Q-Tip Interviews D'Angelo + Chops It Up With Large Professor & Pete Rock On Beats 1

Amidst the over-saturated world of online radio shows, Q-Tip's "Abstract Radio" program on Apple's Beats 1 is an absolutely essential listen. And his most recent episode may be his "most-most-essential" yet. Tip wasted little time before dialing up his old friend and collaborator D'Angelo, and the two proceeded to music-nerd out about their favorite deep funk and soul cuts from Hendrix, Sly Stone and the Godfather James Brown.

But show opens with a kicked-back session of breaks and casual rhyming from Large Professor and Pete Rock, while Q-Tip takes it easy and lets the two legends do their thing. That only lasts for so long, though, and the Abstract does finally take control of the mic to share a brief freestyle, which never really goes beyond some homie calling-out, but is a thoroughly excellent way to kick off a radio show all the same. This one's dusty and so incredibly laid-back that it feels like a living room hangout session--one with D'Angelo on speed dial. Once things settle down, Tip gets on the horn with D'Angelo and the two men actually call Andre 3000, hoping to bring him on for a funked-out conference call. Unfortunately, Three Stacks was at the time caught up working, so we're left with only the dream of what that triumvirate would have dug into on-air. Listen to the full radio broadcast below.