Speaker 1: Quest Love Show is a production of iHeart Radio.
Speaker 2: Open Mic. Man, How are you today?
Speaker 1: Man? I'm showing man keeping these plates spinning as usual?
Speaker 1: How are you?
Speaker 2: I like that.
Speaker 3: I never added to my repertoire, but I'm spinning a
Speaker 3: lot of plates myself.
Speaker 1: That's what we do these days. That's what we do
Speaker 1: is people who work in creative industries, you very rarely
Speaker 1: get to just focus on one thing.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and it's perfect because you know, it's funny. We're
Speaker 3: talking about Thundercat on this mini episode of The Questlove
Speaker 3: Show and his new album is called Distracted, And you know,
Speaker 3: how do you handle distractions?
Speaker 1: Oh? Man, I'd like distract myself from work with like
Speaker 1: other work. Like I tend to have, you know, two
Speaker 1: or three very big things, any constant attention, and then
Speaker 1: a bunch of little stuff and admin it pops throughout
Speaker 1: the day and it's like sometimes my treats to myself.
Speaker 1: It's just the work that I want to do first,
Speaker 1: the work I have to do.
Speaker 2: That's well said.
Speaker 3: Well, let me ask you this then, like what in
Speaker 3: your repertoire if you can say, like, what is your
Speaker 3: favorite work to do outside of I'm gonna say, you know,
Speaker 3: recording and making music your your impetus hum.
Speaker 1: So, my favorite work to do is not what pays
Speaker 1: me a lot, and I think that's typically how the
Speaker 1: correlation goes. My favorite thing to do is technically work,
Speaker 1: is making beats. I'm honestly just making a piece of
Speaker 1: art for myself that's not attached to any expectation, and
Speaker 1: it feels a little more creatively fulfilling because of that.
Speaker 2: How long into your vocal career have you been making beats.
Speaker 1: I've been making beats the whole time.
Speaker 2: Whole time.
Speaker 1: Wow, I started making beats well before I started recording.
Speaker 2: I did not know that. Okay, wow, you came in
Speaker 2: on the production tip.
Speaker 1: I mean when I say I was making beats, very
Speaker 1: few of them were worth hearing about other people. And
Speaker 1: even to this day, the vast majority of my beats
Speaker 1: nobody hears. And it's because I am I have access
Speaker 1: to so many really great producers that you know. I
Speaker 1: don't try to force the issue on my stuff, because
Speaker 1: you know, I don't think my stuff is quite that good.
Speaker 1: But like I said, oftentimes it's stuff that I hear
Speaker 1: in my head that I want to hear, and it
Speaker 1: makes me feel good for having done it, even if
Speaker 1: it's not gonna be my next song.
Speaker 3: You know, well, I have to imagine too for somebody
Speaker 3: that loves all music as much.
Speaker 2: As you seem to. I mean, you and I are
Speaker 2: still good to know each other.
Speaker 3: But like I always thought, like in my rapper fantasy
Speaker 3: camp or and my musician fantasy camp, one of the
Speaker 3: best things would be like picking beats from other people
Speaker 3: like that.
Speaker 1: Because yeah, I mean, you know what, this is the thing.
Speaker 1: It is fun. But what I have found because I
Speaker 1: have been doing some group stuff with my group previous
Speaker 1: industries with video David Steel Rift, and the act of
Speaker 1: picking beats with other people is very different than the
Speaker 1: act of meat picking beats by myself. And so in
Speaker 1: the fantasy camp situation, I'm like, oh, that could be fun.
Speaker 1: It could also be a little tense, depending on what
Speaker 1: people's tastes are.
Speaker 3: Yeah, my best like musical friend, my best friend that
Speaker 3: I can talk week to week about new music with.
Speaker 2: We always laugh at the fact that a.
Speaker 3: New album will release and it could be in any
Speaker 3: sub sector of genre, but especially in hip hop, and
Speaker 3: we're always picking different favorite sections of it. And so
Speaker 3: that's funny. I can only imagine when you have a band.
Speaker 2: Made a groupmate that that creates I won't say acrimony,
Speaker 2: but dissidence, you.
Speaker 1: Know, yeah, yeah, it's it's just really interesting how something
Speaker 1: can be a complete, you know, absolute smash for one
Speaker 1: person and another person is just like I hate this,
Speaker 1: you know, it's this is really fascinating.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely.
Speaker 3: And since we last spoke too, and when this comes out,
Speaker 3: you know, you have new music on the way, a
Speaker 3: new single out which I truly dig. So I appreciate
Speaker 3: that everyone who's listening to this, And you know, I
Speaker 3: get this sense from reading the comments. So many people
Speaker 3: are very well versed and open mic Eagle, but let
Speaker 3: this be a reminder to do your dsp Googles and
Speaker 3: check it out.
