Post by Admin on Jul 17, 2014 11:19:28 GMT -4
Born Jonathan Davis on April 10, 1970 in Harlem, he converted to Islam in the mid-1990s, and changed his name to Kamaal Ibn John Fareed. He moved to St. Albans, Queens as a child. As referenced in the song "Check the Rhime", he mostly resided at Linden Boulevard. His father was from Montserrat, a British territory in the eastern Caribbean. His mother is an African American from Alabama. His sister, Gwen, is eight years older than he. He attended Murry Bergtraum High School in Manhattan, New York. According to Fareed, he was given his stage name by Afrika Baby Bam of Jungle Brothers, which he used as a replacement for his prior name, MC Love Child.
He has also said that the Q in Q-Tip stands for Queens and he is often referred to as Tip, which later caused problems when a Southern rapper, now known as T.I., signed to Arista Records and attempted to use the stage name Tip, which was later shortened to T.I. to avoid confusion with his then-labelmate Q-Tip. Throughout his career, he also called himself "The Abstract". He said that one of the main people in his life that inspired him was his childhood friend, Mohammed Sead. Q-Tip lives in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. He is the cousin of Consequence, who was featured heavily on Beats, Rhymes and Life. According to a DNA analysis, he descended, mainly, from the Jola people of Guinea-Bissau.
Q-Tip is a founding member of the critically acclaimed hip hop group A Tribe Called Quest, in 1985, together with his high school friends Phife Dawg, Ali Shaheed Muhammad and Jarobi White. The band signed to Jive Records and released five studio albums during its initial run. The band split up in 1998. A Tribe Called Quest reunited in 2006 and played a limited number of dates. The group was composed of its original lineup, including Q-Tip and occasional member Jarobi.
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