A personal, unique project compared to
Amplified (
Q-Tip's first under his own name),
Kamaal the Abstract fittingly sounds more like a solo album; whereas
Amplified merely built on the digital
soul of the last
Tribe Called Quest album (
The Love Movement), this one is wide-ranging and diverse, a relaxed, loose-limbed date.
Q-Tip lays way back on these cuts, rapping in a quick, low monotone for the opener,
"Feelin'," even while the song breaks into some restrained guitar grind on the choruses. Guitars, in fact, crop up all over this record. Setting aside comparisons to the contemporary record by
N.E.R.D. (the
rock side project of
hip-hop super-producers
Neptunes),
Q-Tip crafted a record that 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, even as he proves himself far more talented than
D'Angelo (if not quite as soulful). The beats are pointed and clipped, to be expected on a
Q-Tip record, but he allows plenty of space for the arrangements to speak, like the trim trumpet lines pacing
"Even if It Is So" or allowing plenty of room for extended blowing from a flute on the warm, pastoral
"Do You Dig You." The former is one of the best tracks here,
Q-Tip introducing his story song with a fluid, ten-second speed-
rap that says more about the plight of the single mother he adores than any other rapper could with an entire album. This wasn't the kind of record that lights up the charts -- which could account for the reason it didn't appear on the shelves in late April 2002, as expected, and only earned an official release in 2009 -- but in many ways it's superior to the released
Amplified. [The 2009 release via
Jive included a bonus track,
"Make It Work."] ~ John Bush