Speaker 1: Oh for real? Yeah, I mean, I think, especially when
Speaker 1: it comes to my podcasting exploits, my music is often
Speaker 1: not front and center. So I certainly couldn't blame anybody
Speaker 1: for not being aware if this is how they came
Speaker 1: to me, because I'm typically not talking about my stuff.
Speaker 1: But yeah, there's a lot of legacy, a lot of catalogs,
Speaker 1: so if people are interested, there's a lot for them
Speaker 1: to dig into.
Speaker 3: So, you know, I live on the East Coast. But
Speaker 3: one of the things that fascinates me about the LA
Speaker 3: music community period, especially of the last twenty five years,
Speaker 3: it's just that, you know, walls don't seem to exist,
Speaker 3: like so many folks have worked together, have shared studio
Speaker 3: space together, done all these different things, and you know,
Speaker 3: you and I are here. It kind of as a
Speaker 3: supplement to the recent Thundercat episode of the Questlove Show,
Speaker 3: and I happened to be there for the taping and
Speaker 3: we're running it with our kind of slate, which is
Speaker 3: something that started years ago with Quest Love Supreme of
Speaker 3: Black Music Month. And you know, I'm curious being that
Speaker 3: he's an LA guy and you've been in LA. I mean,
Speaker 3: damn near thirty years. You shared with me recently. Is
Speaker 3: there a relationship? Have you guys shared air? Is there
Speaker 3: like you and Thundercat? Is there anything you know in
Speaker 3: that dynamic?
Speaker 1: Well twenty years when I said.
Speaker 2: You didn't move there, I got you.
Speaker 1: But yeah, yeah, yeah, me and him have been in
Speaker 1: a lot of rooms together. We famously, in my world,
Speaker 1: performed together once on Hannibal Bursts television show. I was
Speaker 1: sort of making my television performance debut and it was
Speaker 1: in collaboration with Thundercat and Flying Lotus when I performed
Speaker 1: on that show, and we didn't know each other super
Speaker 1: well then, but we got to know each other quite
Speaker 1: a bit after, and it run into each other quite
Speaker 1: a few times since we have a lot of shared interests.
Speaker 1: When he took that deep breath and started talking about
Speaker 1: comic books, I was I was right there with him.
Speaker 2: And him in the room.
Speaker 3: I thought of, youmic because that was about I think
Speaker 3: we Yeah, we did. We taped that episode in April
Speaker 3: about fresh off of coming into LA the first time
Speaker 3: you and I were in the room together and hung
Speaker 3: out with you, Amir, Brittany Nick, the rest of the gang,
Speaker 3: and you know, I got a sense of listening to
Speaker 3: you talking about comic books and wrestling.
Speaker 2: So when I watched his take a deep breath.
Speaker 3: And then just kind of micro machine man yes through it,
Speaker 3: I thought of because that's a passion I don't have.
Speaker 3: I've actually never owned or read a comic book in
Speaker 3: my life.
Speaker 1: You've never read It's really interesting. So the only reason
Speaker 1: that's really surprising is because we're around the same age,
Speaker 1: and when we were young, there just wasn't a whole
Speaker 1: bunch of stuff to do, so I'm amazed that you
Speaker 1: never found yourself. Yeah, comic book was your only option.
Speaker 2: I grew up in a household that didn't.
Speaker 3: It always sounds like a religious thing, but like my
Speaker 3: dad would never like watch anything science fiction, with like
Speaker 3: one exception like the mad Max Road Warrior cannon. But
Speaker 3: like like I didn't see Star Wars. I haven't still
Speaker 3: not seen it the whole way through, like.
Speaker 2: I am now okay, okay, yeah, and so car was
Speaker 2: part of that.
Speaker 3: The funny thing is is like I watched the Robert
Speaker 3: Crumb movie back in the day, and I watched I
Speaker 3: remember when American Splendor came out, and I was like,
Speaker 3: Harvey Peak, like this looks like a comic.
Speaker 2: I can get behind, like indie comics.
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, but even still all these years later, I'm
Speaker 3: sure promo wise, like people have sent me, like when
Speaker 3: Czar Face or somebody would do like an item and
Speaker 3: I'd said it, aid, I'd give it to somebody would
Speaker 3: appreciate it.
Speaker 2: But yeah, man, I still got my comic book Virginity
Speaker 2: and tact.
Speaker 1: That's what's up, man, Uh you know that's that's I'm like,
Speaker 1: On one hand, Oh, it'd be a nice thing to
Speaker 1: introduce you to. On the other hand, it's like, you know,
Speaker 1: let him cook. Yeah, you're like and you're not missing
Speaker 1: that much, you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I have personality.
