Choosing to keep all the gory details private, Consequence issued a statement earlier today offering, “After a very intense & extensive meeting, Q-Tip & myself have resolved our public & private issues. With so many manufactured “beefs” in Hip-Hop, this situation was very real and shows that their can be resolution through humility & dialogue. Check out this pic of us welcoming my son Caiden into our historic fold.”

In other beef grilling news, he revealed he is back on speaking terms with Kanye West. Consequence blamed the two producers as the reasons why his album kept getting the fade when it came to a release date.

Check out SOHH.com for more information.

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Though many know the drummer, Ahmir “?uestlove” Thompson, for his wild afro, some might not know dude has a serious record collection. Some might even venture to say he’s drifting into hoarding territory. The Urban Daily spoke with Questo yesterday where we discussed his support for Occupy Wall Street, the new Roots album, and why Black Thought should sing more often.

TUD: I’m excited to do this interview because if there was any musician’s music collection I would want to raid, it would be yours. I feel like you have every record known to man. Your apartment must be full of records.

QL: My library is just so overwhelming that a lot of people would love to raid my music collection. I have some property in Philadelphia and one of the main criteria for moving out of that house was I was always running out of space.  Plus, when Q-Tip had a fire back in ’97, that scared me. I thought about getting another house for my records. One of the setbacks of having an apartment in Manhattan is I’m far away from my record collection. A little bit at a time I’m sneaking records to my apartment and I find myself getting back into dangerous territory.

That’s not really dangerous territory. It’s just a lot.

You don’t know me, bro. Guests that are frequent are like, “Okay, this used to be where the dining room table was.” Now, it’s become a turntable station.

See, that sounds like a good time to me. I love places like that.

Yeah, I love it too. That’s not sexy when your girl comes over though.

That’s true. I hear The Roots are working on an exclusive track for the upcoming Captain Morgan ‘Life Love and Loot’ campaign. How did you guys link up?

They approached us about doing music for the campaign and the thing was having been familiar with the visual campaign, the challenge was to make the song match the visual. When you think of pirates and the sea, the normal Roots backdrop of music isn’t necessarily what comes to mind. They told us we could take the liberty to make a song we wanted. The Roots wanted to make sure we stepped out of our comfort zone to fit the spirit of the campaign. The real challenge was having to make this song with only three instruments-a guitar, tuba, and a drum.

Did you guys come up with the track jam session style, like a lot of your records are known for?

Absolutely. We prepared for three days. We tried seven or eight different sketches of the song. Once we came up with the sketches, we played them for our Captain Morgan liaison and he decided he liked one over the others. Then, we went into the studio and fleshed it out. It took about eight takes to get it right.

Was is it a conscious decision to have Black Thought sing instead of rap on this song?

It wasn’t in the beginning, but because of the nature of the song, just to yell out the lyrics didn’t feel natural. Since he is a singer as well…it’s kind of hard for me to coax him to sing. I don’t know why he’s shy about it, but Black Thought sings as good as he raps. That’s always been a head scratcher for me as to why he won’t get his male Lauryn Hill on. I told him it would sound much more natural with him singing it as opposed to him rhyming it. He did both and the singing does have better energy than him not singing and that’s what we went with.

Will the Captain Morgan track be available for download?

Yes. It will be available for download on the Captain Morgan USA Facebook page. People can also see the making of it there. They can see some clips and photos of us recording it and jamming out.

When you heard about the whole ‘Life Love and Loot’ campaign, what did you take away from it? What did it mean to you?

We decided that the campaign is pretty much our thing. I guess that would make us pirates too. [laughs] We had to put ourselves in that position and define it for ourselves. If anything, we’ve been pirates too. We’re always on the road, always working to survive, and loving what we do. We’re also running a business. That’s what so many people tend to forget because we’re having so much fun doing what we do. We run a very tight business as well. But usually when we are given a set of perimeters, we just put ourselves in that position and see how it applies to us.

The Roots have a new album, undun, coming out soon. Does the sound d of this Captain Morgan track reflect the sound you’re working with on the album?

