at a glance...

Hometown: New York, NY
Born: 11/20/1970

Personnel:
Q-Tip -MC
Busta Rhymes -MC
Jessica Rivera -vocals
Meda Leacock -vocals
Korn -guitars and things

Related Artists :
A Tribe Called Quest, The Beastie Boys, Jungle Brothers, De La Soul, Busta Rhymes, Dee-Lite, Mos Def, Black Star, D'Angelo

Sometimes, when you love a group, and one of the members collaborates with someone else, you get really excited that they ventured out and made new material. Secretly, however, you get anxious at the thought of a break-up and the solo material that will follow. Can So and So make it on his own? Can he still be relevant without the rest of the group? But did we really ever have to worry about that with A Tribe Called Quest and Q-Tip? No! Absolutely not. With Q-Tip's debut solo album, the beats are still good, the lyrics are still smart without being pretentious or preachy, and he's still got that brilliantly cool liquid delivery.

True, Amplified isn't a dramatic leap from A Tribe Called Quest. Slick jazz loops and TCQ's patented stripped-down subtlety are the armature for this album, but Q-Tip has put his own modern brand of nasty funk into the mix, making the jumpy beats of "Breathe and Stop" and the lazy, seductive "Let's Ride" hit harder than you'd expect from him. "Vivrant Thing" is twice that though, and is just hands-down the coolest track on the album. The groovin' piano of "N.T." provides the perfect background for a rekindled collaboration of the calm, level Q-Tip and the manic, exploding Busta Rhymes, and the relationship between the two is summed up perfectly at the end of the track as Busta flips out and starts ranting while Tip just laughs.

The key to Q-Tip's independence, however, lies in his modest sincerity. He has the gift of being able to rap about love, faith, and struggling without being embarrassingly sentimental or turning it all into a public service announcement. It makes you forgive him for working with Korn. There's nothing really groundbreaking on Amplified, but it still commands attention. And best of all, you can dance to it.