Questlove‘s directorial debut Summer Of Soul (… Or, When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised) is out now on Hulu — you really should watch it at the first available opportunity — and the drummer-producer-author-historian is on the promo circuit, doing interviews with the likes of Late Night‘s Seth Myers. In the course of last night’s interview, Myers wonders whether the footage for the film, which was unearthed after being passed over for broadcast and sitting in a basement for 40 years, was the “Holy Grail” of concert footage.
Ahmir goes a step further, calling the footage “past the Holy Grail. This is what they call ‘lightning in a bottle.’” He admits to feeling some skepticism about the concert because it had originally escaped his encyclopedic knowledge (he jokes that “there was a period where I was YouTube,” the resource everyone used to confirm archival, historical facts) but that upon seeing it “all my arrogance dissipated and suddenly I became worried about why would they even trust me to tell the story.”
Questlove and Black Thought both keep themselves plenty busy outside of The Roots, and now the pair is teaming up for yet another new endeavor. This time, it’s Rise Up, Sing Out, a series of animated shorts they’re making with Disney Junior.
The series, which is set to premiere later in 2021, will feature music from the pair. Press materials describe the show, “Presenting important concepts around race, racism and social justice for the youngest viewers, the series consists of music-based shorts that are designed to provide an inspiring and empowering message about noticing and celebrating differences and providing a framework for conversation.”
In a joint statement, Questlove and Black Thought said, “It is an honor to work with the Disney Junior team to help create a series of shorts that will empower and uplift the future generations in the way we know best, through music. We hope these shorts will encourage the young audience to recognize and celebrate our differences as human beings while learning the tools to navigate real-world issues of racial injustice.”
Joe D’Ambrosia — senior vice president, Original Programming and general manager, Disney Junior — also said, “We recognize that many kids are experiencing a multitude of feelings around what’s happening in our world today and know that many families are struggling with how to discuss sensitive issues around race. Our goal with these shorts is to open up the conversation and provide families with the tools and knowledge to address these important topics with their preschoolers in an age-appropriate manner through music and relatable kid experiences.”
Baltimore rapper YTK went viral on Saturday morning after he released his new single, “Let It Off,” which features a distinct sample of Mariah Carey’s 2005 track “Shake It Off.” After someone on Twitter reposted it with the caption, “Mariah Carey has 24 hours to respond,” Carey responded in a very light-hearted manner, writing “How about y’all have 24 hours to respond to my lawyers (purple heart).” It was later revealed that the singer’s reply was indeed a joke, but what some may not have realized is that Questlove also had a role in the ordeal.
I’m DYIN. I helped w the Mariah sample cause 11 years ago we were in the same situation in which Erykah has 24 hours to clear “Gone Baby Don’t Be Long” w Paul McCartney & Lenny Kravitz saw the tweet & hit up Stella to hit her pops & the song was saved! #PayItForward
The person who posting the inciting tweet reached out to Questlove to aid in clearing the sample for YTK’s track. Questlove then messaged Mariah and was able to put the Baltimore rapper in touch with the right people to begin the clearance process. He later explained on Twitter why he helped YTK get the sample cleared. “I’m DYIN,” The Roots drummer wrote in a tweet. “I helped w the Mariah sample cause 11 years ago we were in the same situation in which Erykah has 24 hours to clear “Gone Baby Don’t Be Long” w Paul McCartney & Lenny Kravitz saw the tweet & hit up Stella to hit her pops & the song was saved! #PayItForward.”
“Gone Baby Don’t Be Long” can be found on Erykah Badu’s 2010 album, New Amerykah Part Two (Return Of The Ankh), on which Questlove is credited on two songs. As for YTK, it remains to be seen if and when the rapper will land the sample clearance.
To most folks, Questlove is the heart and soul of The Roots — or at least the member most can be readily called upon to identify with any degree of accuracy (although, that doesn’t necessarily hold true all the time). However, according to Quest himself, there have been many times where that was almost not the case. In a new interview with Jemele Hill, the afroed drummer — who also dabbles in writing books and directing movies — said that he’s temporarily walked away from the band while recording every album but two.
The first, obviously, was their 1993 debut Organix, which they released independently, generating enough buzz to sign to grunge label DGC for the release of their second album, Do You Want More?!!!??!, in 1995. However, despite receiving plenty of critical acclaim, the project underperformed by the group’s standards, prompting Black Thought and the late Mailk B to seek out new production styles on their third album, Illadelph Halflife, spawning an unofficial Roots Crew tradition of Questlove threatening to quit the band for a few weeks while recording all of their albums.