Nah. We finished our record at 4:30 this morning. It’s being mastered right now. We actually did this track at the same time we recorded our album and one of the advantages of doing this track was it provided us a relief because the sound of the album is very somber and serious. There really wasn’t a high adrenaline moment on the album. Doing this on the side kind of scratched that itch for us.

Besides being on Jimmy Fallon, the new album, and the song for the ‘Life Love and Loot’ campaign, what are you guys doing to stay busy?

That’s a big list you just gave right there. [laughs] I heard it myself and was like, “Whoa! When am I going to sleep?!” We’re really trying to focus on the album. Fallon is everyday so there’s no escaping that, but our priority is with the new album, undun.

The Roots have worked with a very wide range of artists. Who haven’t you worked with that you want to work with?

I’ll be honest with you. As far as the studio is concerned, John Legend and D’Angelo are the two artists under the age of 50 I enjoy working with. I enjoy working with Erykah Badu whenever she wants to collaborate. As  of late, I’ve been having a ball doing these soul records. As soon as Al Green gives us the word, we’ll probably work on his next record. We just did Betty Wright’s record. Her album comes out in December also. It sounds incredible.

The Roots have always been more of a politically conscious band. What are your thoughts on the whole Occupy Wall Street movement?

Yeah, I’ve been down there a few times to support them. It’s taken 99% of the people long enough to finally wake up and see the power that they hold in their hands. A lot of people think revolution and change will be the next man’s fight. They want to hang back and see what happens and it doesn’t work that way. You’ve got to get your hands and knees inside the mud. You have to be apart of the change you want to see. We’ll see what happens because this is just the beginning.

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Nevertheless, Tip seemed to have genuine fun reminiscing about the methods and occasional madness behind his music. In one portion he describes making “One Love” for a teenaged Nasir Jones:

“I specifically produced ‘One Love’ for Nas. I knew he was special even before Illmatic. He was the MC who could capture the picture of everything he was rhyming about. His approach was incredible…he had the perfect cadence. You related to Nas because you felt he was from around the way. And people forget that Nas was a prodigy…he was younger than all of us at that time. So I told him, ‘Yo, I’m going to give you some spooky sounding shit for your album.’ And Nas was like, ‘Yeah, I need that to capture the feel of what I’m saying. I need that crazy, mysterious shit.’ So that was the vibe of ‘One Love.’ I knew that it was going to be a classic track. I just knew it. It’s one of those special songs that when you work on it you know what it’s going to be.”

READ THE FULL CLIP AT VIBE MAGAZINE

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“At the time I got with them they were breaking up so I became Q-Tip’s artist,” she explained. “I worked with him for about a year but I don’t think he was in a space to develop a new artist. He was converting to Islam at the time, the group was breaking up and he had a house fire and lost everything.”

WATCH THE FULL INTERVIEW HERE.

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Yesterday, Consequence appeared on a live stream interview held by MTV’s RapFix.   During the interview, Consequence complained about how Kanye and Q-Tip, who were slated to be executive producers of his upcoming second album, Cons TV, were not helping him out at all on the project, even though Consequence says he’s helped Tip and Kanye out.

Cons confirmed that he helped Kanye write several of his rhymes. “It is true I participated in writing with Kanye. You could read it on credits on 808s and Heartbreaks, College Dropout. Every album that he’s had, I’ve been involved from a creative aspect in writing of songs,” Cons said. “Check the credits, I get that publishing.”

Consequence says he had no problem helping Kanye with his rhymes, but when it came time to work on his own album, Consequence couldn’t get Kanye’s help.

“At one point, Kanye wasn’t even doing any music after the Taylor Swift situation, it’s documented he went to Europe,” Cons said. “In the midst of all that, I was left hanging.

“As a man, you can’t hang your fate on no other man, but when you think the man is your brother and you talk about every other single situation known to man, you would think it would dawn on somebody to say, ‘Hey, let me make sure this all right, let me make sure my guy is good.’ If I’m not your guy, that’s fine; let’s just have clarity on it.”

