Q-Tip

Q-Tip
a.k.a. Jonathan Davis

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CLEAN OUT YOUR EARS
A Tribe Called Quest Frontman Q-Tip Goes Loud, Proud, and Solo with AMPLIFIED
After leading the jazz/ hip-hop revolution of the early-'90s with some of hip-hop's most consistently funky and innovative recordings, PEOPLE'S INSTINCTIVE TRAVELS AND THE PATHS OF RHYTHM (1989), THE LOW END THEORY (1990) and MIDNIGHT MARAUDERS (1993), A Tribe Called Quest disbanded last year. Now, 15 short months later Q-Tip, whose warm, fuzzy voice and abstract poetics shaped ATCQ's sound, has surfaced with the radio-friendly singles "Vivrant Thing" and "Breathe and Stop" off his new full-length disc, AMPLIFIED. Q-Tip was very pumped when bn.com's Martin Johnson caught up with him -- delivering some vintage Earth, Wind, and Fire impersonations and firing off a few push-ups. But he settled down to talk about his stereophonic solo shot, his jazz jones, and a new Hollywood film venture.

barnesandnoble.com: How did you choose AMPLIFIED as the title of the solo recording?

Q-Tip: Because I felt like I got stuck in the ass with a thousand-volt battery. I felt charged up and energized and happy. Making this recording was effortless. It was work, but it felt more like fun.

bn.com: What music from your childhood went into your planning for this record?

QT: Miles Davis's BITCHES BREW, Herbie Hancock, Janis Joplin, Gamble and Huff [productions], especially the O'Jays and Teddy Pendergrass, and Sly Stone.

bn.com: What's your favorite Miles record?

QT: There's a couple, "So What" on KIND OF BLUE which is everyone's favorite but [shrugs], and IN A SILENT WAY. I've got the funniest Miles Davis story. I was supposed to work on his last album [DOO-BOP]. He had heard the first Tribe album [PEOPLE'S INSTINCTIVE TRAVELS AND THE PATHS OF RHYTHM], and liked it. I was supposed to call his house. I call him up and hear [imitates a raspy voice], "Hello." I say "Mr. Davis." [again in a rasp]: "Yes." "This is Q-Tip, Mr. Davis, I have to say that you're truly amazing, a genius, I respect your work and all of the doors you've opened for all of us. Working with you is a dream come true and it will definitely be one of the highlights of my life. I'm really interested in this whole project and I look forward to meeting with you." The voice at the other end goes, "Hold on." Then I hear him yell, "Dad, it's for you." I was thinking, Oh my God...[rolling with laughter]

bn.com: But you never got a chance to work with him. What happened?

QT: I don't know, schedules, logistics.

bn.com: There is a lot of piano and isolated keyboards on AMPLIFIED; are you using simplicity as a deliberate contrast to some of the densely layered productions in hip-hop today?

QT: Well yeah, that's kind of it, also I just love the sparse feeling that a piano brings. I like the idea of my voice against a piano backdrop; it's a good mixture. Also, every instrument on this record is distinct. I wanted every part to be felt.

bn.com: What were the biggest inspirations in the bass lines?

QT: Big, driving, African beats. I wanted the music to have that kind of presence.

bn.com: There are only two guests on this record, Korn and Busta Rhymes. Why so few?

QT: I felt too many hip-hop records have all these guests and everybody is rhyming on everyone else's records, and there are all these skits. It gets in the way of the music sometimes.

bn.com: What motivated you to start working on a screenplay for "Prison Song," your new film being directed by Darnell Martin who wrote and directed 1994's "I Like It Like That"?

QT: The way that prison system works and the injustices that go on. Prisons are supposed to be corrective. Yet prisons, especially privatized ones, are making money at the expense of these guys who need help.

bn.com: You've started a production company too, right?

QT: Yeah, Leonardo Di Caprio, Rosario [Dawson] and me. We're interested in good scripts, and narratives. Hollywood is ready for change.