Q-Tip

Q-Tip, born Jonathan William Davis in Manhattan, New York City, on 10 April 1970, is an American rapper and record producer, nicknamed "the Abstract", the lead MC and main producer of A Tribe Called Quest. ¹ He converted to Islam in the mid-1990s, changing his name to Kamaal Ibn John Fareed. ¹ In 2024 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of A Tribe Called Quest. ¹

He began his career in the late 1980s as MC and main producer of A Tribe Called Quest, the influential alternative hip-hop group whose jazz-influenced sound he shaped. ¹ In the mid-1990s he co-founded the production team The Ummah, and after the group first disbanded he released his gold-certified solo debut Amplified (1999), followed by the Grammy-nominated The Renaissance (2008) and the experimental Kamaal the Abstract (2009). ¹ He won a Grammy Award as a featured artist on the Chemical Brothers' "Galvanize" (2006), acted in films including Poetic Justice (1993) and Prison Song (2001), which he co-wrote and led, and has hosted the Apple Music radio show Abstract Radio since 2015. ¹ In 2016 he was named artistic director for hip-hop culture at the Kennedy Center, and in 2018 he became an instructor of a jazz and hip-hop course at New York University's Clive Davis Institute. ¹

His solo albums are Amplified (1999), The Renaissance (2008) — his highest-charting album, at number 11 on the Billboard 200, and nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Rap Album — and Kamaal the Abstract (2009), recorded with a live band and shelved by his label for years before release. ¹ With A Tribe Called Quest he released the group's albums from 1990 to their final album in 2016. ¹

This section sets out different positions as reported in the sources. It is not a verdict by the museum.

His faith as the sources state it. The article states that Q-Tip converted to Islam in the mid-1990s, changing his name to Kamaal Ibn John Fareed, citing Time magazine of 6 December 1999. ¹ It also reports that much of the lyrical theme of the group's fourth album, Beats, Rhymes and Life (1996), was inspired by his recent conversion, though his relationship with Phife Dawg became strained in the same period. ¹ The Arabic article is a stub that confirms his Muslim name and files him among converts to Islam, without naming any school. ² Wikidata gives only Islam generically. ³ Conversion is attested; no source names a madhhab for him, so his record carries his faith as unknown, with the attestations recorded verbatim. ¹

• The defined source entities cited above, recorded in data/source/.
• Revisions of this article must be dated, and must name the source that changed each fact.