Consequence also claims that he was theone that was able to calm tensions between A Tribe Called Quest group members Phife and Q-Tip, saying he was the “glue” that kept the group together.  Q-Tip, who was watching the live stream, tweeted in response: “GLUE??  I gave that n*gga a look!”

Tip later sent a tweet to MTV’s Sway, who conducted the interview saying “I’m sorry u had to deal with that.”

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The documentary will be screened as part of the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City on April 27th and 28th. Tickets for the film festival go on sale to the general public on April 18th. For more info on tickets, visit TribecaFilm.com.

Clip spotted @ MissInfo.TV

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The three absent members, Q-Tip, Ali Shaheed Muhammad, and Jarobi, sat down with MTV News and explained why they were absent from such an important event.

Q-Tip insisted Rapaport “came out of his pocket for $5,000″ in order to cover travel expenses for ATCQ and their managers, a figure he implied was particularly low for a week-long stay in Park City, Utah.

Moreover, according to Ali, Rapaport misconstrued the situation by failing to reveal certain details. “It’s a deceptive way to tell what really happened,” Muhammad said. “Our management, they’re thorough and they capture things right away. They didn’t need five days to book a ticket; they were on top of it for months to get it covered. Why if he’s being asked the question to take care of the travel of the group that you need their support [for], why wait till the last minute to take care of it?”

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“First off, let’s close the Billing Block and put it on the poster so they can’t get on that,” read the email. “Then we’ll f— them on everything else,”

Q-Tip has been very vocal about his problems with the way things are being handled in regards to the documentary, commenting very candidly in interviews and on Twitter.

“That’s premeditated, first. And second, you feel comfortable to say it to the rest of your team,” Q-Tip told MTV. That means that if the environment is conducive for you to have that kind of banter and that kind of language, God knows what else they’ve been saying amongst themselves. So how can we trust them?”

Looks like Q-Tip forgot Industry Rule #4050, movie industry people are shiftyyyyyyyyy…

…And by the way, wasn’t Nas involved with the production of this movie?  #JustSayin

Check out everything Q-Tip had to say below:

Spotted @ Vibe.com

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Despite the press release, which appeared on Indiewire.com, Q-Tip hopped on Twitter to refute the claims.   In a reply to a tweet about the acquisition made by RapRadar’s Elliott Wilson, Q-Tip simply called the press release “bullsh*t.”

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Q-Tip, whose work has always carried a strong jazz influence, is no stranger to working with jazz musicians.  Jazz bassist Ron Carter appeared on A Tribe Called Quest’s “Verses From The Abstract.”  Q-Tip has also recorded with jazz trumpeter Roy Hargrove.  In 2003, Q-Tip co-produced jazz guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel’s Heartcore album.

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The documentary features interviews with the likes of Q-Tip, Erykah Badu, Common, ?uestlove, and Busta Rhymes, all of whom worked extensively with J Dilla.

The 39 minute documentary is available for viewing for free online.

Watch below!

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Q-Tip took to his Twitter account earlier this morning (January 21st) and responded to Rapaport’s recent comments on Q-Tip’s lack of support for the documentary, which is slated to be shown at The Sundance Film Festival.

“The director of the film cannot speak to what is in my head abt the documentary,” Q-Tip tweeted. “nor can this director EVER say the i dont speak for the group. when i say i do then belive [sic] me i do tribe is no different than any other collective. we experience bumps bruises and disagreements then and we still do.”

Read more statements from Q-Tip and Rapaport at Allhiphop.com

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The statement was made after an early trailer for the film leaked to YouTube.

Tip appeared on Elliot Wilson’s show on Shade 45 to address the controversy surrounding his statement, saying that as a producer on the film, he felt that the film wasn’t finished yet, even though it’s slated to debut at the Sundance Film Festival in early 2011.

Audio courtesy of RapRadar

In  related news, Q-Tip announced on Twitter that his upcoming album will be titled The Last Zulu.

