I have fond memories of A Tribe Called Quest. My parents thought it’d be a good idea to make me go to chinese school on Saturday mornings throughout my childhood when every other normal kid got to sleep in. (I actually graduated, but I don’t remember a thing. My dad used to do my homework for me – I think I even won an award one year for an essay I didn’t even write). My friend Stanley’s discman and “Midnight Marauders” cd got me through those really boring Saturday mornings… we had teachers that couldn’t force us to learn and we took advantage of it every week. It was then that I fell in love with the eccentric trio from Queens.

After ATCQ broke up, rapper Q-Tip released his solo album “Amplified” which was co-produced by the late legendary J Dilla. A lot of people complained that it was a commercial album and a total departure from the smooth jazzy beats and laid back flow that Tribe was known for, but I for one found it refreshing that Tip was willing to try something new. ?uestlove (of the Roots) seemed to think so too and wrote a pretty humorous yet insightful review of the album.

Fast forward 9 years, and after numerous record label battles over his album “Kamaal the Abstract” (which stopped the record from being released) Tip has dropped his second official album, “The Renaissance.” What I love most about this record is the fact that it has elements of old and new. Any fan of Tribe will hear it in this album (much more so than “Amplified“) but thankfully, Tip is never content to simply regurgitate the old. For those of us who missed his nasally smooth flow, this album is a welcome respite from much of what’s dropping these days. Another pleasant suprise is the fact that he produced the whole record (with the exception of “Move” which was contributed by Dilla); it’s no secret that he’s a prolific beatmaker, given his contributions to the Ummah – his beatmaking collective that he, Dilla and Ali Shaheed Muhammed were a part of – so it was nice to see him flex his talents on this record.

Guest appearances are few but strategic…. Norah Jones, D’Angelo and Raphael Saadiq (formerly of Tony! Toni! Tone!) lend their vocal talents to the record. Here’s my favorite track off “The Renaissance,” but to be honest this is the first album in a while that I enjoyed immensely from start to finish. And even more importantly, it’s a work of music that is a forward progression for hip hop while simultaneously bringing me back to memories of old, which is even rarer these days.

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