Speaker 1: Quest Love Show is a production of iHeart Radio.
Speaker 2: What's Up, Everybody.
Speaker 3: This is Cousin Jake, producer co producer of The Questlove Show.
Speaker 3: And I'm sitting here with our very own family member
Speaker 3: open Mike Eagle.
Speaker 1: I need a family name. I need to figure out
Speaker 1: what my relation is.
Speaker 2: You know, I don't know how I got cousin Jake.
Speaker 2: It was funny.
Speaker 3: It was like the first or second time back in
Speaker 3: twenty twenty two. I sat in and I was laughing
Speaker 3: because I always was a fan of Questlove Supreme and
Speaker 3: I'd known Fonte a long time, and Amir just was
Speaker 3: like cousin Jake, and I laughed because at one point
Speaker 3: I was telling somebody, I was like, man, I feel
Speaker 3: like Oliver on the Brady Bunch, Like I don't like
Speaker 3: this is the family and I'm here for a weird
Speaker 3: like season and whatever it is, it works, and I
Speaker 3: don't because cousin, as far as I know, is not
Speaker 3: a reference to a TV show or anything else.
Speaker 1: But not that I'm familiar with either. But you know,
Speaker 1: it sounds good.
Speaker 3: But you got one of the coolest names period. But
Speaker 3: you know, we got to probably get something specific to
Speaker 3: this environment.
Speaker 1: I think so we'll find that together. We will.
Speaker 2: We will with the Big Boss involved as well.
Speaker 3: But I you know, there was something We taped this
Speaker 3: interview with Riz Amoud and you know, to pull back
Speaker 3: the curtain. It was originally supposed to be in person
Speaker 3: in New York and this show has often you know, existed, thrived, survived,
Speaker 3: evolved around travel plans, you know, and you know, a
Speaker 3: mirror ended up having to be in California for a
Speaker 3: couple of weeks during the hiatus of the Jimmy Fallon Show,
Speaker 3: so we moved it to virtual and it was funny.
Speaker 3: I shout out to Riz. He was dealing with parenthood.
Speaker 3: He was in the middle of a press day, which
Speaker 3: I'm sure you've done.
Speaker 2: It's always a day.
Speaker 1: Probably a different level because he's probably promoting the movie
Speaker 1: I'm sure to a show. Yeah, and I have been
Speaker 1: there for a show, but even in its basic cable
Speaker 1: it's a different world than you know, you're being television.
Speaker 1: I'm saying I've been there, But because I've been there,
Speaker 1: I could say there's certainly levels to it, and the
Speaker 1: level that he's operating on is probably it would probably
Speaker 1: kill me to have to be kind of press that
Speaker 1: he had to do well.
Speaker 2: It's funny.
Speaker 3: We did it in iHeart Studios, la a Mere's part
Speaker 3: and Riz was in I Believe New York and there
Speaker 3: was an echo just because you know, studios try to
Speaker 3: assist and I am not the tech savvous person despite
Speaker 3: being a producer of award winning podcast. So there was
Speaker 3: echo for the first few minutes and at one point
Speaker 3: Riz and you won't hear this in the final but
Speaker 3: was like, hey, can you guys just check something I'm
Speaker 3: getting like echo effect, And but it turned into a
Speaker 3: really cool discussion. And you know what was interesting is like,
Speaker 3: and I love this about this show. Things go where
Speaker 3: they're going to go, and then you know, if there's
Speaker 3: something to promote, there's a reason Deetra it comes back in.
Speaker 3: But Riz want to talk about music, He asked a
Speaker 3: mirror a lot of questions.
Speaker 1: I mean, he's a huge hip hop hit. Yeah yeah,
Speaker 1: and you know a lot of people don't know that
Speaker 1: about it, but he's huge.
Speaker 2: Have you ever in your capacity, like shared a stage
Speaker 2: or a bill.
Speaker 1: Or I have not. I have not. I've just I've
Speaker 1: heard him talked about by people who I knowed really
Speaker 1: know what's up, and they tell me he really knows
Speaker 1: what's up.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that came across Oh go ahead, I'm sorry.
Speaker 1: Uh, he makes music. I think he's done some stuff
Speaker 1: with heems. Yeah, so yeah, I mean that's that's the homie. Okay,
Speaker 1: that's probably the closest connection between us.