Speaker 3: And the funny thing is is like as a kid,
Speaker 3: I think the other alternative was like, in terms of
Speaker 3: tangible media, it was like baseball cards. Yeah yeah, you know,
Speaker 3: not not in a collector way, but I just loved
Speaker 3: looking through them, learning the status.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Same here since that, like I have I have a
Speaker 1: collection of comic book trading cards from that era. But
Speaker 1: in that era, it was all trading cards. It was basketball, football, baseball, everything,
Speaker 1: and the same experience you discussed of just reading through
Speaker 1: and trying to understand the stats and all of that.
Speaker 3: I think of every time my mom, you know, must
Speaker 3: have handed me a five dollar bill to try to
Speaker 3: like be a cool.
Speaker 2: Mom or like she knew that, Like I had waited
Speaker 2: in the car for three or four hours, and.
Speaker 3: I wish I wish I had now at this age,
Speaker 3: Like it brought me delight at the time, but I
Speaker 3: wish that I had done other things with that money,
Speaker 3: you know, let alone, let her keep it, you know,
Speaker 3: But you know, getting back to your point, like comic
Speaker 3: books is one thing also, you know, and it's right
Speaker 3: at the top of the episode.
Speaker 2: You know Thundercat.
Speaker 3: You mentioned him in Flying Lotus, you know, working with
Speaker 3: you on the Hannibal Show. Also just his he walked
Speaker 3: up at iHeart and I'm not a I don't pay
Speaker 3: attention to jewelry and stuff like that, you know, but
Speaker 3: he came in with a Doom medallion that he talks
Speaker 3: about at the top of the episode and then elaborates
Speaker 3: on his profound appreciation and collaborative.
Speaker 2: Plans with Daniel Dumalay.
Speaker 3: And I thought of you as well, because I know
Speaker 3: he's a north star in your life.
Speaker 2: Hopefully I'm not miss speaking.
Speaker 1: Oh no, that's that's absolutely the case, not only creatively historically.
Speaker 1: I have a lot of Doom art here in my home.
Speaker 1: People send me a lot of stuff like that, and
Speaker 1: I tend to put it up in the house.
Speaker 3: Did you I mean similar question when I asked about Thundercat.
Speaker 2: I mean in your career, did you have any interactions
Speaker 2: with Doom?
Speaker 1: Not directly, I mean we have we got two songs together.
Speaker 2: I'm on.
Speaker 1: You mentioned zar Face earlier. I'm on a Zarface song
Speaker 1: it features Doom. And when I had my show on
Speaker 1: Comedy Central The New Negroes. Part of it was that
Speaker 1: we had an original song for every episode, and we
Speaker 1: did a collab with each one, and one of them
Speaker 1: was done. We were able to get him on a
Speaker 1: song for our Comedy Central show Wow Wow.
Speaker 2: So but did you, I mean at that point in
Speaker 2: Doom's career, I know he was abroad a lot. I mean,
Speaker 2: you never got to give him a pound or anything
Speaker 2: like that.
Speaker 1: I never did. I never did. By the time I
Speaker 1: was in the even the beginning of having a career,
Speaker 1: he was already out of the country and not allowed back.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I mean to me, when I think of the pandemic,
Speaker 3: and I think of the ugly side of the pandemic,
Speaker 3: which you know, from a health standpoint, was all of it.
Speaker 3: And you know, Amir talks about this a lot, but
Speaker 3: I think of sort of what you and I were
Speaker 3: talking about, the lack of distractions that we sometimes have
Speaker 3: gotten back to. But I think of the one battle
Speaker 3: after another emotionally of twenty twenty into twenty twenty one,
Speaker 3: and I think, you know, the loss of Doom learning
Speaker 3: it and then learning that it was kind of after
Speaker 3: the fact, at least for me, with the general public.
Speaker 3: You know, that was that was one of the hardest
Speaker 3: blows ever, you know, in terms of just mourning your heroes.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was. I remember that that was a New
Speaker 1: Year's Eve when the announcement came out and I hadn't
Speaker 1: heard it either. I remember I took a nap that
Speaker 1: day so that I would be ready to hang out
Speaker 1: that night, and I woke up from the nap to
Speaker 1: people texting me that they were so worry about the
Speaker 1: Doom news and I'm like, WHOA. So I'm like disoriented
Speaker 1: coming back into consciousness and getting this terrible news, and
Speaker 1: it really it put me down for like three or
Speaker 1: four days. I feel like I feel like New Year's
Speaker 1: Eve was like a Thursday that year or something like
Speaker 1: that sounds about right, And I feel like through that
Speaker 1: weekend I was just really in a bad, bad space.
