Road to the Grammy’s: Q-Tip’s The Renaissance
December 15, 2009 in Features
This is part one in a five part series chronicling the five albums nominated for Best Rap Album Grammy at the 52nd Grammy Awards on January 31st, 2010.
How did a nine-year stretch between one of 1999’s most ballyhooed releases wind up creating an album that would make top honors in Entertainment Weekly and take home PopMatters’ Best Hip-Hop Album of the Year award? You’d have to ask the former Jonathan Davis that. After watching success and acclaim come with his former supergroup, the rapper now finds himself with a Grammy nod for Best Rap Album.
In November 2008, few would argue that Q-Tip, former leader of the 90’s hip-hop trio A Tribe Called Quest (quartet if you count Jarobi) didn’t have a problem on his hands with his new album, The Renaissance. After all, his last outreach to retail markets got shelved continuously and fans who bemoaned for an ACTQ reunion after watching the group perform at 2008’s Hip Hop Honors were going to continue to be disappointed. Thing was, Kamaal wasn’t ready to wave a white flag and the album opened to critical acclaim and modest sales.
The Renaissance is lean, composed of 12 tracks, no major posse cuts or bloated songs that hold instrumentals hostage. Instead, Tip opted for the minimal as all of his guests play contemporary roles. “We Fight/We Love” with Raphael Saadiq serves up a simple arrangement of drum, blues guitar and the former Tony! Toni! Tone! Frontman’s silky mid-sixties vocal composition that was heard extensively on The Way I See It. The obvious relationship and war comparisons are made without being preachy or even taking a side. In fact, the only track on the album where the Midnight Maruader wishes death by skillful usage of the microphone and also death to all bullshit would be “Dance on Glass” where he shows no love for ringtone rappers in shades or those who are playing kingpins on audio and not in real life.
On “Life Is Better” with Norah Jones, the two trade odes for hip-hop; Jones wanting to be regaled with stories of yesteryear and how everything started and Tip of those artists past and present who have earned his praise and merits.
The Renaissance may possibly be the least angry and definitely most conscious album in its Grammy peers but its chances of pulling away the top award are slim at best. As great an album as it may be, Tip’s second official solo effort found itself sitting on a release date that coincided with the election of Barack Obama as the nation’s 44th president. While many found themselves in some record stores that day, the majority of the focus in the country was on the election. Not to say that it was the most hampering thing to Tip’s Grammy chances but the album couldn’t stand on its own legs in public perception thanks to more releases coming later in the month such as Kanye West’s 808s & Heartbreak.
Grammy voters aim for albums that not only are satisfied by critical acclaim but commercial as well (see 2009 Best Rap Album winner Tha Carter III and 2008 Best Rap Album winner Graduation). There’s no denying that Q-Tip delivered a very strong album filled with live instrumentation, ACTQ soul and his own enthusiasm but the deck is stacked a little bit against him, maybe too much this time around.
[...] This is part two in a five part series chronicling the five albums nominated for Best Rap Album Grammy at the 52nd Grammy Awards on January 31st, 2010. For part one about Q-Tip’s The Renaissance, click here. [...]
[...] the 52nd Grammy Awards on January 31st, 2010. For part one about Q-Tip’s The Renaissance, click here. For part two about Mos Def’s The Ecstatic, click [...]
[...] the 52nd Grammy Awards on January 31st, 2010. For part one about Q-Tip’s The Renaissance, click here. For part two about Mos Def’s The Ecstatic, click here. For part three about Common’s [...]