20 Best Q-Tip Beats

It might be easy to forget that Q-Tip is one of the greatest producers of all time. He was part of the legendary group A Tribe Called Quest and served as their main producer, but the crew wasn’t reaching into new sounds as drastically as RZA was with Wu-Tang or Large Professor was with Main Source. In fact, once he went solo, Q-Tip’s beats might arguably be better known than the beats he did when he was with Tribe. It only speaks to his talent on the boards that his entire catalog is up there with some of the greatest producers hip-hop has ever seen.

Early on, Tip was cooking crack for artists outside of Tribe. He had one of the best beats on Nas’ Illmatic with “One Love,” let alone a crazy remix of “The World Is Yours.” He produced for Run-D.M.C., Jungle Brothers and Diamond D, all before 1995. He did a couple crazy remixes of Craig Mack, Jungle Brothers and Cypress Hill joints in the mid-1990s. And don’t forget how he helped Mobb Deep with the production for their breakout sophomore album, The Infamous. He is indeed a living legend.

Check out the list and article via XXL.