Speaker 1: But that was when it sort of occurred to me
Speaker 1: that for the first time of my life, I needed
Speaker 1: to directly and in real time wrap my way through
Speaker 1: something in order to process it. And so the song
Speaker 1: that I have that that is an elegy for him
Speaker 1: is called for Doom. I wrote and recorded it like
Speaker 1: that weekend. It was like four days after he passed
Speaker 1: where I sort of was rapping about my feelings of
Speaker 1: being a fan of his my entire life, how privileged
Speaker 1: it was I felt to collab with him, how nervous
Speaker 1: I was about it, how it felt to hear that news.
Speaker 1: And it's sort of culminated in me realizing as I
Speaker 1: was writing this rhyme that this piece of doom art
Speaker 1: that I have in my house that's a photo of
Speaker 1: him is not really him.
Speaker 2: Oh wow.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And it was like the perfect code to the thing.
Speaker 3: And that's very open mic ego of you two. Just
Speaker 3: to kind of pull the rug at the end. That's
Speaker 3: so interesting and it's funny, like, you know, I've worked
Speaker 3: over twenty years kind of in the hip hop media side.
Speaker 3: I don't the word journalists is weird, but you know,
Speaker 3: I led hip Hop DX for a number of years
Speaker 3: back in the.
Speaker 1: Wow hip Hop DX man. Yeah, speaking of rest in peace,
Speaker 1: like all.
Speaker 3: Our work, but the work that you know, for my
Speaker 3: seven years, they're gone off the internet.
Speaker 1: That really bothers me, like a lot more than people
Speaker 1: might understand.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I hope it comes back.
Speaker 3: I was gonna talk to some of the folks that
Speaker 3: are now at least own it. You know, try to
Speaker 3: understand the logic behind that, but.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it breaks my heart.
Speaker 3: But all that to say, you know, in DX and
Speaker 3: then I spent for the last thirteen years I've been
Speaker 3: part of Ambrosia for Heads, and I've known over the
Speaker 3: time that you know, when we've cut still images sometimes,
Speaker 3: especially in the later years, once there were glasses involved,
Speaker 3: it's not always actually Doom, and that messes with you.
Speaker 3: And I think that only adds to the legend.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: I always think of like the Internet being shocked that
Speaker 3: Humpty Hump was shocked G, but sometimes wasn't shocked G.
Speaker 3: It's like Andy Kaufman and Tony Clifton. But I think
Speaker 3: it adds like when you see both in the same
Speaker 3: room at the same time and you're just like what, Yeah,
Speaker 3: I think that contributes to that effect.
Speaker 2: Whatever.
Speaker 1: It's just me a while to get to the point
Speaker 1: of being able to appreciate Doom for being able to
Speaker 1: pull that off, because I had the misfortune of being
Speaker 1: at two of those shows okay where he wasn't there.
Speaker 1: I went to one show that he actually he was
Speaker 1: there in like four five, and then I'd say, like, oh,
Speaker 1: six oh seven. Maybe I was at two shows where
Speaker 1: it was not him, and that did not feel good,
Speaker 1: just to be like a paying customer coming to see
Speaker 1: him perform and you can tell very early and easily
Speaker 1: that it's not really him. Yeah, that was not a
Speaker 1: good feeling. And I came away from those events feeling like, oh,
Speaker 1: that's kind of messed up that he doesn't care about
Speaker 1: his audience enough to actually show up and perform. But
Speaker 1: that is also before any of us understood what the
Speaker 1: circumstances were behind that as well. But you know, he
Speaker 1: also didn't put that out there so right.
Speaker 3: You remember on the second time, was that when he
Speaker 3: was on the Loop a Fiasco Food and Liquor tour
Speaker 3: as the opener.
Speaker 1: No one was I want to say, it was rock
Speaker 1: the Bells out here. And another one it was a
Speaker 1: New Year's Eve show, a big, huge New Year's Eve
Speaker 1: show here in LA that had a bunch of rappers
Speaker 1: on it, and he was the headliner, you know, with
Speaker 1: the with the countdown and all of that, and it
Speaker 1: just was not him. I talked to I'm homies with
Speaker 1: John Robinson, who was a first collaborator of Duns, and
Speaker 1: John Robinson was on the stage that night, and he
Speaker 1: without saying too much of what he said. He was
Speaker 1: telling me that the way that it went down it
Speaker 1: was also a surprise to him. So yeah, it was.
Speaker 1: It was levels of theater happening.
Speaker 2: Man. Shout out to John Robinson when I'm in New York.
Speaker 3: He and I had lunch one time, I mean tour
Speaker 3: in two thousand and seven and eight at this vegetarian
Speaker 3: spot on west Ford Street, and he was always cool.
