, anticipating that Hood would soon take the place of Kane and Rakim as one of the next great emcees in hip hop. Considering how many quotable lines he managed to cram into that one Scenario verse, and how highly regarded he was by every Native Tongues member, he might have actually lived up to those lofty expectations. I've spent the better part of two decades trying to track down Kid Hood's mixtape (even had a brief conversation with Phife about it), but still have yet to come up with a copy. If anyone has it, or any info on it, please hit me up.
02/11/2009 08:00:01 PM posted by Fresh