WEBVTT - Questlove Can't Take a Compliment 0:00:00.480 --> 0:00:03.720 This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the thing. 0:00:06.920 --> 0:00:10.040 His family and folks close to him called him a mere. 0:00:10.440 --> 0:00:14.280 That's a mere Khalib Thompson. But you probably know him 0:00:14.320 --> 0:00:20.040 as Quest Love, Philly native music history savant and drummer 0:00:20.120 --> 0:00:22.720 and music director for the Grammy Award winning hip hop 0:00:22.760 --> 0:00:27.480 group The Roots. When the Roots aren't in the studio 0:00:27.640 --> 0:00:30.760 or out on tour, they're backing up Jimmy Fallon on 0:00:30.840 --> 0:00:32.960 the Tonight Show. Dude, I gotta say you one of 0:00:32.960 --> 0:00:34.959 the hardest working guys ever. We love you so much, 0:00:35.000 --> 0:00:36.640 you know, and you and the guys, this is the coolest. 0:00:37.520 --> 0:00:41.000 We've been doing this together for what like seven years. 0:00:42.240 --> 0:00:46.440 Years he's been called America's bandleader. The forty five year 0:00:46.479 --> 0:00:49.839 old drummer is also a DJ, and he's been a caterer. 0:00:50.159 --> 0:00:52.440 He just came out with the book about Food this year. 0:00:53.159 --> 0:00:56.520 Quest Love is constantly creating, trying to do the many 0:00:56.600 --> 0:01:00.319 things he loves seemingly all at once. But why thing 0:01:00.440 --> 0:01:04.360 Quest Love doesn't do well is take compliments, which explains 0:01:04.400 --> 0:01:08.120 his reaction to a very flattering profile in The New Yorker. 0:01:09.280 --> 0:01:14.320 I was pleased you were, Yeah, I don't know, I've 0:01:14.360 --> 0:01:20.240 been taught to not relish and celebration of of press 0:01:20.280 --> 0:01:23.600 stuff because I do so much. Um, you can't let 0:01:23.680 --> 0:01:27.679 it matter. I mean, after a while, it's just like, okay, 0:01:27.840 --> 0:01:30.280 I'm it's like now, I don't think I've watched Tonight 0:01:30.319 --> 0:01:33.240 Show episode like two years. You haven't watched your show 0:01:33.360 --> 0:01:35.679 unless it's super epic. I mean, if it's like Phil Collins, 0:01:35.680 --> 0:01:39.800 then I'll watch it to make sure. Have we firstly started? 0:01:39.880 --> 0:01:44.560 We started? Okay? Um? I read this piece in the 0:01:44.600 --> 0:01:49.000 New Yorker, and I mean, just from my money, I mean, 0:01:49.080 --> 0:01:52.120 these press things aren't that important. You're right, but this 0:01:52.240 --> 0:01:56.000 piece is very complimentary and real and honest. And I'm thinking, 0:01:56.040 --> 0:01:57.520 what do you miss about them? What do you miss 0:01:57.560 --> 0:02:01.600 about Philly? Is it Osage Street? You having a mom 0:02:01.600 --> 0:02:03.880 and dad, the drums, the basement? What do you miss 0:02:03.920 --> 0:02:06.000 about back before you made it? You know what? You know, 0:02:06.080 --> 0:02:11.079 it's weird. Um. My sister always rags me about this, um, 0:02:11.120 --> 0:02:13.160 and this will probably mark the first time that I 0:02:13.200 --> 0:02:19.079 haven't made a pilgrimage. Um. There's certain luminaries in hip 0:02:19.080 --> 0:02:22.720 hop that will go back to the old hood. And 0:02:22.760 --> 0:02:25.880 I'm like, dog like, why are you? Why are you 0:02:25.960 --> 0:02:27.919 driving a Bentley through the projects, you know what I mean? 0:02:27.960 --> 0:02:29.880 Like that having that moment I'm in mind is the 0:02:29.919 --> 0:02:32.840 exact opposite because my car is like I'm still driving 0:02:32.840 --> 0:02:36.880 my first car, which is still driving. Yeah, I'm never 0:02:36.880 --> 0:02:38.760 going to give it up. I mean, I have other cars, 0:02:38.800 --> 0:02:43.720 but my scion is is my baby. But um uh, 0:02:43.919 --> 0:02:47.440 I don't know, like I have this. I often have 0:02:47.520 --> 0:02:54.240 this craving to drive back, just drive back and look 0:02:54.280 --> 0:02:58.800 for old ghosts. Um it's it's weird, it's it's even 0:02:58.880 --> 0:03:05.200 uh even with with food, Like I'll question why am 0:03:05.240 --> 0:03:10.680 I sticking to a certain diet from my childhood? Am 0:03:10.680 --> 0:03:14.960 I hoping to to find old ghosts? Or I don't 0:03:14.960 --> 0:03:17.480 know what it is, But what's a diet from your childhood? 