Speaker 2: I'm a big Signs of Life fan, and.
Speaker 3: Yeah, aside the stuff he did with Doom and then
Speaker 3: he had that whole album. One of the cool things
Speaker 3: about Doom, and I think Dyla and Mad Live have
Speaker 3: the same kind of mythology is that before producers were
Speaker 3: talking about loaning beats, a lot of those productions just
Speaker 3: felt like they because they would appear different places, and
Speaker 3: especially with John Robinson and never he made that whole
Speaker 3: album over Doom production, But it felt real because I
Speaker 3: knew he was always inner circle as I understood it.
Speaker 1: You know, it is different when you know that those
Speaker 1: artists have a connection versus you know, the label has
Speaker 1: these beats, yes, paring them with somebody.
Speaker 3: Yeah, somebody trying to get on wrapping over dilla beats. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I'll share my little story. I never met Doom face
Speaker 3: to face, but I interviewed him in two thousand and three.
Speaker 2: There's a lesser known thing that you remember back when,
Speaker 2: like Sandbox.
Speaker 3: Automatic and hip hop Site, the early online retailers of
Speaker 3: the hip hop that you.
Speaker 2: And I love.
Speaker 1: Oh yes, I spent I spent hours on him sites.
Speaker 2: I spent not only.
Speaker 3: Hours, I spent wages from Burger King, wages, all sorts
Speaker 3: of jobs. And there was an exclusive kind of mashup
Speaker 3: thing that was authorized by Doom called Nostradomas and it
Speaker 3: was two thousand and three, and it was when NAS
Speaker 3: had put out. It wasn't just the Nostradama stuff, but
Speaker 3: it was recent, you know. I am and kind of
Speaker 3: the early two thousands. Nas a cappellas put to Doom
Speaker 3: and Matt Conaway veteran emir, and I just worked with
Speaker 3: him on booking DJ Muggs.
Speaker 2: He offered me Doom. I was at the.
Speaker 3: Time an editor at all hip Hop dot Com and
Speaker 3: I spoke to Doohim for half an hour on the phone.
Speaker 2: And it's similar to kind of I think his music like.
Speaker 2: On one hand, he.
Speaker 3: Was super lucid and super he remembered things that really
Speaker 3: shocked me. But on another hand, he was kind of
Speaker 3: one take Jake and just like some things he would
Speaker 3: talk about some things he wouldn't, and that added to
Speaker 3: the mythology. But what always kind of blew me away
Speaker 3: about that is I asked him at one point, I'm like,
Speaker 3: you know, KMD comes under the third base story, you know,
Speaker 3: as you've covered with your podcast and sodas Nas and
Speaker 3: you know, as I understand it, you know, Pete Nice
Speaker 3: was a big cultivator of CAMD and Doom and Search
Speaker 3: obviously you know, signed NOAs to the production company and
Speaker 3: you know, had a strong hand in the business side
Speaker 3: of Illmatic. And it's so wild that at that point,
Speaker 3: which was about ten years later, you know, after Emadic
Speaker 3: and around, you know, the same time as the second
Speaker 3: km D album, you have these guys interfacing.
Speaker 2: In a way they might not even know about.
Speaker 3: And Doom had memories of meeting Nas, being in the
Speaker 3: same room, sitting in the same studio sessions.
Speaker 2: And the cool thing.
Speaker 3: Is is that was three which a year later, Doom
Speaker 3: really starts to occupy that amazing spot, you know, with multiple.
Speaker 1: Albums, Victor Vaughn and Mad Villain and Food all dropping
Speaker 1: into danger Doom.
Speaker 3: Yeah, all of that stuff exactly, so you know, and
Speaker 3: it lends itself to a question. And obviously we're talking
Speaker 3: about Thundercat talking about Doom, but you know, to me,
Speaker 3: he's always hip Hop's like greatest reinvent It's the one
Speaker 3: that if I was explaining this stuff to my son
Speaker 3: someday and why it means to me and why it
Speaker 3: might be like comic books or it might be like
Speaker 3: a great movie. Doom is that story? And you know,
Speaker 3: I want to ask you, being a fan that you are, like,
Speaker 3: can you speak to what that reinvention means to you
Speaker 3: as an artist?
Speaker 1: To me, it's remarkable because it's such a difficult thing
Speaker 1: to do when you have your business hat on, Like
Speaker 1: it's one thing, you know, we're all creative forces. We
Speaker 1: all have this creativity we have access to and that
Speaker 1: tends to always perpetuate. But it's difficult when you have
Speaker 1: stacked attention and notoriety and you've really nurtured a name,
Speaker 1: You have people invested in that name, You might have
Speaker 1: companies that invest in money to promote this name, and
Speaker 1: for you to choose to walk away from that in
Speaker 1: order to reapproach the business from a different creative lens.
