Q-TIP AND BLACK IVORY: GETTIN' ALL THE WAY UP
Tags: samples
Q-Tip: Gettin' Up
From The Renaissance (Motown, forthcoming 2008)
Black Ivory: You and I
From Don't Turn Around (Today, 1972)
I'm not trying to turn Side Dishes into a "hip-hop samples" column (though I'm sure some of you would be perfectly happy by that) but I couldn't really pass up writing about this new Q-TIp song plus its original source. I do feel slightly embarrassed to be writing about it now instead of back in mid-summer when "Gettin' Up" first started to make the blogosphere rounds but 1) better late than never and more importantly, 2) the song is barely "out" in any official way, with Q-TIp recently releasing a video for it.
One of Q-Tip's old nicknames with A Tribe Called Quest used to be Mr. Incognito and that's taken on a special irony with the last 10 years. Amplified came out in 1999, practically an eon ago in rap years, and though he was supposed to have followed it up with the ambitious Kamaal the Abstract in 2002, a series of problems killed that release and since then, Q-TIp has stayed largely out of the spotlight despite some occasional, random appearances.
"Gettin' Up" is easily the best thing TIp has touched in years and while I hesitate to call it "classic Q-TIp" (if only because I don't want to suggest it's stuck in a nostalgic rut), certainly what's appealing about this is similar to what was appealing about the best Tribe songs: a sublime musical texture and lyrics that are easy to absorb without being insipid. (It also helps that most of Q-TIp's best outings have often been love songs); the format works for him, no doubt.
The real star here, besides Tip on the comeback trail, is the music (apparently also produced by him), a gloriously melancholy track with hints of gospel-esque uplight. For that, you have to give ample credit to Harlem's native songs, Black Ivory, and their biggest career hit, "You and I" from 1972. The original was far slower compared to the pace of "Gettin' Up" but the feel is the same - a sublime, slightly bittersweet feel captured in that beautiful melody that haunts every bar of the song (props to producer Patrick Adams who does some of his best work on this). When Leroy Burgess drops in with his bright falsetto, it takes the song to whole new proverbial level - heart-achingly sweet and emotional, made all the better by Stuart Bascombe and Russell Patterson's background vocals which give the song an even greater angelic lift. I like playing the Black Ivory song first - which, at seven-minutes, gives you much to absorb - and then drop the Q-TIp after as a kind of "best of" coda. Either way, you can't go wrong with the pair in whatever order.
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Recent Comments
Oliver Wang says:
Brenda and the Tabulations do a solid version of it as well, as does Edwin Starr. Popular song, no doubt. ...(read more)
ipickmynose says:
On the topic of early versions of this song that were released, there was a version by the Messengers as a b-side to their "Window Shopping" single on the Motown-related Soul label. It was releas...(read more)