Q-Tip On Jay Electronica's Rap Impact, "I Think He Is The Future"

Rap veteran Q-Tip recently gave his opinion of hip-hop newcomer Jay Electronica and explained why the emcee's buzz is more than just hype.

Tip also confirmed reports that he has a new album in the works.

"Jay Electronica. I think he is the future," Tip said in an interview about rap newcomers. "I think he is the sh*t. Hopefully we can continue to go in that direction of cats like him and Lupe [Fiasco]. Hopefully, we can get more musical and less critical and opinionated...My solo sh*t is on deck for sometime this year. I can't reveal what the name of it is just yet but I'm real excited about it. So for all the people that f*cked with the Renaissance and knew what it was, or for those who are just finding out now -- we going to come crazy on this one. And the Nas sh*t is going to be f*cking bananas. Look for that at the end of the year."

Fellow New York rapper Nas has also co-signed Jay.

"It never ceases to amaze me, I'm just happy that I'm here and I'm happy that all the other dudes are out there. I'm inspired by all the guys you're probably talking about. I'm inspired by them too...It's all good, there's all kinds of things going on now, it's always shifting. One area of the world will dominate rap music and then Mid-West and The South and The West, it just rotates and everybody gets their say. [For new artists?] Jay Electronica, I'm really, I'm digging him right now."

Last December, rap mogul Diddy predicted Electronica's sound would dominate 2010.

"Attention all djs attention all djs. I'm about to post 1 of the hottest most authentic hip hoprecords of 2010!!! Just for real hip hop djs," he wrote Wednesday (December 30). "This is a record i will be promotin in 2010. My brother @jayelectronica - Exhibit C It deserves to be play on the radio! http://fblz.in/K3h4 @jayelectronica will be the breakout MC one of 2010!!!! Real hip hop!!! Artistic hip hop that's saying something!!! SAY SOMETHING!!! Rt pls! Retweet this pls!!!. My brother @jayelectronica - Exhibit C It deserves to be play on the radio! Click here http://fblz.in/K3h4 let's go!"
Earlier this month, Jay spoke on hip-hop prejudice and being uncomfortable with his Southern roots.

"I have to admit, you know, a few years ago, I wouldn't have admitted this -- or maybe I wouldn't have been conscious of it in a way to admit or be embarrassed -- but in my earlier years from when I first left home, I was embarrassed from being from the South," he explained in an interview. "Not in general, but as a rapper because all of the negative things that people in the States put on the South. Like, 'The South, they're slow. They move slow, they think slow, they're less intelligent. They're less exposed, they're underexposed, they're more sheltered.' So as a rapper -- I've been rapping since I was 10 years old -- I always had a feeling of 'I'm gonna show you' because we down here doing it. Not that I was embarrassed necessarily -- I don't know if that's the correct word -- but I know that when I left home, if someone had heard my accent and heard where I was from, the door was immediately closed."
Check out a recent Jay Electronica interview below: