Ryan McLelland started the petition in hopes of having the long-shelved Kamaal the Abstract finally released by Arista Records. Though Q-Tip has since left Arista for Universal Motown Records, efforts DID NOT ceased to have this album released.
Now the album is finally set to be released on September 14, 2009 on Battery Records! Thanks to everyone over the years who kept with me in trying to get this album OUT!!! The album has been re-mixed and re-mastered for sonic impact, though it retains the original album artwork (there is - however - a new CD cover).
The updated tracklisting for the album is:
1) Feelin’
2) Do You Dig U?
3) A Million Times
4) Blue Girl
5) Barley In Love
6) Heels
7) Abstractionisms P/K/A Reverberator Factory
8) Caring
9) Even If It Is So
10) Damn You’re Cool [bonus track]
11) Make it Work [bonus track]
MORE TO COME AS THE RELEASE DATE GETS CLOSER!!!
From AllMusic.com (written by John Bush)
A personal, unique project compared to Amplified (Q-Tip's first under his own name), Kamaal the Abstract fittingly sounds more like a solo album; whereas Amplified merely built on the digital soul of the last Tribe Called Quest album (The Love Movement), this one is wide-ranging and diverse, a relaxed, loose-limbed date. Q-Tip lays way back on these cuts, rapping in a quick, low monotone for the opener, "Feelin'," even while the song breaks into some restrained guitar grind on the choruses. Guitars, in fact, crop up all over this record. Setting aside comparisons to the contemporary record by N.E.R.D. (the rock side project of hip-hop super-producers Neptunes), Q-Tip crafted a record that pays homage to the last gasp of organically produced mainstream pop in the '70s and '80s, paying a large compliment to Prince and Stevie Wonder, even as he proves himself far more talented than D'Angelo (if not quite as soulful). The beats are pointed and clipped, to be expected on a Q-Tip record, but he allows plenty of space for the arrangements to speak, like the trim trumpet lines pacing "Even if It Is So" or allowing plenty of room for extended blowing from a flute on the warm, pastoral "Do You Dig You." The former is one of the best tracks here, Q-Tip introducing his story song with a fluid, ten-second speed-rap that says more about the plight of the single mother he adores than any other rapper could with an entire album. This wasn't the kind of record that lights up the charts — which could account for the reason it didn't appear on the shelves in late April 2002, as expected — but in many ways it's superior to the released Amplified.
Information from Wikipedia:
Kamaal the Abstract was an unreleased album by Q-Tip, which was to be released by Arista on April 23, 2002 but was canceled due to the fact that the record label deemed the album too "un-commercial."
The album's advances were released, however, therefore making any copies of said promotional items sought-after collector's items.
The album is composed of mostly groovy live instrumentation, reminiscent of full-length albums by Stevie Wonder and Prince, and is widely praised as a solid effort wrongfully restrained. It is considered to be highly superior to his previous solo effort, Amplified.
Yes sir.. I've been trying to get my work to you since 99 or something.. Fuck it! I know an aqauitance of mine ran with you guys on the Road.. Sneaky D Thompson ole original violator.. either way.. Peace be on upon you Bro.. hope your all your creative energies stay a in lane.. Keep balanced.. peace! Keep it Abstract.. I am and God is , One!
it's about time the CD was released. Kammal, I think they thought that you fell off. The Renaissance was the door re-opened. This too will satisfy the heads that feel the abstract.
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