0:03:18.120 --> 0:03:20.280 I mean, I'm in a place now, in a position 0:03:20.560 --> 0:03:24.760 in which I could be at the prime healthiest of 0:03:24.840 --> 0:03:27.320 my life if I chose to. And you know, as 0:03:27.360 --> 0:03:29.840 I speak to you, I'm back on that bandwagon in 0:03:29.840 --> 0:03:31.800 the piece you talk about a Greek chorus of health 0:03:31.880 --> 0:03:34.960 people around you. Whatever, they're back, They're back and singing 0:03:35.000 --> 0:03:39.200 louder than ever you asked for it. Because I let 0:03:39.240 --> 0:03:42.560 two thousand sixteen be two thousand and sixteen, and it's 0:03:42.800 --> 0:03:44.800 you know, it took a toll on me. So I 0:03:45.240 --> 0:03:50.160 decided after Thanksgiving, I'm going back to you know, to 0:03:50.160 --> 0:03:55.800 to fight for my life again. Um and I think 0:03:56.680 --> 0:04:00.600 during Thanksgiving, I don't know, it's just thinking about those 0:04:00.600 --> 0:04:04.400 psychological process and I'm like, well, you know, what is 0:04:04.440 --> 0:04:06.760 it when you taste these college greens? What is it 0:04:06.800 --> 0:04:10.720 when you when you eat this particular type of soul food? 0:04:10.800 --> 0:04:15.880 Like are you missing memories of of of grandmam On 0:04:15.880 --> 0:04:18.719 on a Sunday? Like food was a very big part 0:04:18.760 --> 0:04:23.320 of our my childhood and uh, I'll say, like the 0:04:23.360 --> 0:04:26.480 process would start on Thursday. I'd stay at my grandmother's 0:04:26.520 --> 0:04:28.839 house and it was always like it was an event. 0:04:29.200 --> 0:04:34.480 And Thursdays, like she and her sisters would start the 0:04:34.520 --> 0:04:39.880 process of cooking Sunday dinner. So Thursdays, Fridays, Saturday's even 0:04:39.880 --> 0:04:44.320 like while watching Soul Train, I'd help with snap beans. Uh. 0:04:44.360 --> 0:04:47.159 They're the type of people that would like start a 0:04:47.240 --> 0:04:52.000 cake on a Monday and drown it in uh brandy 0:04:52.120 --> 0:04:54.480 for about three weeks. Don't touch that game here and 0:04:54.520 --> 0:04:57.400 you know that sort of thing. Uh. So it's like 0:04:57.440 --> 0:05:00.800 always a big process for this sprawling Sunday dinner, like 0:05:00.920 --> 0:05:07.280 every Sunday was like Thanksgiving. Every Sunday was Thanksgiving and special. Yeah, 0:05:07.520 --> 0:05:11.599 it was special. So I don't know, maybe I'm looking 0:05:11.680 --> 0:05:21.280 for my identity now that I've been sort of Uh, 0:05:21.680 --> 0:05:24.240 I don't want to say misplaced, or you know, I've 0:05:24.320 --> 0:05:28.360 I've transitioned to another life, another lifestyle which I'm kind 0:05:28.360 --> 0:05:33.760 of separate from my childhood memories, which probably explains the 0:05:33.760 --> 0:05:37.560 Soul Train obsession, which explains like now now that I've 0:05:37.640 --> 0:05:41.039 I've had time to really think about it, and especially 0:05:41.040 --> 0:05:44.640 in the last week, it's it's making sense. Like I 0:05:44.640 --> 0:05:49.239 don't think I'm collecting seven episodes of soul Train because 0:05:50.480 --> 0:05:52.279 I really think that's an awesome show. Of course, I 0:05:52.279 --> 0:05:54.720 think it's an awesome show. But you know, in my mind, 0:05:54.760 --> 0:05:57.480 I'm thinking, yeah, in my mind, I'm thinking, Okay, the 0:05:57.560 --> 0:06:01.839 Frankie Valley episode of Soul Train, my sister and I 0:06:01.880 --> 0:06:04.880 almost burnt down the house using the Jiffy popcorn on 0:06:04.920 --> 0:06:09.400 the stove. Uh. The Johnny Guitar Watson episode of Soul Train. 