Many people immediately connected the title to Tip’s association with The Universal Zulu Nation, an awareness group founded by hip-hop legend Afrika Bambaataa in the 1970s.  Tip has shouted the group out on songs, and currently uses their logo has his profile picture on Twitter.

Even Busta Rhymes chimed in, saying that the title has potential to “cause a little trouble.”

Tip clarified this by revealing that he recently learned that he has blood ties to the Zulu nation in South Africa.

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Though they reunited in the last decade to do shows here and there, fans clamored for new music from the group but were only given one song, 2003′s “I C U Doin It” featuring Erykah Badu.

Actor and filmmaker Michael Rappaport set out a few years ago to film Beats, Rhymes & Fights: The History Of A Tribe Called Quest, the first ever documentary on the group.  He interviewed the group as well as fellow Native Tonguers, De La Soul and the Jungle Brothers to piece the story together.

In the film’s trailer, which leaked online last night, the group is shown during a series of shows arguing backstage.  Q-Tip declares the show to be the group’s last.

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Kanye debuted his verses from this song at his memorable meeting at Facebook, and the song is rumored to be a bonus track on some editions of the album but would feature M.I.A. as opposed to Talib Kweli and Consequence.

Produced by Q-Tip, the track sounds like it would’ve been a solid album-cut on a late ’90s hip-hop album.  Q-Tip’s cousin, Consequence, provides the stand out verse.

Take a listen!

Download “Chain Heavy” and all of the other G.O.O.D. Friday songs for free at www.KanyeWest.com!

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After featuring guest spots from the likes of Kat DeLuna and Eve, Black Thought of the Roots introduced the King of R&B who came out on stage and immediately broke into his classic single “Every Little Step.”

Spotted at Rap Radar

Does Bobby Brown still have it?  Let us know in the comments!

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He also says that he and Kanye are working on getting some tracks together for Jay-Z as well.

This is great news to us!!!!

In addition to producing the bulk of the material on A Tribe Called Quest’s first three albums, Q-Tip has done quite a bit of outside production work in both hip-hop & R&B.  Check out some cuts that Tip had a hand in that you probably didn’t know about!

Mariah Carey “Honey”

The behind the scenes roster on this cut was rather surprising as the song was co-written and co-produced by Q-Tip along with Mariah, Diddy Puff Daddy, and Stevie J.  Tip was allegedly gettin’ it in with Mariah around this time, and Mariah’s ex-husband, Tommy Motolla (aka The Devil, if you let Michael Jackson tell it), allegedly put out a hit on Q-Tip.  Tip rapped about this on “Do It Be It See It” from his solo debut, 1999′s Amplified.

Whitney Houston “Fine”

Featured on Whitney’s 2-disc The Greatest Hits compilation from 2000, “Fine” was a writing and producing collaboration between Q-Tip and Raphael Saadiq.

Stanley Clarke “1, 2 To The Bass”

Q-Tip joined jazz bassist Stanley Clarke to co-produce and add some rhymes to the title track from his 2003 album.

Kurt Rosenwinkel “Heartcore”

Stepping completely outside of the realm of hip-hop, Q-Tip lent his production skills to jazz guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel’s album, Heartcore.   Rosenwinkel was a member of Q-Tip’s band that played on his jazz-influenced Kamaal the Abstract album, as well as his 2008 release, The Renaissance.

Towa Tei “Happy” (Q-Tip’s Remix Dub)

In 1990, Q-Tip laid down a verse on Deee-Lite’s classic dance single “Groove Is In The Heart.”  In 1997, one of Deee-Lite’s DJ’s, Towa Tei, reached out to Q-Tip to remix his 1997 single “Happy.”

Jamiroquai “Deeper Underground” (The Ummah Mix)

Acid Jazz/Disco/Funksters Jamiroquai tapped Tip for a remix of their 1999 single “Deeper Underground” from the soundtrack of Godzilla.

Mint Condition “Let Me Be The One”

The last great mainstream R&B band (*sigh*) asked Q-Tip to remix this single from their 1996 album, Definition Of A Band.  Tip also laced them with a verse.

