He's back! The one and only "abstract poetic" has returned to bring the masses a long-awaited classic. For those that haven't listen to Tribe in a while, or for those that are sadly too young to remember the vibrant sounds of A Tribe Called Quest, now is your chance to get a good solid updated dose of the perfect funky rhythms and breaks mixed with that pure hiphop flow and lyricism. He really took it back with this one. Sounds like it could have all the original members of Tribe with him, some songs very reminiscent of the Mos Def, native toungue sound that Tribe is credited to giving influence. But don't let these praise make you think Q-Tip is stuck in the 90's trying to "keep it real" Far from it! His is new album, production especially, does an amazing job of blending today's sounds with what we all want to hear, which is just that classic feel-good atmosphere that the "golden era" hip-hop created for us. I'm glad he took us back while moving himself forwards. Welcome back Q-Tip, sorry if I've been sleeping on you, I encourage everyone else to wake up and go cop it.
FLOW - 4.5
Lyrical Content 4
Production 4
Albumness 4
Overall - 4
ALBUM REVIEW INTRODUCTION
all of the ratings will be out of a 5 point system. obviously we won't be rating horrible albums, so all of the albums SHOULD be in the upper range, but who knows, one of us could be having a bad day when we do the review. BUT DON'T TAKE OUR WORD FOR IT!
flow - is how the emcees ride the beat and what their cadence is. this may also include evaluation on the emcees' voice and tone.
lyrical content - is what the rappers are ACTUALLY SAYING. we know that nobody listens to anything but the beat nowadays, but bear with us.
production - is the quality of the beats and other musical content on the album. thank god for 9th!
album-ness - how all the songs are cohesively arranged on the album and the overall feel of the album.
overall - self-explanatory.