Speaker 1: I think think that's so risky, and I think that like,
Speaker 1: it is a really powerful move because you're walking away
Speaker 1: from everything. But I've also seen it not work because
Speaker 1: it's such a difficult thing to do. You're an essence,
Speaker 1: walking away from all of the work you've put in,
Speaker 1: and unless you're arming people with the tools to tell
Speaker 1: the world that this guy is now this guy, then
Speaker 1: you're truly starting over from scratch, and it's really, it's really,
Speaker 1: it's a really difficult thing to do. I always applaud
Speaker 1: people and commend them, and I think there is something
Speaker 1: to be said for how it helps rappers specifically age
Speaker 1: more gracefully and rap because I feel like, oftentimes, you
Speaker 1: come into this business seventeen eighteen years old, and you
Speaker 1: have a particular sort of creative ethos that you're coming
Speaker 1: at it from, and you have your experiences in the industry,
Speaker 1: you have your experiences in life, and you come out
Speaker 1: of at a different person. By the time you're thirty,
Speaker 1: you're probably not very much like you were when you
Speaker 1: were seventeen eighteen, and that might have been when people
Speaker 1: were promoting you the hardest. So it makes sense that
Speaker 1: you might want to step away from that and come
Speaker 1: with a different perspective, a different direction. And so I
Speaker 1: think that when you look at long careers in hip hop,
Speaker 1: oftentimes you can point to, oh, there was a reinvention there,
Speaker 1: there was a reinvention there, and that helped them adapt
Speaker 1: to the different eras.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a really good point. I think Doom exemplifies that.
Speaker 3: Like I it was funny, like I try to, I
Speaker 3: meet people sometimes that only know the hits of the
Speaker 3: Beastie Boys, and you know, like, and that speaks exactly
Speaker 3: to your point.
Speaker 2: Who they were in the eyes of.
Speaker 3: Def jam as eighteen seventeen eighteen year olds is vastly.
Speaker 2: Different who they were at twenty one, you.
Speaker 3: Know, And then how do you manage that image? How
Speaker 3: do you reconcile that catalog and talk about it and
Speaker 3: maybe disappoint people when you're not that One thing that
Speaker 3: I've learned in the process of this Thundercat journey with
Speaker 3: this conversation, which I truly love and I love the
Speaker 3: fact and I'll call him Steven because that's how he,
Speaker 3: you know, introduced himself to me too, Like I love
Speaker 3: it when an artist it just enters the conversation to
Speaker 3: talk about anything. I mean, very true of your your
Speaker 3: quest love to show conversation last year of just like Hey,
Speaker 3: I'm gonna meet the combo where it's at. They talked
Speaker 3: a little bit about Distracted and you know, a dedication
Speaker 3: to mac Miller, but it was also just I'm gonna
Speaker 3: be human. And one of the things he spent a
Speaker 3: lot of time talking about was mentorship. And he spoke
Speaker 3: about a figure that I'm always curious about, Reggie Andrews,
Speaker 3: and I learned about. You know, it's funny, like I
Speaker 3: own some dazz band records that I've listened to and
Speaker 3: I didn't know that name. But years ago I was
Speaker 3: watching The Farside early in their career, an old interview
Speaker 3: where they were talking about how this very musical person
Speaker 3: came into their life and really kind of honed them
Speaker 3: and cultivated them. And it was Reggie and they were
Speaker 3: laughing because it was ten years past the Dad's band,
Speaker 3: and they were making fun of his hairstyle and you know,
Speaker 3: this pass a thing. But to really hear Steven, to
Speaker 3: hear Thundercat drive home, how this one educator changed generations
Speaker 3: of musicians at Loch High and other places in California.
Speaker 2: I thought it was just super illuminating.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, and it would have illuminated to me specifically.
Speaker 1: I've been in this town, like I said, twenty years.
Speaker 1: I didn't meet Thundercat till like I moved here in
Speaker 1: two thousand and four. I don't think I met Thundercat
Speaker 1: till like twenty fifteen, sixteen or something like that. What
Speaker 1: it made me really understand was, Yeah, we've all been
Speaker 1: here and we're all part of this grand creative community.
Speaker 1: But the relationships that they have over on that jazz
Speaker 1: side are cultivated by those years they spent in the trenches,
Speaker 1: running around the city, playing stuff out of the fake
Speaker 1: book and being mentored in this case by that one person.
