{"id":186848,"date":"2023-10-28T10:08:48","date_gmt":"2023-10-28T08:08:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/?p=186848"},"modified":"2023-10-25T18:22:16","modified_gmt":"2023-10-25T16:22:16","slug":"q-tip-is-writing-music-and-lyrics-for-a-muhammad-ali-broadway-musical","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/q-tip-is-writing-music-and-lyrics-for-a-muhammad-ali-broadway-musical\/","title":{"rendered":"Q-Tip Is Writing Music For A Muhammad Ali Broadway Musical"},"content":{"rendered":"
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NEW YORK, NEW YORK – APRIL 14: Q-tip performs during the Flipper’s Roller Boogie Palace NYC Opening at Rockefeller Center on April 14, 2022 in New York City. (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It must take a whole lot of confidence to even imagine a Broadway musical about the life of Muhammad Ali. But right now, the team behind the forthcoming production Ali has one good reason to be confident: Q-Tip, one of the all-time great rappers and producers, is getting involved in the project. The former leader of A Tribe Called Quest has joined the production as music producer and co-lyricist, and he\u2019ll also produce the cast album.
\nOn Ali, Q-Tip is working with composer Teddy Abrams, the music director of the Louisville Orchestra. In 2017, Abrams wrote what Deadline calls a \u201cmultimedia opera-rap-oratorio mashup\u201d about Muhammad Ali. The team behind Ali also includes producer Richard Willis and director\/book writer Clint Dyer. Saxophonist Casey Benjamin, formerly of the Robert Glasper Experiment, will serve as associate music producer.<\/p>\n

In a press release, Q-Tip says, \u201cI am very excited to be collaborating with Teddy, Clint, Casey and Sean in telling the Greatest\u2019s story on stage. Muhammad Ali has always been a hero to me!\u201d According to Deadline, Richard Willis claims that the show \u201cwill combine spoken word, verse, classical music and poetry, rap and hip-hop.\u201d Willis also drops a nugget about a forthcoming Q-Tip album:<\/p>\n

Q-Tip produces songs and albums for a massive audience so he knows how to do that thing that\u2019s slightly different than what normal musical theater is. So we tip it and make it original and fresh and new and hummable\u2026 We\u2019ll use his hip-hop beats, and his talents will be used in other areas as well. This show\u2019s covering a lot of areas of music, and we\u2019ll exhaust all of Q-Tip\u2019s knowledge. You\u2019ve got to remember that Q-Tip\u2019s into all kinds of music, not just jazz and hip-hop. For instance, his next album is all rock \u2018n\u2019 roll, so hold on. Let\u2019s see what he comes up with for Ali!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The idea of a Q-Tip rock album is fun, but new of any Q-Tip album should be taken with a grain of salt. Q-Tip hasn\u2019t released a solo album since 2009. In 2020, Q-Tip teased plans to release three albums by the end of the year; none of them ever came out. He\u2019s apparently already working closely with his Ali collaborators, though.<\/p>\n

Ali plans to debut in Louisville, Muhammad Ali\u2019s hometown, in fall 2024. Deadline reports that it\u2019s likely to open on Broadway in 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It must take a whole lot of confidence to even imagine a Broadway musical about…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-186848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pG6fW-MBG","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186848\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}