Q-Tip Teases Three New Solo Albums
After a Tribe Called Quest broke up in 1998, Q-Tip’s solo career started off well enough. Tip’s first solo LP, 1999’s Amplified, launched a couple of hit singles, went gold, and gave us history’s only Korn/J Dilla collaboration. Since then, though, Q-Tip’s solo career has only happened in fits and starts. To date, he’s released a grand total of three solo albums, one of which was shelved in 2002 and then came out seven years later. So when Q-Tip says he’s got three new solo albums coming soon — effectively doubling his discography — that’s a reason to be both excited and dubious.
This past weekend, Q-Tip celebrated his 50th birthday, and he also posted an Instagram video of himself playing some nasty funk bass over what sounds like one of his own videos. (We should never forget that Q-Tip is the main production mind behind a Tribe Called Quest and that he’s easily one of the 30 or so best producers in rap history.) During the video, a message flashes across the screen. Tip thanks fans for birthday wishes and adds that he has an announcement: “3 albums.” The titles appear onscreen: AlGoRhythms, Riotdiaries, and The Last Zulu. He signs off with this: “Thank u god willing I will get with u soon.” (That “god willing” almost seems like an admission that this might not happen, but let’s be optimistic.)
This has been the first time Q-Tip has mentioned AlGoRhythms or Riotdiaries, though he’s been promising The Last Zulu since about 2012. I hope all of it happens! Here’s the video:
Q-Tip hasn’t released a solo album in more than a decade, but he has been involved in making some truly great rap records. He reunited a Tribe Called Quest for the goodbye LP We Got It From Here… Thank You 4 Your Service in 2016, and he was the executive producer of Danny Brown’s uknowhatimsayin¿ in 2019.
