Q-Tip

Even in today’s rap world full of inflated egos, calling an album “The Renaissance” is still an eyebrow-raising move. It creates expectations. The artist better deliver an album with a rare vibrancy, creativity, and intelligence, if not a record that rejuvenates hip-hop from the underground to the Top-40, from the street corner to the dance floor. An album with longevity.

Q-Tip is familiar with the great hip-hop album. Within the genre, the man is a legend. As a member of much-beloved A Tribe Called Quest, Q-Tip contributed to albums like “The Low End Theory” and “Midnight Marauders”—full of loping bass lines, crisp percussion, clever rhymes, and a whole lot of good vibes. Q-Tip was the buttery-smooth, laid-back voice on some of the best tracks that hip-hop has to offer.

It has been a long six years since Q-Tip’s last album, 2002’s “Kamaal the Abstract,” went unreleased for lacking commercial appeal. In the meantime, Q-Tip has had time to observe the domination of mainstream rap by rappers whose top priorities are probably not their lyrics. Given Q-Tip’s love for hip-hop and a lengthy hiatus in which to create music, the moniker “The Renaissance” should fit the album.

On the energetic opener “Johnny is Dead,” Q-Tip raps, “Sometimes I phase out when I look at the screen / When I think about my chance for me to intervene / And it’s up to me to bring back the hope.” Which raises the question, does he succeed?

In the same song, Q-Tip forcefully announces his return. The jazzy guitar licks, insistent bass line, sparklingly dissonant piano line, and tight drum beat tell the listener in no uncertain terms that Q-Tip is still an excellent producer. On the closer “Shaka,” the jazzy shades of keyboard strongly evoke A Tribe Called Quest—at least until a squiggly techno-sounding synthesizer riff enters. It’s wonderful how Q-Tip combines disparate musical elements, both past and present, into one cohesive head-nodding unit.

Lyrically, Q-Tip is in top form as well. What stands out on “The Renaissance” is not so much individual lines but the sensitive and intelligent way Q-Tip treats his subject matter. Whether he is rapping about his romantic relationships, familial bonds, or the state of hip-hop, Q-Tip can always be depended upon to be tasteful and insightful. On standout track “We Fight/We Love,” Q-Tip addresses the Iraq War from the perspective of a soldier and his wife. He raps about the soldier, “You want identity / So you join this big fraternity / You get to travel the world / It’s cheaper than college / And you get guns / You get knowledge / Looking for your soul.” Throughout “The Renaissance,” it’s clear that Q-Tip can rap, write, and produce. He is a true hip-hop Renaissance man.

If there’s one knock on “The Renaissance,” it is that the momentum fades at times. You have strings of excellent songs?, like “Believe” and “Shaka” at the end of the album. Other times, you have songs like “Official” and “You” that are a bit too undistinguished. On the latter, the jazzy grooves sound a bit too familiar and a bit too mundane. Often, Q-Tip can compensate for his less-stellar beats with great rhymes, but that isn’t always the case. However, there are enough great songs on “The Renaissance” to make the occasional faltering of momentum no more than a minor drawback.

Does Q-Tip’s “The Renaissance” live up to its name? “The Renaissance” is a passionate effort from a hip-hop veteran. Q-Tip still has creative beats, a one-of-a-kind delivery, and songs that do not sacrifice intelligence for accessibility. But I’m not sure if “The Renaissance” is a transcendent album that can bring to the fore a more innovative and intelligent brand of hip-hop. Q-Tip sampled then-presidential candidate Barack Obama on early versions of “Shaka,” the veteran finding common ground with the neophyte in their goal of bringing positive change to hip-hop and America, respectively. Here’s to hoping that both succeed.