Yale Daily News

Updated: Saturday, November 21, 2009 7:35 p.m.

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Q-Tip’s swabs are legendary

Contributing Reporter
Published Friday, November 7, 2008

Q-Tip is back with his first solo release of the decade, and “The Renaissance” is aptly named. “Johnny is Dead” establishes its ingenuity and fresh feel, “Johnny” being a reference to Q’s birth name, replaced during his mid-1990s conversion to Islam. Lines like, “what good is an ear if a q-tip isn’t in it?” assure you the clever lyricist has not lost much through the years. As comfortable as ever spitting over jazz-flavored beats produced largely by himself, Q-Tip mixes dance grooves with more laid-back material.

His production effort is of a higher quality than most hip-hop...

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