Sunday night BBC broadcast a new radio documentary, called The Story of Q-Tip, that weighed the talents and influence of A Tribe Called Quest‘s glassy-eyed main man. In addition to fawning interviews with the Pharcyde, Nas, and Pharrell, Q-Tip announced big plans for 2014, including a 25th anniversary reissue of Low End Theory, a new solo LP called The Last Zulu, and a Native Tongues TV show with Leonardo DiCaprio and Jonah Hill.
The interview begins with a survey of Tip’s formative years (including an early affinity for Kraftwerk) before launching into his Tribe Called Quest heyday. There’s a particularly memorable anecdote about the creation of “Can I Kick It?,” which supposedly stemmed from Lou Reed’s “racy” lines in “Walk On the Wild Side.”
But while the background information is illuminative, it’s clear that Q-Tip‘s still more interested in looking forward. The anniversary reissue of Low End Theory is set to feature new, unreleased material from the era, including “Silence” which features the Long Island legends Leaders of the New School. He also excitedly hinted at the potential return of the album’s planned artwork, which was to feature a nude painting of Naomi Campbell.
There’s no release date set yet for that, nor is there a release planned yet for his David Bowie and Miles Davis-influenced LP The Last Zulu, though he did describe it as “the evil twin of Tribe.” When that record does eventually surface, it’ll come via Def Jam and Kanye’s Good Music label. Q-Tip is also rumored to be involved with Kanye’s Yeezus follow-up, though he didn’t touch on that in this interview.
Little further news about the Native Tongues TV show has surfaced since it was first whispered about back in January, but Tip says that an announcement regarding the series will be made “soon.”
So there’s a whole lot happening in the Brooklyn rapper’s world and not a lot of details about when it’s all going down, so why not check out the hour-long doc here.