Speaker 1: And to me, it illuminates the sort of distance between
Speaker 1: the different creative communities here. Like I was in I
Speaker 1: was on the rap side. So you know, we were
Speaker 1: doing stuff over a project blode and which were the
Speaker 1: descendants of the people from the Good Life Cafe, and
Speaker 1: so we were very rap heavy, to the point where
Speaker 1: even the producers involved in our circle split off and
Speaker 1: started doing the low end theory thing. And then that
Speaker 1: became a whole other thing, and it's funny I ended up,
Speaker 1: you know, connecting with Thundercat through largely through Flying Lotus
Speaker 1: and the beat scene which developed over there. So to me,
Speaker 1: it was just an interesting peak into a history that
Speaker 1: was happening while I was here. But it was like
Speaker 1: over there in a community that I wasn't involved in.
Speaker 1: I thought that was really fascinating.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that happens a lot, like, you know,
Speaker 2: similar to you.
Speaker 3: I moved to Philly and O two and it's funny,
Speaker 3: like I just went to the roots picnic and spent
Speaker 3: most of it. We taped content, you know, taped interviews
Speaker 3: Saturday and Sunday, so I wasn't out there mixing up.
Speaker 3: But there are so many people in Philly that folks
Speaker 3: will always but oh you must know so and so, and.
Speaker 2: I don't you know, I've heard of them. I've heard
Speaker 2: of them.
Speaker 3: But you know, I spent my trenches were not in studio,
Speaker 3: you know, they were covering, they were listening, they.
Speaker 2: Were working, they were one to one, they weren't.
Speaker 3: Necessarily communal, And it was always fascinating to learn that
Speaker 3: there are so many times you were in a room
Speaker 3: with somebody that you don't even realize and then years
Speaker 3: later you form a bond and you realize, you know,
Speaker 3: and ThunderCats that I really dug his energy.
Speaker 2: I also just appreciate. I'm a big fan of just
Speaker 2: self deprecation.
Speaker 3: And I love the way I found it inspiring, the
Speaker 3: way he leaned into, you know, handle kind of being
Speaker 3: bullied or being teased or being ostracized in school, and
Speaker 3: also yet coming from an environment that I feel like,
Speaker 3: you know, the environment that he described of Compton and
Speaker 3: other parts of Los Angeles was very much the John Singleton,
Speaker 3: you know, Hughes Brothers. Like literally he said his house
Speaker 3: was shot at, and I thought that that's wild, because
Speaker 3: he doesn't lead with that in his public facing persona.
Speaker 1: You know, I mean, you know, that's that I want
Speaker 1: to say, is that unfortunate? Something like that, But it's
Speaker 1: partitive course, like I know, I know that story all
Speaker 1: too well. And so one of the things I was
Speaker 1: connected with that he was talking about was how people
Speaker 1: he was around, like in school, didn't understand or had
Speaker 1: no awareness of the music he was listening to. Because
Speaker 1: to me, that goes right along with that. It's like
Speaker 1: you're all in school with these people, you might have
Speaker 1: grown up with these people. Some of these people are
Speaker 1: in the streets doing street stuff, and then some of
Speaker 1: us are in the house learning how to play an
Speaker 1: instrument or I was, you know, somewhere learning how to
Speaker 1: break dance or doing graffiti like and so my experience
Speaker 1: and interest would take me away from what my homies
Speaker 1: were doing, and my homies would be in the streets,
Speaker 1: creating the stereotype people understand my neighborhood by you know,
Speaker 1: But I'm having this whole different experience and it's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I've throughout my life, I've just known so many people
Speaker 1: who like myself, kind of have that experience where you know,
Speaker 1: this environment, this environment is in you, but it's just
Speaker 1: not a part of you in such an overt way
Speaker 1: like it can be with other people.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And I'm just curious to you, like, what do
Speaker 3: you think. I don't the term weird, especially in this
Speaker 3: political climate, is such a loaded adjective all of a sudden,
Speaker 3: But you and I are just meaning like alternative, different,
Speaker 3: out there music. But what do you think, you know,
Speaker 3: raising yourself on that diet, what do you think it
Speaker 3: did for you in those formative years of being an adolescent,
Speaker 3: regardless of you as a creator.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think it was. Actually it made my
Speaker 1: life feel tougher at the time that I didn't have
Speaker 1: the same sort of common touchstones that other people have.
