Gettin' In Your Ears Like A... (Amplified - Q-Tip)

Member Name: XICripZ

Product:	Amplified - Q-Tip
Date:	13/03/09 (96 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A few bangers

Disadvantages: A couple of tracks lack energy

Released in 1999, "Amplified" was the first album by Q-Tip (formerly of A Tribe Called Quest) as a solo artist, and has him individually push the Jazz Rap style that he had done with his group before. This was wasn't followed up until late in 2008 as the second album that he made was far too progressive for any label to experiment with.

1. "Wait Up"

Starting the album off, you get scared that the disc is faulty as it begins with a strange noise bleeping for nealry a minute before it kicks it into the proper music., and once it does it is straight fire as he comes with hot rhymes, and himself with J Dilla on the beats manage to implement this weird sound effect into the chorus of the tune.

**Four Stars**

2. "Higher"

The fact that Dilla on this album is very obvious when you hear the beats in this one, and they give Q-Tip the perfect backing to suit what he is about when he wishes to do some straight-forward Hip Hop that doesn't confuse you with oddly-complex diversification of musical genre. It is an up-lifting one that forces you to bump like you are meant to when listening to hard East Coast work.

**Four Stars**

3. "Breathe and Stop"

This was one of the most succesfful singles from the release as you get Q-Tip doing a sto-start track with lots going on as he collaborate with Jay Dee (J Dilla, who died in 2006) one the beats. For years much of the content meant very little to me, however it now seems to have a lot more gogin on within it, and it shows how well he is coping alone.

**Four Stars**

4. "Moving with U"

The high standard of the first few track continues for this one as you get him working with funky synth, which really stands out within the album. I foudn that with such impressive prodcution, the rhymes were less of an issue, however with his unpredictable flow, it was an exciting one to listen to, and one that you are boudn to like if you follow his material.

**Four Stars**

5. "Let's Ride"

The production duo of himslef and Jay Dee decide to go for more sample-hevy material, and I felt that this was a move in the right direction as it opens things up and offers security with hooks that are familiar (although vaguely so) and allow listners to ease their way into his alternative methods of doing his stlye of Hip Hop.

**Four Stars**

6. "Things U Do"

I was disappointed by the fact that you go from a series of bangers, and then onto one that simply doesn't match up to the hype of those before it as you have him singing in the chorus, and he does a hook which annoyed me by its repetititveness and the genreal pop-sounded structure of it. This brought down the quality of the whole tune.

**Two Stars**

7. "All In" (feat. Meda Leacock)

Taking from the souful Jazz band, The Cannonball Adderley Quintet, Q-Tip and J Dilla use "Leo: Rosebud" as inspiration and build around this track to come out with a retro-sounding recording that has a highly-complex structure, but straight-forward rhymes. Depsite the fact that he is often creditted with amazing lyrics, he makes sure that you are able to understand him, unlike many others who do a style simialr to himself.

**Three Stars**

8. "Go Hard"

Q does exatly what is said in the title as he does just "Go hard" on the mic(rophone) with fly ryhmes which gets him showing exactly why he is knonw as amongst the best out their with inventive wordplay, and exciting flows that force you to take notice. he way that he goes around the country and speaks of the cultural differences involves all listeners before he gets into the main aim of the track.

**Four Stars**

9. "Do It" (feat. Jessica Rivera)

DJ Scratch comes with a banger of a beat for this one, and the line: "They killin' me with petty little rap beats" displays that he is finally comfortable with the backing that he is given to for this one as he wishes to go all-out with hims flow and not care about the results of it all.

**Four Stars**

10. "Vivrant Thing"

This was the lead single to the album, and had him, working with really funky beats to show here he has come from as an artist, and indicate that he is sill willing to stick with these traditional, yet quirky musical styles, which make him alternative when performing Hip Hop. It is a straight banger, and you can't really fault it.

**Five Stars**

11. "N.T." (feat. Busta Rhymes)

Based on my knowledge of the fact that "Breathe and Stop" sampled Kool & The Gang's "N.T.", I would have expected that this one, ith the name of tht classic break, would make this a more prominant feature of ther track, however it doesn't use it at all. I wouldn't say that this is a negative though as Tip and Busta Rhymes work this original one, by DJ Scratch, effortlessly.

**Four Stars**

12. "End of Time" (feat. KoRn)

Ending the album off, you know that you are in for a change as Q recruits the Nu-Metal band, who he probably discovered off their "Follow The Leader" release, to work with him. I have to say that I wasn't fond of this big change from him, and I don't hink that it sounded right for either act.

**Two Stars**

I have to say this is a pretty strong album from the artist, and their are only a few flaws in it with pair of tracks that simply do not work. You have to say that although there is a lot of decent tunes here. I felt that overall, it requires quite a lot of work to get into it, and it isn't the most user-friendly release as you must pick out individual bits of quality in his rhymes, depsite the fact thaty it is found at each turn in the album.

Summary: Q-Tip's debut solo album