Q-Tip hasn't been very lucky in his solo career so far. Nine years have passed since the release of his debut, Amplified - which was itself unleashed on an unsuspecting world shortly after the demise of his former group, A Tribe Called Quest - and the casual observer could be forgiven for thinking he's been twiddling his thumbs all this time. Truth is, another LP, Kamaal the Abstract, was withdrawn from schedules shortly before its release date in 2002, and it's known he recorded other long-players deemed too un-commercial by his erstwhile paymasters at Arista. Whatever the back-story is, Q-Tip is in very fine fettle right now, with a new label; a brash, bold and ebullient worldview; and little recourse to the rock star poses we've been led to expect by the rumour mill.

After all those years in the wilderness, including a stint in the tabloids being erroneously linked with A-list Hollywood actresses, you'd expect Q-Tip to be hungry to reclaim his crown as a tongue-twisting supreme wordsmith, as well as set the record straight. This he does, big time, except - and here's the twist - in his own inimitable style of abstractions, metaphors and non-sequiturs. Nothing here is linear, least of all the music. And, while informed by jazz, there's no jazziness either. The Renaissance offers up a soulful funk brew that mixes digital and analogue techniques, informed by the fact that Q-Tip has learned a lot about instruments and production. Live instruments are intertwined with samples in a cosmic stew that puts standard hip hop beatmaking techniques to shame.

Johnny Is Dead sets the tone, with a breathless flow of words over lolloping bass and beats, and Q-Tip sings his own hook and backing vocals. "What good is an ear/without a Q-Tip in it?" he asks, and he's right to point out how much he's been missed. He, in turn, misses the simple freedoms that have been eroded in America under the Bush administration, and he complains about surveillance on the battle-of-the-sexes barnstormer Manwomanboogie. He takes his concern with global events further by observing the life of an American soldier on duty in Iraq in We Fight/We Love, but he's never didactic or dogmatic.

Q-Tip would be disingenuous if he didn't acknowledge his past, and there are references to A Tribe Called Quest on the conventional-sounding (by his standards), but no less groovy Move, itself a revolutionary call to arms, especially on the autobiographical freestyle coda. Life Is Better, meanwhile, has him reel out a roll call of hip-hop greats, past and present, while Shaka is a more personal RIP-tinged tune for his dead brother, deceased father, J Dilla, and others. A bonus cut, Feva, even hints at future directions with a spooky theramin central riff, and lyrical affirmations of an addiction to the shock of the new.

We had despaired that Q-Tip might never rap again, but The Renaissance, a bracing awakening in itself, is proof that he's still got plenty of fire in his cylinders. Let's hope he's back again soon.