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Happy 50th birthday to my musical hero @QtipTheAbstract. This man’s harmonic and rhythmic sensibilities shaped my ear. The type of chords I like are because of Tip and Tribe. And nuance, subtlety, the shadows between dark, vibey, intelligent, and fun party shit. 
This is a Q-Tip appreciation thread.
Lyrics To Go. The 3 bar loop. Minnie Ripperton’s high note that sounds like an eerie synth string. The cadence. This is perfection. https://music.apple.com/us/album/lyrics-to-go/265670545?i=265670742
Lyrics To Go. The 3 bar loop. Minnie Ripperton’s high note that sounds like an eerie synth string. The cadence. This is perfection. https://music.apple.com/us/album/lyrics-to-go/265670545?i=265670742
Q-Tip the producer. The notorious record digger. The CRACKING SNARES. Has anyone ever figured out the sample for Crooklyn? I don’t think so, right? https://music.apple.com/us/album/crooklyn-feat-buck-shot-special-ed-master-ace-crooklyn/1434903233?i=1434903249
Amplified was my shit, the whole album. Let’s Ride is a perfect song. A jam about cars, a jam about music, the crazy subtlety of the drum groove. https://music.apple.com/us/album/lets-ride/279722147?i=279722167
Janet. And hey, no disrespect to the gods JJ & TL, but we know who really produced this track. Word to the Ummah. https://music.apple.com/us/album/got-til-its-gone/723390477?i=723390690
My favorite Ummah remix. I hope all the younger Dilla fans know that Tip is single-handedly the reason why the word has Jay Dee music. https://music.apple.com/us/album/sometimes-feat-q-tip-ummah-remix/1443620714?i=1443620922
Let’s take it to Deee Lite. One of the greatest songs of all time, and it features both tip and Bootsy, I mean.... https://music.apple.com/us/album/groove-is-in-the-heart/72794068?i=72793857
Q-Tip the remixer again. Craig Mack remix is slept on, he brought a jazzy groove but kept it hard hitting. https://music.apple.com/us/album/get-down-feat-q-tip-remix-feat-q-tip/450040063?i=450040099
More of that hard shit. A lot of people don’t know how much Kamaal shaped Mobb Deep’s The Infamous. The amount of songs he mixed on there, beyond his credits. But as far as credited songs, this one is 
https://music.apple.com/us/album/drink-away-the-pain-situations-feat-q-tip/255342338?i=255344755
https://music.apple.com/us/album/drink-away-the-pain-situations-feat-q-tip/255342338?i=255344755
I gotta put Bonita, right? 
https://music.apple.com/us/album/bonita-applebum/266768420?i=266768447
https://music.apple.com/us/album/bonita-applebum/266768420?i=266768447
Q-Tip & Busta “wild hot”. Before this went on the Rhyme & Reason soundtrack there was a while label of it. Matter of fact, around this time (97-ish, post Beats Rhymes & Life) there was a couple of Q-Tip white labels circulating.
(By the way Tip’s opening lines in Wild Hot are sooo fire: “I be the all eye seeing, the MC’ing human being, soon to be in your museum”) 
Hold Tight. The roll call. “D’Angelo play your piano, Jay Dee flip another beat for me, hold tight with Baatin and my n*gga T3, Bussa Bus watch out for who you trust, Ali Shaheed it’s your blood that I bleed, yes Phife for you I would give my life.” https://music.apple.com/us/album/hold-tight-feat-q-tip/1159991240?i=1159993164
The friendship with the Beasties was so cool. The story goes that Tip would go to their studio (G-Son) and shoot hoops with them, and Get It Together was a freestyle, just horsing around. He didn’t know it was an actual song lol. https://music.apple.com/us/album/get-it-together-2009-remaster/724899844?i=724900898
Kamaal & Saadiq, another perfect team. Raphael Saadiq was originally supposed to be part of the Ummah too. https://music.apple.com/us/album/wefight-welove-feat-raphael-saadiq/1445859394?i=1445859628
Alright, back to Tribe, let’s go to their most controversial album which I will 100% defend any day of the week. I was gonna go to one of my personal fav album cuts like Pad & Pen or The Love, but.... I just have to go with Find A Way. That sample!!! https://music.apple.com/us/album/find-a-way/254660972?i=254661166
I will also defend Beats Rhymes & Life all day. This is my favorite joint on it (the depth!) and it’s a solo Abstract record. https://music.apple.com/us/album/get-a-hold/254976948?i=254977038
By the way, you guys know Tip produced Apache “Gangsta Bitch”, right? https://music.apple.com/us/album/gangsta-bitch/1413986230?i=1413987818
Can’t forget One Love, One Love, One Love, One Love. https://music.apple.com/us/album/one-love/662324135?i=662324544
I could seriously do this all day (and I don’t feel bad about flooding your timelines 
), but I’m gonna end this thread with this interview which I watched in full yesterday. Shout out @chairmanmaonyc. Happy birthday Kamaal thank you for shaping my life.
), but I’m gonna end this thread with this interview which I watched in full yesterday. Shout out @chairmanmaonyc. Happy birthday Kamaal thank you for shaping my life.
