Written by Ace Six | Photography by Philip Litevsky

So, the Bounce 2K Tour aka Videogames are a great excuse to have a rap tour around North America was in Toronto recently and I was delighted to attend. The lineup included newbies The Knux, hipster hop faves The Cool Kids, and balanced out by the Abstract Poet himself, Kamaal aka Q-Tip.

I’ve seen Q-Tip perform with Tribe three times, but didn’t know what to expect from a solo show to be totally honest. I have been checking for the new record, but as of the show date had not taken the whole record in on some smoke a joint and listen to it start to finish shit.

However, this is the man who I constantly have quotes from on my mind and his former group was essentially the soundtrack to my teenage years and early 20′s. The man with the most charismatic voice in rap music, and after listening to recent interviews and podcasts with him, he may possibly be the ideal b-boy. Well rounded, articulate, clever, passionate, dynamic, and incredibly talented. He’s won the hearts of almost 4 generations and continues to make his mark on culture and the world through music.

Not to take away from the openers though, since this was a full tour and I managed to get there early enough to catch all the acts. First up, were The Knux. I didn’t know what to expect but their name is bouncing around a fair bit lately so I was ready to check out what they had to offer.

They reminded me of a west coast rap act from the 90′s with almost matching outfits and similar hair and quirky rhyme structures. I guess a couple of their songs had that feeling too, one in particular had a really heavy bump to it almost like some old The Nonce joints. Their other, more electroish, uptempo shit didn’t do it for me, but it seemed like the crowd was feeling it.

Next up, The Cool Kids. Way more swagger than energy, but that is obviously their style. Their dj was tight, mixing a lot of old instros in with their beats as switch-ups in tracks. They have a good back and forth and are pretty on point, plus their music sounds great on a big system. I might have been too close to the speakers in fact because my ears were ringing for the rest of the night.

Finally, our man “The Midnight Marauder” got on stage with his live band. When I go to shows, I usually have one song in my head that I want to hear. If I hear it, the show is automatically a good one regardless if the rest of the show is trash. If I don’t hear it, a good show automatically gets less props than it deserved. I know, I’m fickle but that’s just how I roll at this point in my concert-going life.

In this case, I needed to hear ‘Let’s Ride’, and much to my delight, that made it into the set. Only one verse, but more than enough to fill my needs! He killed it too, sounded just as good live as it does on record. Common’s live band needs to take notes from Q-Tip’s because every track they did live sounded just as good as it did on record…including ‘Verses From The Abstract’ which I was shocked by. Not only was I surprised to hear it in the set at all, but he did the whole joint and it sounded proper, extremely so. Basically, his set was a perfect combo of new joints, classics from ATCQ and a couple of his solo joints from before. I couldn’t have picked a better set list, he really came correct with the order and songs selected.

Q-Tip’s set totally took my jaded, hip-hop show veteran blinders off and re-introduced that feeling of total euphoria that only a well-executed set filled with tons of energy and great songs can do. I was literally on a hip-hop high at this party, surrounded by good friends and vibing out. First time I’ve mashed up my voice yelling lyrics in years at a show, first time I’ve been ignoring my phone to just pay attention to how amazing this show was. Thanks, Q-Tip for restoring my faith in this music..not only with the show but with the album. I’m a fan for life and proud of it.