Speaker 2: So yeah, but I thought of you.
Speaker 3: I thought of myself at one point, you know, they
Speaker 3: Emir kind of asked him a term that you and
Speaker 3: I have used on this platform about north stars, and
Speaker 3: I felt like it might be resonant to your journey especially,
Speaker 3: but he was like, you know what really guided you?
Speaker 3: And Riz was really honest and kind of pointed to
Speaker 3: the whole you know, raucous records movement and adjacent figures.
Speaker 3: He says, you know, most of ya sen by to
Speaker 3: lib quality, he mentions common to black thought. And I
Speaker 3: thought that that was just interesting because I think you
Speaker 3: and I are of a similar age group and a
Speaker 3: similar taste profile. You know, what did you think when
Speaker 3: you heard that?
Speaker 1: It wasn't surprising at all. I'm part of that same
Speaker 1: generation where at if you had asked me from the
Speaker 1: ages of you know, sixteen to twenty four who my
Speaker 1: favorite rappers were, I would have said those same people
Speaker 1: like those were Those were at that time north stars
Speaker 1: in terms of rappers that people knew about, Like those
Speaker 1: were the cream of the crop, and it was representative
Speaker 1: of you know, that wave of true school hip hop,
Speaker 1: raucous records, lyricist lounge, you know, Daylight's re emergence to
Speaker 1: where they're connecting with people like Common and Most Death
Speaker 1: and it's turning into soul query. It's like that whole
Speaker 1: era was some of the most important music that was
Speaker 1: ever made to me, And honestly, it's sort of a
Speaker 1: golden era of rappers with values that aligned with mine,
Speaker 1: both you know, societally and craft wise, really flying close
Speaker 1: to the sun.
Speaker 2: What do you mean by that that this.
Speaker 1: Was the time when we had gone through the early
Speaker 1: times of hip hop where it seemed like almost equal
Speaker 1: time between public enemies and NWA's like the full spectrum, right,
Speaker 1: things had started to get homogenized, I believe around like
Speaker 1: bad Boy, you know, the way that Biggie was able
Speaker 1: to marry street rap and club rap sort of changed
Speaker 1: everything to where everything was going in that direction. And
Speaker 1: then for this moment in the mid nineties up until
Speaker 1: like early two thousands, there was a sense almost like
Speaker 1: it was coming back, and I won't say mainstream hip hop,
Speaker 1: but like major labels were still putting resources into what
Speaker 1: felt like vital alternative voices and rap, and so common
Speaker 1: albums felt way big. Most stef albums felt way big.
Speaker 1: And then you would see people like Tribes suddenly doing
Speaker 1: songs with like punchline and Wordsworth and stuff. It was like,
Speaker 1: oh okay. And then you know, one of the ways
Speaker 1: I marked this era too, is that I was a
Speaker 1: big music video head, so watching Rap City, watching your
Speaker 1: MTV raps, and the way I would experience these shows
Speaker 1: is that seventy percent of the stuff with stuff that
Speaker 1: I was like, Okay, you know this is I like
Speaker 1: watching these shows. I like seeing what's happening. A lot
Speaker 1: of the videos that they're playing it's not stuff that
Speaker 1: I like. But then like every block there's one video
Speaker 1: it's like, Oh, that's that's the one I like. So
Speaker 1: it's it's misfat Booty or it's Jay Ruse, You're playing yourself.
Speaker 1: Fuji's like that that sort of thing, And if Fujis
Speaker 1: was another example of what I'm talking about, where this
Speaker 1: underground hip hop trio suddenly sell like ten million albums
Speaker 1: or something like really really cross over. So there was
Speaker 1: a moment where we felt like, oh, this is coming back.
Speaker 1: This is about to be you know, bigger and better,
Speaker 1: and there's going to be more of a balance. And
Speaker 1: when you look back on it that, you know, ninety
Speaker 1: five to two thousand, that was the golden age of
Speaker 1: alternative voices having a foothold on that level in the industry.
Speaker 1: Because I feel like largely it's gone away from that.
Speaker 2: That makes that really resonates too. And even Rap City.
