Rock the Bells Gathers Hip Hop’s Intellectual Elite
By Sean Piccoli, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Aug. 1–Q-Tip’s “The Renaissance” will be released in September, his first album since 1999. “Where have I been?” the former A Tribe Called Quest front man asked. “Working. Between you and me, I was waiting for the time to be right.” (Carolyn Cole/TFW TPN / June 25, 2008)
When Kanye West and 50 Cent went head-to-head in first-week album sales last year, it was tempting to view the contest as a referendum on rap itself. Did West, the collegian, besting 50, the ex-dealer, mean the music was headed in a different direction?
Not quite. Rap is still producing gangland icons such as Plies and Rick Ross, not to mention status-obsessed party boys and girls such as Flo Rida and Fergie. But the Kanye wing of the party is coming on these days like rap’s version of Apple, pecking away at Microsoft’s market share, getting a bigger piece of the action and the public’s imagination.
Another case in point is the Rock the Bells tour coming to Miami’s Bayfront Park on Saturday. Touting high-minded lyricists ( Nas, Murs) and philosophical crews (The Pharcyde, De La Soul), the second annual Rock the Bells festival feels like a gathering of hip-hop’s intellectual elite.
“This shows that there’s a desire for real music,” said rapper Q-Tip of A Tribe Called Quest, the New York trio that taught the world how to wax poetic over jazz samples.
Tribe are one of Rock the Bells’ headliners, a stature that has nothing to do with chart positions — they haven’t released a CD since 1998 — and everything to do with their exalted place among rap’s deep thinkers.
A Tribe Called Quest made their reputation with offbeat tracks such as Electric Relaxation and I Left My Wallet in El Segundo. Q-Tip’s light-as-air voice and mellowed-out delivery was a signature of their sound. To be sure, he and fellow MC Phife rapped about money, women and urban life, but as their official biography put it, “sans the jaded and often nihilistic aggressive posturing.”
Nihilism and aggression have certainly had their way with rap during a decade-plus of East-West rivalries and Dirty South delights. In an interview, Q-Tip said that was rap taking the path of least resistance: “I think that it’s just easier to be hard … The nihilistic and more aggressive [music] isn’t versed with that much complexity.”
To Q-Tip, the acts playing Rock the Bells embody a different mentality: “We have a deeper relationship with the music. It’s a spiritual thing.”
Q-Tip didn’t suggest the spiritualists were displacing the gangstas, and he said the notion of conflict between these camps was largely a media creation. “There’s no tension inside,” he said. “I feel like everybody gets along. Rock ‘n’ roll is a big umbrella with soft rock, heavy metal, emo, electronica. Why can’t hip-hop be the same?”
He also disputed any suggestion that hard-core rap drove his style of rap underground. “After us, it was the Fugees and Arrested Development. Now we’ve got Common and Kanye,” he said. “There’s always someone from our crew that is stepping over in a popular sense.”
Q-Tip said categorically that A Tribe Called Quest will never make another CD. But he still has an opportunity to test his mass appeal. His second solo release, The Renaissance, is due out in September — the long-awaited, oft-shelved follow-up to 1999′s Amplified.
“There’s no departure,” he said of the forthcoming CD. “I think it’s still what I do.”
One quality that might distinguish The Renaissance from most rap in the age of cameos, and hit singles as celebrity pileups, is how few guest appearances Q-Tip has sanctioned. There are collaborations with D’Angelo, Norah Jones and Raphael Saadiq. Beyond that, said Q-Tip, “It kind of relies on me.”
Sean Piccoli can be reached at spiccoli@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4832. He blogs at sunsentinel.com/thebeat.
If you go Rock the Bells headliners include A Tribe Called Quest, Nas, Mos Def, Method Man & Redman, & Ghostface and De La Soul. Immortal Technique, Dead Prez, Murs, Wale, Cool Kids, Santogold, BOB, Jay Electronica, Kidz in the Hall and The Pharcyde also are on the bill.
Where: Bayfront Park Amphitheater, 301 N. Biscayne Blvd., Miami
When: noon-midnight Saturday
Tickets: $55, $175; rockthebells.ticketanimal.com or 305-416-9330
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