Asked by Hill, “What’s the closest The Roots have come to breaking up?” Questlove breaks into peals of laughter before explaining that the recording of their upcoming project, Endgame, is the first in a while that he’s broken his habit on. “I hold the record for the longest [streak of quitting]… After three records, then it’s like the little boy who cried wolf. It’s like, ‘Yeah, he’ll be back next month. Don’t worry about him.’”
“At the beginning of Illadelph Halflife,” he continues. “I was the last to know that Tariq and Malik desired to rhyme over a more traditional hip-hop backdrop. After a while, it was like, ‘Wait a minute, am I the bad guy here? Did I kill my own group?’… I took it mad personal.” He further explains how the rest of the band sprung “Clones” on him after a failed excursion to the Million Man March in Washington D.C., prompting Quest’s first walkout. However, he has always come back to help finish each project, and over time, The Roots have earned greater public appeal and a regular gig as the house band on The Tonight Show, so it’s probably better that he stuck around.
Listen to Quest’s full interview with Jemele Hill here.
In March, Justin Bieber earned his seventh No. 1 single when the Justice single “Peaches” debuted on top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The track is still doing quite well, as it is No. 3 on the Hot 100 that was revealed yesterday. Now he has put a new spin on the song by joining Jimmy Fallon and The Roots for their longstanding Tonight Show series of “classroom instruments” performances.
Bieber starts out by playing the track on a toy piano, which actually adds a charming element to the track. From there, he is joined by Fallon and The Roots, who sport instruments like shakers, bongos, xylophones, buckets, paper bags (to tear), and other things of that ilk. Giveon and Daniel Caesar, who feature on the original track, were not involved with this performance.
Justice isn’t Bieber’s latest release, as on Easter, he dropped a surprise EP, Freedom, which features collaborations with Pink Sweats, Tori Kelly, Judah Smith, Beam, Brandon Love, Chandler Moore, and Lauren Walters. He’s also fresh off appearing in Earth Day! The Musical, a Bill Nye-hosted event that also featured Jack Harlow, Maluma, Ben Platt, Charli and Dixie D’Amelio, Cody Simpson, Steve Aoki, Tori Kelly, Zac Efron, Desus Nice and The Kid Mero, and Nick Kroll.
Watch Bieber, The Roots, and Fallon perform “Peaches” above.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Back towards the end of 2019, it was revealed that Questlove was working on what is now titled Summer Of Soul (…Or, When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised), a documentary about The Harlem Cultural Festival, a six-week festival that took place right around the same time as Woodstock. Now, the first teaser for the film, which is set to premiere in theaters and on Hulu on July 2, has been shared.
An official statement describes the film:
“In his acclaimed debut as a filmmaker, Ahmir ‘Questlove’ Thompson presents a powerful and transporting documentary — part music film, part historical record created around an epic event that celebrated Black history, culture, and fashion. Over the course of six weeks in the summer of 1969, just one hundred miles south of Woodstock, The Harlem Cultural Festival was filmed in Mount Morris Park (now Marcus Garvey Park). The footage was never seen and largely forgotten — until now. Summer Of Soul shines a light on the importance of history to our spiritual well-being and stands as a testament to the healing power of music during times of unrest, both past and present. The feature includes never-before-seen concert performances by Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, Sly & the Family Stone, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Ray Baretto, Abbey Lincoln & Max Roach, and more.”
Back when the project was announced, Questlove said in a statement, “I am truly excited to help bring the passion, the story and the music of the Harlem Cultural Festival to audiences around the world. The performances are extraordinary. I was stunned when I saw the lost footage for the first time. It’s incredible to look at 50 years of history that’s never been told, and I’m eager and humbled to tell that story.”
He also told Variety in an interview earlier this year, “”Woodstock happens in two weeks after this and it defines a lifestyle, it defines a generation. Woodstock, the city name alone, just defines a whole movement. And I kept wondering what would have went down if this were allowed to happen for [Black people]. If this were allowed to unfurl and and spread across the world as Woodstock did, how much of a difference could that have made in my life as a music lover and as a music collector? So, then I just felt this the sense of purpose that I have to tell the story.”
Thanks to his bookish knowledge of pop culture and gift for storytelling, The Roots drummer Questlove has become one of music’s foremost historians — albeit, an informal one, in most cases. So, it’s fitting that his next book is titled Music Is History and will take on the task of examing the last 50 years of pop culture through the lens of the music that inspired it and was inspired it. The book is due in October through Abrams Image.