Speaker 3: I remember around the time where their intro became bee
Speaker 3: Boy document the later version, you know, with high mighty
Speaker 3: most definite skills, and they would even show that part
Speaker 3: of like the subterranean yep. And I was like, wait,
Speaker 3: and you're absolutely right, like you might get two or
Speaker 3: three videos in that hour or two, but it was
Speaker 3: mixed in, you know. I remember hearing definition on radio
Speaker 3: in Pittsburgh from Black Star.
Speaker 2: It was very hard to find the.
Speaker 3: CD M, but we were we were exposed to it,
Speaker 3: and then you learned years later about things like the
Speaker 3: Telecommunity Communication Act in ninety seven changed. Yeah, but you're right,
Speaker 3: like Rockets felt like it was punching up and and
Speaker 3: and also it was really cool when I'm sure you
Speaker 3: alluded this with Dayla, but like I didn't know Farrell
Speaker 3: munchrom organized Confusion, like that was a little bit before
Speaker 3: my time. So to watch this guy that comes out
Speaker 3: as a solo artist and has this massive song that
Speaker 3: is I don't use these words but a club banger yep.
Speaker 3: And then to go back and see Oh my God,
Speaker 3: and he and Prince Poetry made three really great albums,
Speaker 3: and there's a previous history or ge rap, you know,
Speaker 3: all these different folks that were coming as trains on
Speaker 3: that car.
Speaker 2: It was really cool and I love and.
Speaker 3: Getting back to the question of show conversation, I'm always
Speaker 3: astonished at how many people in hard to reach places
Speaker 3: right now are pointing back to the same sort of
Speaker 3: experience that you and I had as fans, yeah, and
Speaker 3: saying how inspiring it was to them.
Speaker 1: It was a special moment. It really was. And that
Speaker 1: doesn't hip hop is such an interesting phenomenon historically because
Speaker 1: there's like this, there's like a constant battle for its
Speaker 1: soul happening, like it's a counterculture thing, but it also
Speaker 1: embraces capitalism, and there's just always this dance like who
Speaker 1: does it belong to? Does it belong to people, Does
Speaker 1: it belong to the corporations, Does it belong to the
Speaker 1: rich rappers? Does it belong to the underground rappers? Like
Speaker 1: that is a constant sort of tug of war for
Speaker 1: like the esthetic heart of this thing. And you know,
Speaker 1: the side that I feel like I'm on usually doesn't win,
Speaker 1: like it was winning at that time, and even then
Speaker 1: it was, you know, it was a fraction of what
Speaker 1: was happening, but it just felt so impactful.
Speaker 3: I get to work with the Mirror and we spend
Speaker 3: time together. We don't we don't talk hip hop much,
Speaker 3: you know. I mean, hey, there's a show to produce, right,
Speaker 3: but you know, you don't get the moment. And even
Speaker 3: in our limited dealings, like we only get but so
Speaker 3: many moments to fan out.
Speaker 2: And it was cool.
Speaker 3: One of the things I liked about Riz that again
Speaker 3: keeps it a totally organic podcast, is he put a
Speaker 3: lot of the questions back to back to a mirror
Speaker 3: and this Amir's answer also really intersected with a space
Speaker 3: I look at you and a few other folks, you know,
Speaker 3: like Blue and Exile or Little Brother. You know, that
Speaker 3: kept that feeling going of everything that we're talking about
Speaker 3: But there was another thing of just like you know,
Speaker 3: Amir uses this point, I like people that are different,
Speaker 3: you know, And I think he was also referring to authentic,
Speaker 3: character driven rap and he points to a lot of
Speaker 3: folks that are in your orbit, you know, cool Keith Eedon,
Speaker 3: who's in Philly right now, MC Paul Barman, you know,
Speaker 3: doom folks like that. And I was just curious for you,
Speaker 3: especially as being and I'm this is my opinion you're
Speaker 3: in that space as well, Like what did that mean,
Speaker 3: especially after doing a whole season of shows with a
Speaker 3: mirror kind of talking about his hip hop worldview as
Speaker 3: it pertains to his own group, you know.
