In rap years, roughly a century passed
between the release of Q-Tip's 1999 solo debut, Amplified, and its
official follow-up, The Renaissance. It wasn't supposed to be that way: In
2002, the hip-hop legend recorded a never-released album of funk-jazz-soul as
alter ego Kamaal The Abstract. So what does the Tribe Called Quest frontman sound
like in 2008? Though it seldom reaches the heights of Q-Tip's seminal early
work with that group, The Renaissance settles into a safe, soothing, mellow
groove early on and sustains it throughout with the help of guest vocalists
Norah Jones, D'Angelo, Amanda Diva, and Raphael Saadiq.
Q-Tip's past haunts the album,
especially on the neo-soultastic "Life Is Better," in which he name-checks the
rappers and producers who took hip-hop from the old school to the present day,
and the J Dilla-produced "Move," which riffs on the chorus of "Scenario" as the
late producer slices and dices a funky old soul sample. The Renaissance is appealingly
modest in scope, a grown-up album for fans who grew up alongside Q-Tip, and
like him, grew estranged from the empty flash of mainstream hip-hop. In a rare
nod to the present, Q-Tip samples Barack Obama before sliding into a jazzy
Tribe Called Quest-style groove on the album-closing "Shaka." The song pays
homage to his lost friends, including J Dilla. It's an appropriately elegiac,
bittersweet conclusion to a solid though less-than-transcendent comeback album
from a hip-hop icon who has survived to make good music, even if he hasn't
exactly thrived.