• "After all the trouble Tip's second solo album, Kamaal the Abstract, ran into before his former record company ultimately shelved it in 2002, it's great to see Q-Tip return at the top of his game. The Renaissance is real." [Newsday]

• "Cloaking its eclecticism with a homogenizing sheen, the album's frequent changes of mood and direction dazzle. There's golden-age hip-hop on 'Move,' piano and P-funk bass on 'You,' and loud rap of the highest quality on 'Won't Trade.'" [Guardian]

• "Kamaal Fareed, the name that Q-Tip took in the mid-'90s after converting to Islam, is at the helm here, but like a good actor, he's knows how to draw power even when he's not letting the rhymes go. It's a renaissance with redemption and humility but maybe also, if the adage about success is true, a touch of sweet revenge." [LA Times]

• "And there is one pleasant side effect of Q-Tip's lengthy absence: His music now seems as fresh and necessary an alternative to rap's mainstream as it did when Tribe first arrived. Welcome back, old friend." [Entertainment Weekly

• "Another artist that the game has been missing is the troubled neo-soul crooner D’Angelo, who Q-Tip re-introduces to the music world on 'Believe.' 'Life is Better' featuring Norah Jones is a highlight on the album with Jones blending perfectly with brash beats. Additional inspiration is found on the intro, 'Shaka,' which features an inspiring Barak Obama soundbite. In a sentence, Q-Tip’s long-awaited release looks to get people to thinking, loving, and dancing, as usual." [URB]

The rock band Hinder, which had one of the top selling albums of 2006, outfitted Playboy models with stars-and-stripes bikinis and "Vote for Hinder!" signs to promote its boisterous new album.

Here is a picture of that classy, classy promotion, taken from the front page of Hinder's official site.

It's really too bad that this young lady, in addition to having some sort of irritation that is making her lips purse in a "where's the Vagisil" kind of way, doesn't have any apparent musical talent, isn't it. Just think—if she could even swat at a tambourine in time, she could get Hinder a little more real estate on the cover of Blender!

Hitting The Polls, Then The Mall [WSJ]
Arcadia - Election Day [YouTube]

"I Left My Wallet In El Segundo"

"Can I Kick It?"

"Check The Rhime"

"Find A Way"

A Tribe Called Quest [homepage]

Raekwon. Ghostface. Mos Def. Method Man. Redman. The Pharcyde. Rakim. De La Soul. Nas. A Tribe Called Quest. A bunch of younger cats who would probably start YouTube beefs with certain teenage rappers if Ice-T hadn't beaten them to it. Truly a line-up to cause spontaneous pants-moistening/maxed-out credit cards among certain message board habitués.

It was a weird (yet enjoyable) day. For one thing, very little has changed since David Toop wrote this in the second edition of Rap Attack back when we were all using BBSes and Usenet: "On stage, their music was a massive boom, Rakim's menacing voice devoured in the jaws of bass." (Which I always took to mean you can't always hear the words so good at hip-hop gigs.) For another, excepting regional and/or indie and/or under-35 show-openers like Wale and Immortal Technique and Dead Prez, none of these guys have released anything close to their freshest (or even most iconic) material this millennium.^* And no one quite seemed to know where they were, which made all-important shout-outs difficult. Raekwon, for instance, refused to acknowledge any city other than Baltimore. Nas, on the other hand, was so convinced we were in D.C. he might as well have had a go-go band or a phallic monument on stage. (For the record, Columbia is situated somewhere between Baltimore and Washington, in a place with some trees and a lot of mini-malls disguised as "shopping districts.")

Things got off to a slow (yet antsy) start. Self-aggrandizing Murs and Washington-area fave Wale had a few Red Bulls before figuring out what to do with the big ol' festival stage other than pogo. Conversely, and in addition to being hobbled with that name, rap nerd blog pick Jay Electronica had the heart-on-sleeve presence of the very earnest fellow who shows up at your kegger wanting to talk about how society's going to hell in a gas-guzzling handcart. Actual rabble-rousing was handled by Dead Prez and Immortal Technique, and the latter's OTT fuck-the-police silliness aimed at a bunch of P.G. County kids made Stic.man and M1 seem positively pop-friendly by comparison. Rakim was dressed like Batman^** to Soulja Boy's Robin during a perfunctory "I'm still here/new album coming soon" set. Perhaps that's why he was eager to keep things clean for the kids in the audience, leaving it to Redman and Method Man to compliment the Maryland/D.C. area on the quality of its genitalia. (Well, the female genitalia, anyway.) De La Soul is fat and cuddly and engaging as ever, and Nas stole a flagging show (thanks to Mos "look at me, I'm an artiste" Def) with a rousing rendition of his anti-Fox News diatribe "Sly Fox" (live it almost goes from admirably embarrassing to enjoyable) and a super-hammy "One Mic." He's matured into quite a charismatic performer, that Nasir.

I avoided the second stage—containing such blog-friendly acts as the Cool Kids and Ninjasonik—because I couldn't deal with seeing Afrika Bambaataa's face when he realized he'd been billed second to Spank Rock. Sorry. Speaking of Baltimore (which we kinda were?), Mos Def brought out club DJ Blaq Starr for a tune that is supposedly on Mos' new album? I couldn't hear what Mos was saying clearly because his new (?) "Cutty Ranks with styling by Ed Banger and your grandma's hope chest" routine had forced me to flee the stage area. And then, after 12 hours of enough "if you love real hip-hop say hell yeah" to turn the heartiest brains and strongest legs to humidity-addled mush, we waited for a half-hour in near total darkness for... a solo set by Q-Tip! At least he didn't sing? Much? For this I missed the Mad Men premiere? I needed to go put my feet in a mineral bath.

Nah, it was fun. If I sound cranky, it's because my out-of-shape self is still sore. You should go, especially if you can also scam your way in via "blog credentials." (Judging by the amount of cell phone cams in the photo pit, this shouldn't be too hard.) And if the "platform" hasn't rolled through yr burg already. And if you're crusty enough (like me) to mistake Hotstylz for the "Get Silly" dude in conversation while complaining about pubescent pop fans in a Walter Matthau voice that might not be a joke. (Sigh.) And thus ends Idolator's weekend of pretending-we-can-still-hack-outdoor-festivals, as I've gone on long enough considering I didn't even take notes because I needed my hands free to eat pigs-in-a-blanket in the hospitality shack. (Thereby pissing off Ghostface/the NOI. Though I suppose they coulda been teeny little all-beef wieners?)

Rock The Bells [Official Site]
[Photos by Frank Hamilton]

^* Except Ghostface. Maybe.
^**I realize that description doesn't make much sense since Batman and Robin's costumes don't look anything alike, but really I just felt like sharing that linked Batman pic.

Q-Tip is all:

"I've got Norah Jones on there, but Barack is the big one. You'll see what happens, I can't reveal too much."

Barack is apparantly going to speak through a song, perhaps in the way the Archbishop Don Magic Juan speaks through Snoop Dogg songs. And if Barack is hoping to sway Republican-leaning swing voters, he should know that Wikipedia points out:

The inventor of the cotton swab is supposed to have been one Leo Gerstenzang, in the 1920s. His product, which he named "Baby Gays", went on to become the most widely-sold brand name, "Q-tip".

He's so liberal, he's supporting baby gays now? Someone call Nancy Grace!

HE'S NOW O-TIP Page Six via XXL]