Q-tip - Amplified CDs • Vinyl Records • LPs • Music Albums

crafted for boho honeys, backpack rats and thugs who like their ice on their wrists, not in their drinks.

The mix doesn't always work. The chorus of "Things U Do" implies deep social analysis ("Let's talk about the rules I break/And the things we take/And the jobs we hold/And the land we stole"), but the Abstract's opening verse ("I puff L's with ladies and gentlemen") paints a more lightweight picture. Amplified is a crossroads for Q-Tip: It's a little disturbing to hear the boy who left his wallet in El Segundo dropping the n word and lines like, "Sitting back with this mike in my hand/Spitting hot shit, trying to see grands."

Still, he's on an Isley Brothers-like mission to please. Practically everything here is directed at getting your derriFre in gear, from the bouncy guitar stylings of "Do It" and "Let's Ride" to the mellifluous-meets-frenetic canvas of "Wait Up." With its digital, heartbeatlike drive, "Go Hard" is guaranteed to populate dance floors - consider it the completion of a booty-shaking troika that began with the undeniable groove vehicles "Vivrant Thing" and "Breathe and Stop."

Mostly produced by Tip and Jay Dee - collectively known as the Ummah - Amplified slides ATCQ's music theory sideways. If Tribe was about taking the past (jazz, Seventies soul) and making it now, Tip and Jay make the music that's gonna represent laid-back hip-hop two minutes into the future - with fewer sample-clearance issues. Amplified isn't worthy of placement in A Tribe Called Quest's pantheon of classics, but then it's not a Tribe album. It's a Q-Tip album. And it's gonna make you dance like you're on a bed of hot coals. (RS 832)

KRIS EX