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Gotta say that we love clever usage of vocal samples, and the way Cons & Tip freak Amerie’s vocals on “Got Me Trippin’ (The Amerie Song)” remind us of Slum Village’s “I Don’t Know.”

Well done Cons!

This track is slated to appear on Consequence’s upcoming album, Cons TV.

source

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It’s a common occurrence in music for an album to be recorded and never see the light of day.

Sometimes the public doesn’t respond to any of the singles released, or record label politics get in the way.  Other times, the artist just decides that the material isn’t up to par and decides not to release it.

Unfortunately, music fans often miss out on some great work because an album isn’t released.

On the flipside, sometimes these unreleased albums find their way out of a record label’s vault and get bootlegged.

Here are some of our favorite unreleased albums that a crafty internet user could hunt down with a few properly worded Google searches.

50 Cent Power Of A Dollar.

Get Rich Or Die Trying was not 50 Cent’s first album.  In 2000, young Curtis was signed to Columbia Records and was starting to generate a buzz thanks to the song “How To Rob,” a song where 50 fantasizes about robbing several of R&B and Hip-Hop’s most prominent figures. Shortly before the video shoot for the album’s second single, “Thug Love” featuring Destiny’s Child, had been released, 50 was shot and hospitalized.  His label dropped him as a result.

If only they had the foresight to know that two years later, 50 Cent would use being shot as one of his big selling points!

Power Of The Dollar is an interesting listen to hear the similarities and differences between what 50 started out as and what he would eventually become.

Listen to “How To Rob”

Jack Herrera Retro Futuristic

Consisting of three members, R&B singer Jon B and two of his background singers, Jack Herrera recorded one of neo-soul’s greatest albums, but sadly the album would never be released.  The group was signed to Dreamworks Records and were set to release Retro Futuristic on the label.  The group only had two songs released officially — “High Off You,” which appeared on the Red Star Sounds Vol. 1: Soul Searching compilation, and “Free To Believe” from the Light It Up soundtrack. Why the album never came out has never been explained, but the album, which features guest spots from Will.I.Am and Black Thought of the Roots, lives on the internet!

Listen to “Jack Shuffle” featuring Will.I.Am.

Jean Grae & 9th Wonder Jeanius

Female MC Jean Grae and North Carolina producer 9th Wonder teamed up in 2004 to record a full album together titled Jeanius.  The album was eventually released in 2008, but had been drastically altered, mainly replacing samples with live instrumentation.  The original, sample-heavy version of the album is the one to own, and it’s out there if you can find it!

Listen to “Love Thirst” (original version)

Bilal Love For Sale

By 2006, fans of Bilal had grown tired of waiting for the follow up to his 2001 debut album, 1st Born Second, and knowing that his label, Interscope, had shelved his second album didn’t make things better.  Fortunately, some kind soul decided to leak the album in full.  The album showcased Bilal as more than just a neo-soul singer, with forays into jazz and blues. Bilal has since recorded an entirely new album, Airtight’s Revenge, scheduled to drop in September 2010.

Listen to “White Turns To Grey”

Q-Tip Open

After his 2002 album, Kamaal The Abstract, was shelved by Arista Records the label soon shut down, and Q-Tip signed with Dreamworks Records.  Deciding to cut his losses and start from scratch, Q-Tip began recording an album called Open. The album was slated to feature guest appearances from D’Angelo and Andre 3000. Dreamworks decided not to release the album. After Dreamworks closed its doors, and Q-Tip moved over to Universal Motown Records, who also passed on releasing the album.  After a little reworking, Open evolved into Q-Tip’s 2008 album, The Renaissance.  An official release of Kamaal The Abstract soon followed.

Listen to “That’s Sexy” featuring Andre 3000

Young Zee Musical Meltdown

Young Zee was a member of the Outsidaz, the New Jersey crew of emcees that put down a few classic guest spots on The Fugees’ The Score album.  In 1996, Young Zee was planning the release of his debut album, Musical Meltdown, but for whatever reason, the album never dropped.  It’s a shame too, as the album could have possibly been a classic east coast album with its clever lyrics and witty punchlines.

