Q-Tip’s “Barely In Love”

Well, shame on me for not listening to this album when it came out September. 2009. It’s teeming with life. Live instrumentation; a funky, soulful, jazzy laid back vibe (it is Q-Tip, after all, who perfected “laid back” hip-hop twenty plus years ago with A Tribe Called Quest).

This song sums up the greatness of the record. “Barely In Love” is nothing you’d ever expect from Q-Tip, or anyone else in the hip-hop scene. I go back to my main theme – no boundaries, no genres. I feel 70’s Stevie Wonder. I feel an urban street scene, late on a Saturday night with musicians gathered around in a circle, jamming out. There’s hip-hop in this album, but it can’t be called a hip-hop record. It’s just… music.

Q-Tip – Barely In Love

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