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Q-Tip
From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist
Q-Tip is the stage name of Kamaal Ibn John Fareed, born Jonathan William Davis in 1970 in Harlem, New York. He grew up in St. Albans, Queens. His father came from Montserrat, his mother from Alabama. He met Phife Dawg when they were only two years old, in a church. At the age of nine he began to rap, after Phife had encouraged him to, shortly after both of them had heard Rapper's Delight by The Sugarhill Gang. In the late 1980s he began his musical career as MC and main producer of A Tribe Called Quest.
Music and breakthrough
With Tribe he made influential albums that linked hip hop with jazz. In the mid-1990s he co-founded the production collective The Ummah with others. His solo debut Amplified appeared in 1999. It was followed by The Renaissance in 2008, nominated for a Grammy, and the experimental Kamaal the Abstract in 2009. He also acted in films, including Poetic Justice, and since 2015 he has hosted the radio show Abstract Radio on Apple Music 1. In 2016 he became artistic director for hip hop culture at the Kennedy Center, and since 2018 he has taught a course on jazz and hip hop at New York University. In 2024 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of A Tribe Called Quest.
Influence
Q-Tip is known as an innovator of jazz-inspired hip hop production, with philosophical and introspective lyrics. AllMusic called him the leader of a jazz-based hip hop revolution in the 1990s.
Listening
Discography
Studio albums
- 1999Amplified
- 2001Kamaal the Abstract
- 2008The Renaissance
In School of Rock
The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.
- After Hours: Session 4NL Reader