Listen to “Stay Gold” featuring Lauryn Hill

J Dilla Pay Jay

In 2002, the late J Dilla completed his major label debut album for MCA called Pay Jay. Dilla put his production skills on the back burner for the album and enlisted the likes of Pete Rock, Nottz, Kanye West, and ?uestlove to handle production duties. MCA decided not to release the album, and it remained unheard by the masses for several years until it leaked in 2008, 2 years after Dilla’s death.

No preview available :(

Dwele Unknown Title

Detroit’s Dwele created an insane buzz on the internet in the early 2000′s with his locally released Rize album.  Shortly after that album got a wider release, an entire album’s worth of songs started making the rounds.  It’s unknown whether or not the songs were intended to be an album, or if they were just a bunch of random songs Dwele had put on a CD-R.  Either way, fans of Dwele downloaded the songs in droves.  A few of them would wind up on Dwele’s major label debut, Subject, but several of them remain unreleased.

Listen to “High” featuring Bahamadia

Prince & The Revolution Dream Factory

1986 was a very prolific year for Prince. Though his movie Under The Cherry Moon was a commercial, critical, and artistic failure, the multi-talented musician was inspired enough to record a few dozen songs for the follow up to the film’s soundtrack. Dream Factory would have been an 18 track double album and is the last album project Prince completed with The Revolution before disbanding the group later that year. After The Revolution parted ways, the album went through tons of changes and became a triple album called Crystal Ball. Prince’s label, Warner Bros., refused to release a three album set and forced Prince to trim it down to two albums. The end result? 1987′s fan and critic favorite Sign O’ The Times.

No preview available :(

2Pac & The Boot Camp Clik One Nation

In 1996 at the height of the East Coast – West Coast feud, 2Pac sought to end it by teaming up with Brooklyn’s Boot Camp Clik for an album titled One Nation.  After 2Pac’s murder in September of 1996, the album was put on indefinite hold and has only seen the light of day through bootlegs.  Several of Pac’s verses from the album have been used on various posthumous releases over the years.  Last year, a label called A.E.G. acquired the rights to the original album and claimed that a digital-only release would happen later that year, but it didn’t and the album remains unreleased.

Listen to the original version of “Military Minds”

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Just when we thought the line-up for the 2010 Rock The Bells festival couldn’t get any better…. it got better.

Today, Guerilla Nation announced some additions to the festival’s line-up, and clarified Lauryn Hill’s involvement as well.

DJ Premier has been added to the bill, and will be doing a special tribute to his fallen partner in Gang Starr, Guru.

A Tribe Called Quest will be back again and will perform their third album, 1993′s classic Midnight Marauders in its entirety.

Snoop Dogg has also been added to the bill, and will perform his classic debut, 1993′s Doggystyle from start to finish for the very first time.

Lauryn Hill will appear and is scheduled to do a “unique set” consisting of material from her lone studio album as well as songs from her time with The Fugees.

Click here to find out who else will be performing at the festival which makes stops in Los Angeles, New York City, and Washington D.C.!

If you find yourself taking a break from today’s summertime activities (or recovering from the weekend) take a moment to reflect on Memorial Day with some help from some of hip-hop’s finest.

Rhymefest Ft. Citizen Cope, “Bullet & A Target”

“He turned around and got a face full of hollow tips/but don’t be mad he died for the flag..”

Pharoahe Monch, “Agent Orange”

“What’s your identity today?/You on some John F. Kennedy or Timothy McVeigh?”

