A great lost hip-hop classic?

Back in 2002, about 4 years after the breakup of A Tribe Called Quest, Q-Tip recorded an album called Kamaal The Abstract. The record company deemed it "too noncommercial", it was shelved and only a few bootleg enthusiasts ever heard it. Many great albums have had a similar story (see Pet Sounds, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, What's Going On, etc.), but they had happy endings: they were all released anyway and all became classics. In Q-Tips case, seven years have gone by without us hearing about this project again, although its follow-up was released to great critical acclaim last year (the brilliant Renaissance).

What's more interesting is the reason why this one was denied: there is no way a jazz/soul/rap record can sell copies. Oddly enough, the next year Outkast put out Speakerbox/Love Below and sold 12 million copies. Oops. In this decade, you probably shouldn't doubt the possibilities of what hip-hop can do or what will sell.

This September, Kamaal The Abstract is being released to the masses. I can't help but feel like this album has been cheated out of its place in history, but nevertheless this is one of the most bold, innovative, brilliant albums in the history of hip-hop. Spanning 9 tracks and 41 minutes (short for a rap album), this album sounds like more of a continuation of Stevie Wonder's 70s work or Prince's 80's soul/pop explorations than anything A Tribe Called Quest or Q-Tip was doing.

Some songs contain barely any rap at all. "Do U Dig U?" contains an occasional sung chant but mostly revolves around electric keyboard lines and flute solos - not so much a rap song as a composition. "Abstractionisms" gives time for a jazz piano, a saxophone, and driving guitar lines to play with each other. I can see why they never imagined this one on the radio. "Caring" is a touching piano ballad that forgoes a beat whatsoever.

If you have any interest in the possibilities of hip-hop or modern pop music in general, you need this album. Bootleg it now or wait until September when it is formally released (I'll believe it when I see it). I'm glad the great lost hip-hop classic will no longer be lost, just great.