I just had a nice conversation with Q-tip. A really intelligent and introspective fellow. And it was so funny to hear his thoughts on the recent “retro” movement in hip hop, especially here in NY. (my theory: lost in translation. his theory: the stepford wives. HA! love it). Tip says his album will be out in February, and he’s still doing shows, including a show at CMJ next week, and at the Apple Store on Oct. 19th! (He and Common ripped Nokia theater this past Sunday)

But obviously, we also spoke about Lupe Fiasco-Gate. Tip wanted to clarify something that Lupe has been claiming, since the Hip Hop Honors show. Lupe says Q-Tip personally reached out to Lupe and asked him to be in the tribute, against his will. (“He could have picked anybody but he picked me for whatever reason so I can come out and represent the young people ”-from hiphopdx)

Q-tip says:

“I’m not trying to make this any bigger than it is. But, I just want to clear up one thing….


We never hunted him down and begged him to be a part of the show or anything like that. His name was pitched to us by VH1, and we said, ok cool. The only time I spoke to Lupe about the Hip Hop honors performance was on a conference call, which we did with the others artists too, like Busta and Common, to plan the performance.


When VH1 brought his name up, based on what he had said about us before, I thought it was ironic and it kind of humored me. All that stuff he said about never listening to a Tribe album before and having no interest in doing so, it doesn’t make sense to me.

As I said on the show itself, it was listening to NWA’s “Straight Outta Compton” that inspired us to make “Low-End Theory,” and years later, I spoke to Dr. Dre and he told me that hearing “Low-End Theory,” inspired him to make “The Chronic.” That’s what music does. That’s what artists do, they seek out information, of all kinds.

But no, I never hunted him down to be part of the tribute. That didn’t happen.”

class.