Q-Tip “We Fight We Love”
” You get to travel the world/ It’s better than college/ You get guns and you get knowledge”

Eric B & Rakim, “Casualties of War”

“I got a family that waits for my return/To get back home is my main concern/I’ma get back to New York in one piece/but I’m bent in the sand that is hot as the city streets”-R

Mos Def “War”

“You hotdamn right this war’s gone too far/ soldiers mistake the gun burst for the stars…”

J-Live, “Satisfied”

“It ain’t right that those cops and firemen died/shit is real tragic, but it damn sure ain’t magic/it won’t make the brutality disappear, it won’t pull equality from behind your ear/”

Mos Def F/ Slick Rick “Audiorium”
“Sit and come relax riddle off the mac, its the patch
Imma soldier in the middle of Iraq
Well say about noonish commin out the whip
And lookin at me curious, a young Iraqi kid (awww)
Carrying laundry, whats wrong G? hungry?
No, gimme oil or get f*ck out my country!”

Q-Tip pretty much sums up how I feel about this song IN this song: “For our generation we’re still the cool kids…” Just hearing Dres from Black Sheep, Q-Tip, Dave from De La Soul and Mike Gee from The Jungle Brothers on one song is an amazing treat for anyone who is old enough to remember crying when Optimus Prime died.

The Native Tongues, a family of groups made up of A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, The Jungle Brothers and Black Sheep are a modern day equivalent of the Soulquarians…umm..Young Money honestly…there is nothing out right now that is quite like the Native Tongues. You would have to take four hot groups, not just solo artists, and then bring them all together to make a song. Can you say mission impossible?

I guess that’s what makes this song “Birds Of a Feather” even more special. It’s a reunion track of the Native Tongue family featured on Dres of Black Sheep’s upcoming project From the Black Pool of Genius. Check it out. [props to Potholesinmyblog]

RELATED: Dres From Black Sheep, “I’d Love To Reunite With Mr. Long”

In an interview with Brooklyn Bodega, The Abstract confirms that he’s doing tracks for upcoming albums from Nas, Kanye West, and Talib Kweli, and that he wants to work with Jay-Z again!

BB: You seem to be very selective when it comes to picking artists to produce for. So how do you go about choosing projects?

Q-Tip: I just try to work with people who I admire or whom I think has got it. So right now I’m working on Nas’ shit, about to work with Kanye on his shit. Just trying to keep up my momentum. I’m about to work with Talib on his project. I been trying to work with Hova for a while so hopefully he’ll realize the heat I got and come with it [laughs].

Tip last worked with Nas on 1994′s Illmatic on the song “One Love” and the classic remix of “The World Is Yours.”

Interview spotted at Rap Radar via Brooklyn Bodega.

RELATED: Let The Hype For Kanye’s 5th Album Begin

RELATED: VIDEO: A Tribe Called Quest Reunites At Diabetes Benefit

After ruining “We Are The World” for millions of people last month, legendary producer Quincy Jones is set to ruin even more of his classic productions with his upcoming Soul Bossa Nostra tribute album.

Jones has called on a who’s who of today’s stars to cover some of his classic works, and the list of artists and the songs they are attached to make me want to vomit.

Here’s a few of the biggest offenders:

Akon “Strawberry Letter 23″ (made famous by The Brothers Johnson)
Usher, Robin Thicke, LL Cool J, Trey Songz, Tyrese, Tevin Campbell “Secret Garden” (originally performed by El DeBarge, James Ingram, Al B. Sure!, and Barry White)
Ludacris “Soul Bossa Nova” (aka the Austin Powers theme, and sample source for Luda’s “Number One Spot”)
T-Pain & Robin Thicke “P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)” (originally performed by Michael Jackson)

Now I must say that it’s not all doom and gloom, as Quincy did find some people worthy of the songs they are covering:

Mary J. Blige & Q-Tip “Betcha Wouldn’t Hurt Me” (originally performed by Patti Austin)
BeBe Winans “Everything Must Change” (originally performed by Bernard Ighner)
John Legend “Tomorrow (A Better You, A Better Me)” (originally performed by Tevin Campbell)
Jennifer Hudson “You Put A Move On My Heart” (performed by Tamia on Jones’ Q’s Jook Joint album)

But then again, you’ve got Snoop Dogg doing his own interpretation of The Brothers Johnson’s disco/funk classic “Get The Funk Out Ma Face.”

I quit.

