Life is better
Q-tip is a producer, rapper and songwriter from New York. Also the main producer and one of the rappers of hip-hop group A Tribe Called Quest, he has spent 41 years in his music career; he started rapping at just age nine after friend and future ATCQ member, Phife Dawg, encouraged him to. He then started to produce his own songs at age 12, inspired by his dad’s love for jazz music. He was in many rap groups in his teenage years and formed his most notable group A Tribe Called Quest with friends in 1985 (but they were originally just called ‘Quest’). They signed to Jive Records and released their debut album, which Q-Tip was the main producer on, and also rapped on. In the same year, he appeared on future global house hit ‘The Groove Is In The Heart’, which helped him grow his name. After releasing multiple albums with the group and getting worldwide success, they disbanding in late 1998.
After the success of A Tribe Called Quest, he explored the idea of becoming a solo artist, signing with label Arista Records and releasing his debut solo album in 1999. He also did other work like acting, film score production and live band playing, in which he created the album Kamaal The Abstract, but this was released many years later because of problems with his record label at the time. Q-tip is still producing tracks to this day, working with different artists like Demi Lovato and Eminem. Q-tip has said he will never stop making music and even started a course in 2018 that taught the link between jazz and hip-hop. His music is known for this fusion, and many people have called his music experimental, and Q-Tip has been credited for trendsetting the use of jazz samples in modern music. As for his rapping techniques, he likes to talk about often philosophical or socially aware themes. One of my favourite songs from him is ‘Life Is Better’, from his 2008 album The Renaissance; the song also features vocalist Norah Jones.
When I first found this song thanks to the Spotify algorithm, I was amazed at both the song’s vibe overall; the chords they used, the instrumentation, Norah’s lush vocals and Q-Tip’s funky production of the song overall. You can clearly tell that Q-Tip takes inspiration from jazz songs and often samples them to influence his style, as this song feels just like a modernized jazz song with the bass and drums giving it that hip-hop feel. This idea is a great inspiration for my own music as I plan to create something similar; songs that use both dated and more modern musical techniques and genres to create a jazz/lo-fi/hip-hop fusion sound.
Initially, you would think this is a love song, and Norah’s lyrics suggest this. However, the song is actually about finding new music and appreciating hip-hop artists and the culture. ‘Life is better… now that I’ve found you’ is suggesting Norah has found a new hip-hop artist and this music is like the return of the genre. She also says ‘I’m so into your rich history’ and this is talking about the massive history and culture behind hip-hop in the 70s and even to the present. In Q-Tip’s rap verse, he mentions over 50 artists whom he loves and is inspired by, claiming that their music puts him in a better place and that his life is much more enjoyable with them in it.
The instrumentation in the song is quite sparse and simple, but this is quite conventional for a song like this as hip-hop songs don’t usually have lots of things going on or instruments playing as the main focal point is the rap and lyrics. The instruments in the song are: synthesiser, drums, bass, vocals, piano and strings. One that stands out for me from this list is the strings; this is very unique for a hip-hop song but it goes really well with the mellow synthesisers and Norah’s vocals. Overall, I would say the texture is almost in the middle of thick and thin, but leaning to slightly thin, but this could be said the same for most hip-hop songs because there are not many instruments or polyrhythms, for example.
The harmonies, for me, is what makes this song stand out from others in hip-hop. Norah’s main vocal line is in the right key, but some of her harmonies over that are not in the same key, which creates this interesting, almost dissonant tone that wouldn’t really sound right usually, but it articulates itself amazingly here and is very representative of the jazz feel of the song. This means that the song’s harmonies can be diatonic at times, which is rare for modern music.
In the song, the rhythms from the drums are very simple. The hi-hats are playing quavers and the snare lands on the two and four of every bar. At the start of every bar, there is an open hi-hat, which to me, is giving the listener an indication that the song is moving and the next bar is here; this is important in music like this as it can sometimes get quite repetitive and combined with the fast rap lyrics, you could get lost in the song. The drums have a swing feel on the bass drum which can be heard at the end of every fourth bar. However, I think the simplicity works here as this is a staple of hip hop and lofi songs. I think this drum pattern could be improved perhaps by adding ghost notes or missing out hits entirely to give it some uniqueness.
Many rap songs have quite unconventional structures because the rap verse is the most important part of the song, not necessarily the chorus, like in most other modern songs. However, this song uses a fairly generic structure, but it still doesn’t fail to keep the raps verse very prominent. This structure is: Intro, verse one, chorus, verse two, chorus. The chorus could even be considered as a hook, as the same phrase is repeated and gets easily stuck in your head. The last chorus has quite an abrupt ending, and there is a synth solo going on in the background as Q-Tip sings the main hook and Norah’s vocals fade away. A personal favourite part of the song is the intro, it sets the feel and tone for the song and the mellow piano sound he used for that sounds amazing.
The song’s tempo is 96BPM which is a fairly usual and solid tempo for most songs today. The term for this tempo would be andante moderato, which means faster than andante (walking pace) but slower than moderato (moderate speed), making it a good middle ground for many songs. The time signature is also very conventional; it being a standard 4/4. This is celebrated as it is simple and easy to use, and someone with no knowledge of rhythm or music theory could understand this time signature. This is good as the song’s audience would primarily be casual fans of modern music, whom might not have much interest or awareness of such things.
This song took me a while to figure out the key because the chords are a lot more confusing than normal major or minor triads. I found out the key by finding and playing what scale fits with the song; in this case, I figured out it was B minor which means the overall key of the song would be D major because this is the relative major of B minor. A lot of the melodies in the song use chromatic scaling, not pentatonic, and they do not stay in the right key; somehow, this works very well. You can clearly hear this dissonance in the bassline and the harmonies, which I mentioned above. These create an inharmonious feel; the notes played would usually clash with the key of the song but it seems to accomplish this jazzy feel!