According to a press release, in the new book, Questlove will choose an “essential” track he believes defines each year, and “unpacks each song’s significance, revealing the pivotal role that American music plays around issues of race, gender, politics, and identity.”
Choosing the year 1971 as the book’s starting point, Quest gives it a link to his own personal history — he recently celebrated his own 50th birthday — and will also include personal anecdotes to highlight the way grand themes like race and politics can have a huge impact on the individual, as well. Topics will include the blaxploitation era, disco, and “the secret ingredient in all funk songs,” which will also be the theme of one of the playlists Questlove is curating to promote the new book. He’ll also be recording the audiobook version, releasing it through Recorded Books.
In late 2008, when word broke that The Roots, the hip-hop group led by longtime friends Amir “Questlove” Thompson and Tariq “Black Thought” Trotter, were hired as the house band for Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, the news was met with bewilderment and bemusement. The reactions online tended to be some variation of, “Wow, that is huge for Fallon,” or, as one Gawker writer put it at the time, “The Illadelph generals opening up for that stuttering mop-headed ball of suck, Jimmy Fallon? It’s kind of tragic.”
There was definite logic to the hiring. The Roots remain one of the most versatile ensembles in all of music, comfortable and talented enough to both cover U2 classics at an NAACP event honoring Bono and serve as Jay-Z’s backing band for his legendary MTV Unplugged appearance. And they helped add a whiff of cool to Fallon as he brought his wide-eyed, constantly stoked brand of comedy to late-night TV.
But even the most ardent fan of The Roots had to wonder how this was going to work in reality. The band was coming to NBC after releasing the two darkest and most politically-minded albums of their career — 2006’s Game Theory and 2008’s Rising Down — that raged against school shootings, poverty, and institutional racism. The group was also a consistent concert draw, known for marathon-length performances and welcoming guests from every corner and era of the music world.
Underlying all of this was simple curiosity. How could one of the best hip-hop groups in the game translate their attitude and their sound for network TV, and appeal to middle-of-the-road viewers tuning in for toothless political humor, fawning celebrity interviews, and viral video-ready stunts?
The answer: by The Roots proving just how versatile they could be. For the past 13 years, even as they moved with Fallon from 12:30 am to 11:30 pm after the host was hired to replace Jay Leno as the host of The Tonight Show, the band has been game for anything.
They’ve taken part in various sketches that sometimes require them to dress in drag or act foolishly. They’ve been the backbone for beloved recurring segments like “Freestylin’ With The Roots,” “Slow Jam The News,” and Fallon and Justin Timberlake’s “History of Hip-Hop” bits. And they’ve proven to be welcome comedic foils, with Questlove and Black Thought bantering with Fallon in the manner of David Letterman and Paul Shaffer.
The Roots’ quick evolution into foils for late-night comedy was, in retrospect, inevitable. In an oft-told anecdote, Questlove remembers that, in 2008 when the band and Late Night’s producers were sizing one another up, he invited Fallon to come see them play at UCLA’s Spring Fling not expecting he’d actually show. But the lanky comedian did and quickly won The Roots over.
“I was doing an interview in a trailer,” Questlove told Brooklyn magazine in 2017, “and when I walked out… the eight of them — Fallon and the seven Roots — were making a human pyramid. He was able to disarm us in seconds… And I’m looking at my manager and we just stared there shaking our heads. I was just like, we’re stuck with this guy, aren’t we? And he just looked like, I’m afraid so.” A baker’s dozen years later and they’re still stuck with each other.
By all accounts, the members of The Roots were ready for something approximating a day job. The rigors of touring were starting to weigh on them as it meant leaving behind families and relationships for long stretches of time. As Questlove commented on Okayplayer.com around the time the news broke of their Late Night deal, “I don’t know if I want to be 40 on the road and single no more… I can’t even start to go on that path ‘til a woman takes me seriously. And ain’t no one taking a man serious who is in his home for only three months out the year.”
They were also students of music history, knowing that, although they were in a good spot financially after two decades of being together, they were potentially looking at a slow slide into obscurity. It was to the point that the group was tempted to sign a deal for a residency at The Borgata in Atlantic City.
The twist is, of course, that their nightly platform on NBC has made The Roots more popular than ever before, and, as a result, they’ve become even busier than ever. When he’s not DJing at various events around the world, Questlove has written a handful of books, directed the Sundance-anointed documentary Summer Of Soul (…Or, When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised), and hosts the popular Questlove Supreme podcast. Black Thought keeps popping up on mixtapes and albums by other artists and last year released his debut solo full-length that includes contributions from Killer Mike and Portugal. The Man. Both men are also likely the only hip-hop artists your grandmother would be able to easily namecheck.