Akon’s sacrilegious cover of “Strawberry Letter 23″ will be out on March 24th.

The album, Q: Soul Bossa Nostra, will be out in May or June.

RELATED: Rappers, Singers Start ‘We Are The World’ Remake

RELATED: Quincy Jones, “We’ve Spent Years Making Dumb Sexy”

In interviews shot for Michael Rappaport’s upcoming documentary on A Tribe Called Quest, Beats Rhymes & Life, Ludacris & Too $hort talk about how the NYC legends influenced them.

Ludacris talks about Tribe’s influence on the new crop of MCs and himself:

Too $hort talks about the difference how A Tribe Called Quest picked up girls in songs and how he approached the same subject.

Find out more about Beats Rhymes & Life on the documentary’s official website!

RELATED: VIDEO: A Tribe Called Quest Reunites At Diabetes Benefit

RELATED: HUMOR: What Is Q-Tip Scared Of?

Attendees at last night’s diabetes benefit held at The Knitting Factory in Brooklyn came to see Jay Electronica, Ghostface, and Talib Kweli.  They left seeing a reunion of one of hip-hop’s greatest groups.

The benefit, put together by A Tribe Called Quest’s Phife Dawg, the self-described “funky diabetic,” climaxed with a performance by the group whose last album was released in 1998.  Q-Tip and Ali Shaheed Muhammad joined Phife on stage to perform their classic songs “Oh My God” and “Award Tour.”

HUMOR: What Is Q-Tip Scared Of?

Footage courtesy of LTD Mag.

Check out video of Jay Electronica performing with Mos Def & Talib Kweli at the benefit.

Ever since Rakim and Jody Watley teamed up on “Friends” the collabo between the MC and the singer has become commonplace. But there are still lots of songs that for one reason or another didn’t get the light they deserved.  This is a list of rewind worthy team-ups that flew under the radar.

Jill Scott /F Mos Def “Love Rain” (2)

This should not be confused with the remix that was a bonus track on the Words & Sounds CD. This version keeps the original beat and Mos goes in with one of the most potent spoken word performances put to wax.

Raphael Saadiq F/ Q-Tip “Get Involved”

Believe it or not there was a soundtrack to “The PJ’s” television show and this great collab between Q-Tip and Raphael Saadiq was on it.

D’Angelo f/ Eric Sermon and Redman “Dreamin Eyes” (Def Squad Remix)

This beat is a close relative to the joint E Sermon did with Too Short, “Buy You Some” but Redman and E double book-end D’Angelo’s musings with tight verses.

Eric Roberson f/ Phonte From Little Brother “Been In Love”

Both of these brothers are tragically slept on in the music biz and this is one of my favorites from Erro’s last CD, Left.

Davina f. Raekwon “So Good”

This just reminds me of hanging out on a New York fire escape in summertime. Pick your vice.

Common F/ Cee-LO “G.O.D”

This one from One Day It’ll All Make Sense definitely got overshadowed by he and Lauryn Hill’s “Retrospect For Life” but it was dope in its own right. I can almost forgive the sappy “Make My Day.”

The Roots f/ Jill Scott “Complexity”

Lost gem from the underappreciated “Phrenology.” Given how far away The Roots have moved from this sound lately I appreciate it even more.

Mary J Blige F/ Black Star “Beautiful” remix

This version flips the original on its head with less singing from Ms. Blige and two stellar performances from Mos and Talib.

Clipse F/ Bilal “Nightmares”

An unlikely union of coke laced bravado and painful neo soul.

Boyz II Men – Vibin’ (The New Flava)

Borrowing from the same formula as the popular “I Wanna Be Down” (Remix) Treach, Craig Mack, Busta Rhymes and Method Man gave us one more reason to love 1995.

We were  just talking about Bill Cosby and today’s rap generation. Well rappers didn’t always promote vulgarity..sort of. This song is dope and shows how you can be creative without cursing. It features many of my favorite rappers from the nineties, Heavy D, Grand Puba, CL Smooth, Q Tip, Big Daddy Kane and Kool G Rap.

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