Speaker 1: And we would sit around and talk about music, and
Speaker 1: you know, they'd be talking about mcavelly and I'd be
Speaker 1: listening to MF. Doom's first twelve inches, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, Like it felt. It used to often feel
Speaker 1: like socially, me and my friend group was on another
Speaker 1: planet compared to everybody else because we weren't you know,
Speaker 1: in my high school it was do you like Biggie
Speaker 1: or do you like pop? Right, and we were like,
Speaker 1: we don't care about either of these people because we're
Speaker 1: over here spinning on our heads and listening to diamond
Speaker 1: D And you know what I'm saying. Like, So it
Speaker 1: didn't feel good at the time socially to have a
Speaker 1: different set of interests. You know, we liked what we
Speaker 1: like and that was cool. But when I think back
Speaker 1: on it now, it's like, oh yeah, right, Like that's
Speaker 1: like following our interest to that degree and finding these
Speaker 1: sources of other me music. This made us who we were,
Speaker 1: And oftentimes I get tickled sometimes when I'll you know,
Speaker 1: see something on Facebook and it's somebody I knew from
Speaker 1: high school talking about how they just, you know, bought
Speaker 1: a Doom album or something, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: And I'm like, that's cute.
Speaker 3: You have a vivid memory of you coming in, you know,
Speaker 3: playing something, or you couldn't talk about it then, you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, or not feeling like I could a lot of
Speaker 1: times when I think back on it too, those the
Speaker 1: distance between me and other people oftentimes was more stark
Speaker 1: in my mind than it wasn't real life. Sure, I
Speaker 1: just didn't feel a lot of license to discuss what
Speaker 1: it was I was into with people because I didn't
Speaker 1: feel like there was enough common ground.
Speaker 2: When I would go.
Speaker 3: Into a record store in ninety nine two thousand, I
Speaker 3: was in my teens and I asked, you know, hey,
Speaker 3: do you guys have the Black Delicious aided you know
Speaker 3: eight a GEP?
Speaker 2: And they, oh, you like that?
Speaker 3: And you could have a conversation with somebody who spoke
Speaker 3: your language. It meant like the world got real small
Speaker 3: and it was fun. It was so exciting, and I
Speaker 3: I don't get that same joy in connecting with people
Speaker 3: that way. I mean, do you find that it's different
Speaker 3: these days with that I don't know, Like, maybe it's
Speaker 3: because of just the way we access music.
Speaker 2: I'm just like, oh, it's cool, you got it loaded
Speaker 2: iPod or but like it just feels different. I don't know.
Speaker 2: Maybe I'm being cynical or jaded about it.
Speaker 1: Well, I think that part of what you're describing is
Speaker 1: the effort that it used to take to find stuff
Speaker 1: that wasn't on the radio. Like just that alone, the
Speaker 1: steps you had to take to find music that wasn't
Speaker 1: just being served to you on television on the radio.
Speaker 1: You know, the people who were willing and interested in
Speaker 1: taking those steps, they felt a kinship with each other.
Speaker 1: And now not only do we all have every genre
Speaker 1: of everything at our fingertips, we also all live under
Speaker 1: a different algorithm that's giving us a different digital product
Speaker 1: line of music every day. So now it's just so
Speaker 1: much more fractured. Yeah, and it takes so much less
Speaker 1: effort that I think it's hard to tell how much
Speaker 1: you and this person are alike now based on having
Speaker 1: a shared interest in a particular piece of music.
Speaker 2: That's real. Your point is valid to like, the algorithms
Speaker 2: that be are forcing me right now to get really
Speaker 2: into Tom Mish. It might be working, it might not be.
Speaker 3: But like I appreciated our discussion in LA and it's
Speaker 3: in one of these mini episodes where you kind of
Speaker 3: spoke to the effect of XTC's Mummer and you were like,
Speaker 3: that's what I'm listening to right now. And I still
Speaker 3: try to do that, whether it's a CD, it's an
Speaker 3: albums I'm streaming, like play it, play it again, play
Speaker 3: it some more.
Speaker 2: And yesterday Amir was talking about, you know, he's very.
Speaker 3: Much on a Steely Dan journey right now, because he
Speaker 3: was like, yeah, I feel like we're always all of
Speaker 3: us are always on a Steely Dan journey. But that
Speaker 3: is a habit that I'm trying to keep an integrate
Speaker 3: and that way, the person I run into or meet
Speaker 3: that we get to talking and they are talking about
Speaker 3: what's currently in my ears.
Speaker 2: Then it means a little more.
Speaker 1: That's real.
Speaker 3: That's real, yo, man, Thank you. I encourage everyone. I mean,
Speaker 3: certainly if you got this far, you probably checked it
Speaker 3: out Thundercap. But it's a great episode, it really is. Yeah, absolutely,
Speaker 3: and more many episodes coming. The Roots have a lot
Speaker 3: of dates this summer. I tried to get a mirror
Speaker 3: on one yesterday. Our guest showed up early and sometimes
Speaker 3: that throws things off. But he will be back in
Speaker 3: the mix soon come.
Speaker 2: But in the meantime, I'm having fun wrapping with you.
Speaker 1: Might Awesome Always A Pleasure Question Show is a production
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