Give rapper/producer Jonathan Davis/Kamaal Ibn John Fareed/Q-Tip/The Abstract a break. Sure, he doesn’t pop up in public too often. But I mean, for one thing, the dude keeps changing his name, so for all I know, he put out like 20 chillwave records this year. For another, dude’s got a lot on his plate, what with his day job as a rhyme checker and his moonlighting gig as a midnight marauder. So, when he says a record like Kamaal/The Abstract (TMT Review) is going to drop in 2002 and it doesn’t actually surface until 2009, cut the man some slack. He’d cut you some, I bet.
Besides, the reason we’re here right now is so that Tip can announce the title and release date of his newest album (which is technically the follow-up to 2008’s The Renaissance) to me over the phone so that I can pass that info along to you LIVE! Woohoo! Here we go… okay, I’m getting word that the forthcoming album is going to be titled The Last Zulu. He’s saying that he revealed the name of his fourth record in a recent interview on the satellite radio station Shade 45. Okay, sweet! Let’s see, he’s also telling me that that fans should expect a concept album that combines world music and boom-bap, and that the resulting LP is “probably going to be the hardest shit I ever did.” Awesome!
Okay, now let me just ask him when it’s officially coming out. Oh, wait… Tip, you there? Sorry everybody, there’s a lot of static, and… Tip? Tip?? Huh. I guess I lost him.
• Q-Tip: http://www.qtiponline.com