What’s perhaps the most impressive part of The Roots’ move into late-night TV is how true they’ve stayed to themselves and the hip-hop culture they grew out of. As proven by the six albums they’ve released since joining up with Fallon, they’ve not lost an ounce of their fury and power. Or for a more concentrated dose, dial up the blistering 10-minute freestyle that Black Thought performed on Funkmaster Flex’s HOT 97 show back in 2017 and went viral shortly thereafter. It’s a testament to both the vaunted realms of celebrity that he and The Roots have reached and his skills as an MC that the performance was analyzed by writers at NPR and The New Yorker — and earned him a spot on the couch at The Tonight Show to talk about it.
That adherence to their personal politics did come at a cost back in 2011 when the band played on Tonight Show guest, and then-Presidential hopeful, Michelle Bachmann with a portion of Fishbone’s “Lyin’ A** B****.” The blowback was considerable and almost cost The Roots their cushy new job in network TV. But after agreeing to clear all walk-on music choices with the NBC brass ahead of time, the band was allowed to keep their spots.
Probably the most concrete example of how The Roots have moved easily into this strange land of TV celebrity while not losing an ounce of their credibility can be found in another video from the Late Night era. In it, the band is doing the job of helping get the crowd warmed up for taping an episode — playing some upbeat music to hype folks up. But for this moment, they’re joined by one of that night’s guests, rapper and actor Ice Cube, and with him, launch into a version of N.W.A.’s “Straight Outta Compton.” It’s a blast. The Roots drill down to the core of Dr. Dre and DJ Yella’s dense production and the rappers do their best to blur out the coarse language of the original song.
The key moment, though, comes when The Roots’ guitarist Captain Kirk Douglas puts down his axe and takes a turn on the mic, rapping Eazy E’s verse. Though they knew it was coming, the whole band seems to explode at that moment, watching their buddy step outside his usual role and play the part of a smack-talking, girl-chasing gangsta MC. Even the person holding the smartphone that’s filming the clip seems to shake with excitement at what is going down. But no one is more delighted than Questlove and Black Thought. As Roberts keeps spitting, they look over at each other with wide grins and sparkling eyes, giddy at what they’re witnessing and what they’re getting away with.
Questlove is commonly regarded as one of the most knowledgeable people when it comes to music and its history. Now, the drummer for The Roots (to grossly simplify everything he does in and beyond the group) is sharing some of his insight with a new MasterClass focused on music curation and DJing.
MasterClass has shared a trailer for the class today, and the description says students of the class can expect to “explore DJ techniques, expand your musical vocabulary, and learn how to glide from genre to genre — including hip-hop, neo-soul, jazz, R&B, and more — to curate your own perfect playlist.” Questlove says in the trailer, “To be honest with you, not drumming in the world’s funkiest group, not the book-writing, not being on late-night television… my first love is records. I’ve been listening [to] and analyzing records since the age of 5. I’ve never shared the method to my madness or my secrets or my creative process in DJing until right now.”
In a statement, Questlove also says, “It’s one thing to listen to music, but it’s another thing to embrace it and have it come to you. Nothing will take the place of the passion that I feel for music, and I hope my MasterClass will open up a portal in your heart so that you learn to love music, find it, and appreciate it.” MasterClass founder and CEO David Rogier also notes, “Questlove’s storied career and unparalleled knowledge and passion for music has made him a music icon and one of the most influential individuals in the industry. In his MasterClass, members will gain a deeper understanding of how to listen to and absorb music so they can deconstruct songs and gain a deeper appreciation of everything they hear.”
Check out the trailer for Questlove’s MasterClass above. The class is available now, so learn more about it here.
Questlove, The Roots’ drummer and bandleader on The Tonight Show, cut his teeth as a director earlier this year with his Summer Of Soul documentary and now, he’s been given the opportunity to use that experience to pay homage to one of music’s great pioneers and legends. Quest is set to direct a documentary about funk icon Sly Stone, exploring his work with Sly And The Family Stone and recent fight for royalties on his old music. The film also counts Common as an executive producer but doesn’t have a title or release date yet.
“It goes beyond saying that Sly’s creative legacy is in my DNA,” Questlove explained in a statement. “It’s a Black musician’s blueprint. To be given the honor to explore his history and legacy is beyond a dream for me.”
