Next week is “The Best You’ve Never Heard” week on Music Help Web. Before I let you know exactly what that is, I’m going to give you a little bit of background on why we’re having a themed week.
Money Mike has put together a fantastic group of writers for this site. No one has exactly the same taste in music. Everyone is different. I was thinking of ways to showcase the variety that you can find on this site and came up with an idea. I wanted to allow each writer to write about one of their favorite songs from one of their favorite artists. But rather than write about a song that’s famous, I wanted them to write about a song that is a little less known. I wanted them to find that one gem that they hold true to their heart that for whatever reason, never hit.
Thus, starting Monday, you’ll be able to read blog posts from some of our writers based around the same theme. Money Mike will lead things off Monday and I’ll finish it up at the end of the week. Look forward to seeing our inner music geek. It will be “The Best You’ve Never Heard”.
Man, what I wouldn’t give for the chance to have been born 10 years earlier, so I could have witnessed the club culture of the early Eighties. Disco didn’t die, it just went back underground where it started, where it served a faithful group of urbanites, minorities and gays. Some of the best “disco” records actually didn’t surface until after disco allegedly died.
Case in point-You’re the One for Me. James Williams (who for all intents and purposes, was D-Train) could have just as easily been crooning seductive Teddy Pendergrass-esque tunes in that husky baritone, but he chose to focus on the dancefloor instead of the bedroom, probably secure in the knowledge that one led to the other anyway.
I love watching clips like this where there’s a guitarist and drummer on stage, but it’s beyond obvious that there’s not one non-synthesized instrument to be found anywhere on this song. Also keep in mind that this isn’t the original version, but instead a slightly remixed version-slightly sped up and given some more synthy goodness by Paul Hardcastle, who scored a couple of hits of his own in the Eighties with Rainforest and 19.
In the 9 years since his solo debut, Amplified, former A Tribe Called Quest frontman Q-Tip has gone through some serious label issues. His planned second album, Kamaal the Abstract, was shelved by Arista Records right before its’ release for being uncommercial, while various other album titles and release dates have come and gone. Tip, meanwhile, has kept himself busy by working as a club DJ, occasionally hosting VH-1 specials, reuniting with his Tribe brethren for a couple of tours, and apparently dating Oscar-nominated actresses (see Kidman, Nicole) and pop divas (Jackson, Janet).
Finally, The Renaissance, Tip’s long-awaited official sophomore effort, has arrived, and much to my surprise, it’s an excellent effort. After the blatantly club-centric sound of Amplified, I wasn’t sure what to expect from this album, but Q-Tip does an admirable job of keeping the album danceable while maintaining a left-of-center vibe that matches up admirably with some of Tribe’s best work. It’s an album befitting Tip’s status as a hip-hop elder statesman while not sounding “old-school”. Most importantly, Q-Tip remains true to himself, featuring not one concession to modern-day popular hip-hop and not even any guest rappers.
One thing that makes The Renaissance special is that Tip did most of this album with a live band and produced almost every track on the album himself. The one notable exception is the propulsive Move, a track that’s sure to get people bumrushing the dance floor. Produced by the late J. Dilla, it reconstructs a Jackson 5 Dancing Machine sample until it’s rendered almost unrecognizable.
More typical of The Renaissance‘s vibe is the first single Gettin’ Up, a sunny love song with an easygoing vibe. In addition to doing all of the rhyming on this album in his signature nasal voice, Tip also sings most of the choruses on this album and has a pretty serviceable singing voice. He won’t blow you away with his emcee skills, but his rapping has always been more about vibe than “oh sh*t, did you hear what he just said??”.
Other highlights on The Renaissance include Dance on Glass, on which Tip references his own high-water mark Midnight Marauders and then creates a song that would have fit perfectly on that landmark album. The mellow We Fight/Love features Raphael Saadiq on vocals and is more immediate to me than anything on Raphael’s current The Way I See It album. Tip is at his lyrical best here, dedicating a verse to a couple in romantic tumult while his second verse turns political, discussing the conflict of a soldier. Life is Better is Tip’s tribute to hip-hop history. Tip shouts out just about every important rapper over a funk-laced groove and a chorus by Norah Jones, who appears to be channeling her former classmate Erykah Badu on this song. Either that, or I didn’t realize how similar the two sounded until now.
The Renaissance‘s emotional center is the album’s final track, Shaka. Tip pays tribute to his deceased friends (and his deceased father) without sounding mournful. It’s the type of celebratory send-off that most folks hope they’re sent into the next lifetime with.
There’s not one bad track on The Renaissance, although one would hope that after 9 years, enough good material would be amassed to make a good album, right? Q-Tip serves us with a pleasant surprise here, making an album that harkens back to the glory days of A Tribe Called Quest (although Phife Dawg’s presence is missed) with a contemporary flair. It’s good enough to wipe the bad taste of Tip’s solo debut out of any listener’s mouth, and goes a long way towards restoring the good name of a hip-hop icon.