Speaker 1: And that was the interesting thing about it. I've never
Speaker 1: heard questloves you know, top five for five rappers that
Speaker 1: he would name like that, And it was so interesting
Speaker 1: not only to hear the names that he said, but
Speaker 1: for him to be conscious of the notion of, Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm in a group with, you know, a person who's
Speaker 1: widely considered the greatest rapper all time by a lot
Speaker 1: of people, and thought, it's such a technical marvel and
Speaker 1: so otherworldly and credible at like rapping his asshole literally,
Speaker 1: it's interesting that that sort of informs who A Mirror
Speaker 1: points to as a contrast, Like so it's like it's
Speaker 1: presupposing that you, of course you know about black Thought,
Speaker 1: but he names Cool Keith and Edon and m C.
Speaker 1: Paul Barman, and yeah, these are these are interesting voices,
Speaker 1: and I think it really dovetails with something Riz was
Speaker 1: saying too about how he felt, in his modern taste
Speaker 1: leaned towards musicians rappers that feel like their authentic selves
Speaker 1: on a song, and like Cool, Keith, Edon and Paul Barman, Yes,
Speaker 1: and Doom absolutely. I mean, of course Doom wears a
Speaker 1: mask and plays a character, but he's a unique human being.
Speaker 1: On the mic, he don't sound like nobody else. He
Speaker 1: sounds like himself. And that was always the thing, aside
Speaker 1: from Paul Barman's wordplay. And this was the other thing
Speaker 1: that was notable to me about Amir saying that, is
Speaker 1: that is one of the things that first directly linked
Speaker 1: me in A Mirror was A Mirror given Paul Barman
Speaker 1: a few beats for the album that he did on
Speaker 1: Mellow Music Group when I was on Mellow Music Group,
Speaker 1: and the first song on that album, I can't remember
Speaker 1: what it's called, but it's and I know that the
Speaker 1: album cover is. It's just a set of parentheses, but
Speaker 1: I can't remember right here. Echo Chamber, Echo Chamber, and
Speaker 1: I think that so the first song is called Echo Chamber.
Speaker 1: It's the title track. That is a beat that A
Speaker 1: Mirror gave to Paul, and Paul asked me to get on,
Speaker 1: and that was like my first real direct connection to
Speaker 1: a mirror. And that beats crazy too because it's a
Speaker 1: I don't know if you'd call it a remake or
Speaker 1: a cover. It references elements of this Stereo Lab song
Speaker 1: that Dila flip to make this bust of rhymes.
Speaker 2: And the Milky I always get the title the Milk.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I love Stereo Lab. I love the buster
Speaker 1: song that Diyla flip that before showed me what you got.
Speaker 1: I love Paul Barman, I love quest Love. So being
Speaker 1: on that song was so big for me and all
Speaker 1: of those ways. So I don't know, it was dope
Speaker 1: to hear a mirror shout Paul Barman, who also just
Speaker 1: dropped a great album with Kenny Siegel earlier this year.
Speaker 2: Okay, I need to check that out.
Speaker 3: It's funny, you know, both iterations of QLs have this
Speaker 3: habit because so fun fact, I'll pull the curtain back
Speaker 3: for one thing. Anytime a song is quoted sung hum
Speaker 3: Fonte used to just kill it with the humming, like
Speaker 3: he could create a melody or a baseline off memory perfectly.
Speaker 3: It goes into a bank like that's something that iHeart
Speaker 3: requires of us so and.
Speaker 2: I'm the guy that does it.
Speaker 3: And it's secretly one of my favorite parts of my
Speaker 3: job because I always listen to everything that is mentioned
Speaker 3: and it gives it drives my musical taste. MC Paul
Speaker 3: Barman is one of those names that came up in
Speaker 3: your interview and you spoke about it just now as
Speaker 3: an impetus of feeling. You know, you could run up
Speaker 3: on a Mirr at an airport, yep. But like he's
Speaker 3: come up two or three times this season.
Speaker 2: You know, mir brings him up.
Speaker 3: Like names that that aren't always on the tip of
Speaker 3: your tongue. You're Drakesure, Kendrick Lamars, meet me at whatever
Speaker 3: come up, Like Amy Grant comes up like thirty times
Speaker 3: in the QLs over different episodes, and I love the
Speaker 3: organic nature of all that. To echo your point, these
Speaker 3: are all artists I love. There's a thing called Vinyl
Speaker 3: Con going on in Philadelphia this weekend and.
Speaker 2: E Don he hasn't put a rap album out in
Speaker 2: a long time.
Speaker 1: I don't think so he put out Oh he didn't.
