Kamaal The Abstract

[Crenshaw_blvd]

After making a stab at the hip-hop mainstream on Amplified, his solo debut, former A Tribe Called Quest frontman Q-Tip--a.k.a. Kamaal--sounds like he's left his chart hopes behind on this second outing. In fact, on a few cuts, like the stomping "Barely In Love," he's left hip-hop behind altogether, offering instead a melange of straight-up singing, free-flowing jazz-rock and touches of Hendrixian psychedelia that make the album title ring quite true. Yet while Kamaal is occasionally unfocused, Q-Tip also sounds far more at ease among these more adventurous grooves than he did amidst the radio-ready production of Amplified; his boyish vocals seem liberated by the new possibilities. Tribe fans looking for a return to the good old days may be a bit disappointed--the head-nodding, horn-flecked "Even If It Is So" is the only clear-cut reference to Tip's past--but this album is still full of the musical questing that put that group, and Q-Tip, on the map to stay.