Behind the Curve revisits movies, music and television programs-some acclaimed, some not-so-acclaimed-and reviews them with the assistance of the most harshly unbiased judge of them all: Time. Leading off is Q-Tip's first post-Tribe album, 1999's Amplified.
Club Banger. Urban Dictionary, the Interweb's definitive dictionary for slang and crude-yet-comical sexual acts, defines it as such: a term "used to describe a song to get all da bitches in the club movin. a song that makes you jump at a party."
They also define the term "Abe Lincoln" thusly: "When an unconscious person gets jizzed on their face, gets their pubes cut and applied to their face to form a beard, then adorned with a top hat."
ex: The last time a gang of transexuals Abe Lincolned Stump, he was pickin various shades of pubes from his teeth for a week!
Eloquently put. Anyway, "club banger" just so happens to be the proper label for a large percentage of Kamaal "Q-Tip" Fareed's first solo effort a year after Tribe's traumatic 1998 break-up ("it's not you Phife-Dog, it's me..."), Amplified.
For hip-hop heads such as myself, A Tribe Called Quest deciding to go splitsville was a scarring ordeal. Though, the way they decided to make the announcement only made it worse ("amplified" it, if you will), as Mr. Fareed, Phife-Diggy the 5 Footer and Ali Shaheed Muhammad shared their planned separation on stage during the '98 tour that had the Queens natives performing with the Beastie Boys, a dream pairing if there ever was one. (In fact, for me, the announcement of this tour was subsequently followed by several solid weeks of nocturnal emissions, but again, I digress.)
So, as you can see, the timing of their announcement was basically the equivalent of your parents telling you they're getting a divorce JUUUUSST moments before you're about ready to rip into your first Christmas present. Only worse. At least you know your parents are probably wrong for each other, plus now you'll have two Christmas'. But Tribe? Tribe was so right together.
<<-- Why are you guys getting a divorce? Is it because you don't love me
anymore?
Anyway, so you can imagine how hard this was for ATCQ fans. And only a year later, Q-Tip comes out with his solo album. Man, how 'bout some time to heal, dude? Well, as it turns out, Amplified would prove to be the the hottest club banger that all the P-Diddies and Benzinos in the game couldn't even come close to touching. Sadly, I only realized this several months ago after dusting off my copy - correction, my wife's copy - (Yeah, like most things, she was waaaay ahead of me on this one, too).
Because, you see, I was still too hurt to accept anything from Q-Tip that wasn't another Tribe track, no matter how butter it happened to be. It's like freshly-divorced dad hooking you up with a shiny, brand-new bike on his weekend visit. Just replace "bike" with the "bangin'-est club banger that ever banged the club".
Q-Tip: What's the matter, son? Don't you like your new bike?
Me: Yeah…I guess I like it OK
Q-Tip: "You like it OK?" I don't understand, it's the bike you've been asking for all this time. What would you rather have?
Me: I…I just wish you and me and Phife and Ali Shaheed could be back together. You know, like it used to be.
Q-Tip: Oh. Oh, son. You know it can't ever be like that again. We all still love you, but…but it can't ever be like it used to be.
Me: I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU AND THIS STUPID BIKE! I WISH I WAS NEVER BORN! (bike gets thrown in the back of the garage and gathers dust to be remembered only as a symbol of everything you once held dear, now shattered ).
Yeah. Yeah. Exactly like that. So for years, a perfectly hot joint collected dust, the scorn of a broken hip-hop home keeping it from ever being appreciated and enjoyed, as multitudes of inferior work spun around my disc player. Wrongly, I bitterly discounted it - like many did - as a shallow, insignificant footnote in the history of the Tribe.
And lyrically, to a certain degree, those that deride the album for being shallow have somewhat of a point. This isn't the Abstract-waxing poetic-Midnight Marauders shit. This is some "Jeeps, booty and beats" shit. And more booty. Followed by more beats. And then some more booty. But that doesn't make this work any less impressive. You could make the argument that Q-Tip rides the beat better on this album than anything in the ATCQ catalog. And it doesn't hurt that 99% of those beats are being produced by the late, legendary J-Dilla.
What the duo known as The Ummah came up with, was...well, booty. Booty, as in treasure, that is.
Amplified's muse ---->
You may remember some of the album's popular singles at the time. And they still hold up. Go ahead, try not to nod your head. I dares ya:
CLICK HERE FOR VID
CLICK HERE FOR VID
Eskimo kisses,
Blaine
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4 comments:
A) I love urbandictionary.com...it has provided many-a-night of entertainment for me.
B) It's always good when you are able to reference the "Abe Lincoln".
C) I lurve me some Q-Tip and I never get sick of this album.
very nice review, you liked that album (yes, I still say album...I also still say bitch slap and laugh my ass off at The Three Stooges)
where was I...oh yeah, you liked that album much more than I did but now I have to go back and listen to now....
oh, being "urban" I have used the term ABE LINCOLN in that way or performed that kind of act because, I am not that coordinated.
Saw tribe 6 times over the years, one of my favorites of all time. I think Low End Theory is right up there with Fear Of A Black Planet, for most time spent in my tape deck. Was a sad day when they parted.
Blaine,
Thanks for the validation on my comment on First Door on the Left today...much appreciated. I just discovered your blog through that comment. I'm going to favorite you on EntreCard and start reading...excellent writing and great humor from what I can tell.
Thanks again!
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