Q-Tip founded and fronted the legendary hip-hop act A Tribe Called Quest, part of the innovative second wave of hip-hop that assured the genre’s longevity by bringing to it a new spirit of eclecticism and experimentalism. The group made at least two of the most important albums in the entire history of hip-hop, perfecting a jazzy, cerebral style totally at odds with the mean-street bravado that was simultaneously evolving into gangsta rap. Though he’s toured both as a solo artist and as part of a reunified Tribe in recent years, the iconic rapper has maintained a long period of studio silence. Until now. Tip returned to the fray this winter with a new solo record, The Renaissance, his first in a decade. Check the March music issue for his Mick Rock portrait—as always, Q-Tip shows his flair for thinking outside the box.

PLAYBOY: What are you listening to that would surprise people?
Q-TIP: Lately I’ve been listening to a lot of Cypress Hill. But as far as new bands, I like MGMT, the Cool Kids, Asher Roth.

PLAYBOY: It was a long time between Amplified and The Renaissance. What’s the story there?
Q-TIP: Yeah, The Renaissance is my first album since 1998. I recorded a couple of albums in the interim that were never released. There are a lot of things that went on in between—switching labels, I lost three friends unexpectedly. I’ve just been trying to navigate my way through. But I feel like this album is going to be the first of many to come in a short time now.

PLAYBOY: It’s a new, soulful sound. What was the process behind creating that?
Q-TIP: I wanted to have live instruments; I feel musicians have been getting cut out of the equation, oddly enough. It’s called music and you need musicians playing it. You don’t hear solos anymore—whether it’s a guitar solo or piano solo. I felt it would be interesting to have those things in hip-hop. My plan was to keep it hip-hop, keep that as a base, but to have more musicality. If your body has been devoid of a vitamin, you need to overdose that bitch. I feel hip-hop has been so devoid of musicality that I wanted to go overboard with that. But it still has the beats and the rhymes—it’s very hip-hop.

PLAYBOY: What do you do during downtime on the road?
Q-TIP: There’s no chilling on the road for me. You do the show and when you’re done you eat, you sleep. On the bus you read a book or sleep. Though I will say my iPod is a necessity on the road.

PLAYBOY: What’s your favorite bedroom album?
Q-TIP: I like to hear the sounds of sex. The perfect music for sex is the sound of us doing it—I think that’s music.