Speaker 2: Join Homeboy Sammon.
Speaker 1: Yep, that's the one I was about to mention.
Speaker 2: Any and that was a few years ago.
Speaker 1: That was a few years ago now, Yeah, and it
Speaker 1: was great.
Speaker 2: And they did that video of my man photo Rob
Speaker 2: shot of them in a swimming pool.
Speaker 1: Shout out the photo Rob.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know.
Speaker 3: But Eaton was spinning at Vinyl Con. I got to
Speaker 3: see Boogie Blind yesterday. Great set. I was hoping he
Speaker 3: done with Saturday. Turns out he was Sunday. But I'm
Speaker 3: here with you and I'm happy about it.
Speaker 1: But I love eat On too. That's the homie man,
Speaker 1: and that beauty and the beat is one of the
Speaker 1: greatest things. I tell him all the time, like, there's
Speaker 1: there's nothing like that album. Yep, there's nothing like it.
Speaker 3: And to merge psychedelia and eighties. I don't want to
Speaker 3: call it old school, but like.
Speaker 1: It's kind it's it's it's old school. It's old school values,
Speaker 1: like old school rap values. He's not using like simple words,
Speaker 1: but an old school approach to rap.
Speaker 2: In one of my favorite promo items.
Speaker 3: And I've over the years at times where I needed
Speaker 3: to pay rent, or to pay bills or to fill tanks.
Speaker 3: I've sold a lot of the things that I've accumulated,
Speaker 3: you know, being in the industry. But I still have
Speaker 3: a Beauty in the Beach shirt and I still wear it,
Speaker 3: and I've never had anybody ever recognize any of the
Speaker 3: names on.
Speaker 2: The shirt, and that is a disappointing thing of humanity.
Speaker 1: Because I saw with it. That's sad. That's sad, because
Speaker 1: I loved one day and I.
Speaker 3: Was like, that's lot Keem Shabbaz, that's Percy p that's
Speaker 3: grand Master.
Speaker 2: Like it is. It's also one of the greatest cover art.
Speaker 2: And you know, I made it.
Speaker 1: Himself too, so I'm not surprised that he made it himself.
Speaker 1: Man is a true artist.
Speaker 3: Last thing, have you had the opportunity yet to see
Speaker 3: any of the things that RIZ start in New be
Speaker 3: it Hamlet or Bait or some of the past stuff.
Speaker 2: Is that in your life?
Speaker 1: I don't know that. I know. I feel like I've
Speaker 1: got to have seen him in something, but I couldn't
Speaker 1: tell you what.
Speaker 3: Ten years ago, The Night Of was one of still
Speaker 3: to this day, one of the best mini series ever HBO.
Speaker 3: It was created by one of Richard Price, who you
Speaker 3: know did Clockers, He wrote the book Did the Wanderer.
Speaker 3: Like Richard Price is just one of the great novelists
Speaker 3: to me, and The Night Of is very dark and it.
Speaker 2: You and I will appreciate this.
Speaker 3: It does feature acting by not just Sticky Fingers, but
Speaker 3: also Lord Jamar.
Speaker 1: I'm looking at this. I think I have seen this,
Speaker 1: but I don't remember it.
Speaker 3: John Tuturo. It's good stuff. It's good stuff. But Riz
Speaker 3: was really cool. He apologized. He was like, guys, my
Speaker 3: kids are running down the hall. It turned into a
Speaker 3: really cool episode. And Riz, if you are listening to this,
Speaker 3: I'm sorry.
Speaker 2: For that feedback.
Speaker 3: I'll fall on my sword for that one.
Speaker 2: But yeah, man, well to everyone.
Speaker 3: Listening, thank you for checking out these many episodes. Again,
Speaker 3: we're just here to unpack a few things, kind of
Speaker 3: create a show around the show and just remind folks
Speaker 3: that we put fifty episodes out a year and we're
Speaker 3: also doing these. Amir will be back with us very soon.
Speaker 3: But till then, man, I know you are going to
Speaker 3: the East Coast and then jumping over the pond to Europe.
Speaker 3: So check your open Mic Eagle dates. He won't say it,
Speaker 3: but I will.
Speaker 4: I appreciate it question.
Speaker 1: LOP Show is a production of iHeartRadio.