Pitchfork

It's been eight years since former A Tribe Called Quest MC Q-Tip released his solo debut, 1999's Amplified, and he has yet to release a proper studio follow-up. Kamaal the Abstract, his sophomore record scheduled for release in 2002, never came out, but it seems the recent Tribe reunion tour lit a fire under him.

Though he tells Billboard.com that another Tribe reunion is unlikely, he has big plans to release two solo albums, including the release of Kamaal with bonus tracks (the original's tracklist is below). Tapping like-minds Andre 3000, Common, and D'Angelo as his only guests so far, Tip assembled a "hip hop band" for The Renaissance, technically Kamaal's follow-up even though with its spring release on Universal Motown it will likely precede it.

"I wanted a hip-hop sonic feel, something pure to the sound of hip hop with real drums, real emotion and people taking solos. In that sense this record feels like we're moving in a new direction...something hip hop should do," Tip told Billboard.com to explain the idea behind the band.

He also said he will feature songs from Kamaal when he tours in support of The Renaissance, and we're pretty sure he'll visit with some of the many "Bonita Applebum"s among his MySpace friends, who all seem to be participating in the ill-defined "Bonita Applebum MySpace Contest". The "voice message from Q-Tip" doesn't do much to clear up exactly what the contest is beyond a ranking of female MySpace users willing to change their profile names to Bonita Applebum in order to possibly-- according to Tip-- "extend your friend networks and all of that."

And with that, we finally understand what's taken Tip so long to make a new album: cruising for chicks on MySpace.

Original Kamaal the Abstract tracklist:

01 Feelin'
02 Do U Dig U?
03 A Million Times
04 Blue Girl
05 Barely in Love
06 Heels
07 Abstractionisms
08 Caring
09 Even If It Is So