0:06:09.480 --> 0:06:13.279 I remember like cutting my hand on the the no 0:06:13.400 --> 0:06:18.839 Frills Ravioli from Path Mark. Uh. The seventy nine episode 0:06:18.839 --> 0:06:21.320 of the Jacksons remember stupping my till in the coffee. 0:06:21.520 --> 0:06:25.640 Like there's there's certain childhood memories that are associated with 0:06:25.880 --> 0:06:28.760 every episode of souldring. So I think that's why I 0:06:28.880 --> 0:06:33.000 hang onto it. Um. And plus like being part of 0:06:33.040 --> 0:06:37.280 a uh you know, being in the quote unquote hip 0:06:37.320 --> 0:06:45.880 hop generation, a culture that celebrates youth so much. Um. 0:06:45.920 --> 0:06:52.359 I think just the idea of transitioning or metamorphosis or 0:06:52.400 --> 0:06:57.120 even just vanishing, which I think I think the idea 0:06:57.160 --> 0:07:02.080 of vanishing is what's really can trolling a lot of 0:07:02.120 --> 0:07:06.680 Americans thoughts in two thousand sixteen, the idea of not 0:07:06.800 --> 0:07:11.160 mattering old traditions leaving the idea of change. The idea 0:07:11.400 --> 0:07:14.560 of this is related to the election or not. No, 0:07:14.720 --> 0:07:17.200 just every yeah, everything. It could be the election, it 0:07:17.240 --> 0:07:19.920 could be me personally. I think they have a sense 0:07:19.920 --> 0:07:30.320 of somethings vanishing. Um. Yeah, I think just in general, 0:07:30.520 --> 0:07:34.280 there's something about two thousand and sixteen that is transitioning 0:07:35.080 --> 0:07:39.240 more than anything. I for one, um as a musician 0:07:39.400 --> 0:07:44.040 and a lever of the arts. Um, you know, this 0:07:44.160 --> 0:07:49.880 is the the largest amount of I mean this yeer 0:07:50.000 --> 0:07:56.360 volume of people dying in two thousand and sixteen. Um, 0:07:56.360 --> 0:08:00.800 it's for me. This is this is uh a message. 0:08:01.360 --> 0:08:03.640 I feel more of my childhood being I feel more 0:08:03.720 --> 0:08:08.080 me being stripped away than just like, oh, Natalie Cole died, Oh, 0:08:08.160 --> 0:08:13.080 Mauric's White died, Prince died. Oh. Like you know, it's 0:08:13.080 --> 0:08:15.760 it's up to light piece of your twenty three key 0:08:15.840 --> 0:08:18.640 members of my life that you know shape my life 0:08:18.640 --> 0:08:23.560 are like now going in this year, this year, dude, 0:08:23.600 --> 0:08:26.520 I mean my It's to the point that even when 0:08:26.760 --> 0:08:35.000 I was writing um on my Instagram the there's a 0:08:35.800 --> 0:08:41.280 well known, well loved house singer named Colonel Abrams, I 0:08:41.320 --> 0:08:44.160 was hesitating to write a tribute to him on Instagram 0:08:44.200 --> 0:08:46.400 because now, like it was to the point where people 0:08:46.400 --> 0:08:50.280 were like, oh, mirror, you're just the the obituary historian, 0:08:50.640 --> 0:08:54.480 Like your Instagram has come become nothing but these long 0:08:54.559 --> 0:08:58.120 two paragraph tributes to that of I was life like. 0:08:58.320 --> 0:09:02.360 It's it's almost like a joke down and that's that's 0:09:02.360 --> 0:09:04.280 where it's come to you. But I think more than that, 0:09:04.440 --> 0:09:08.040 it's just I think that all of us right now 0:09:08.320 --> 0:09:14.120 are fearing a transition, if you will. So you know, 0:09:14.280 --> 0:09:17.640 when I when I do drive back home and you know, 0:09:17.679 --> 0:09:21.240 sit there in the parking lot and and here at 0:09:21.240 --> 0:09:25.240 the house and everything. I don't know. I think I'm 0:09:25.280 --> 0:09:28.920 maybe in my mind, I'm Jacob Marley looking for my 0:09:29.040 --> 0:09:33.240 younger seven year old self on going to school or something. 0:09:33.600 --> 0:09:34.880 You see, this is the thing I want to get to, 0:09:34.960 --> 0:09:38.080 which is when I read the article, and I don't 0:09:38.080 --> 0:09:40.040 want to keep referencing that article. But when I read 0:09:40.080 --> 0:09:42.960 the article, it's like you kind of get the sense 0:09:43.000 --> 0:09:44.560 of like how much longer are you going to do this? 0:09:45.080 --> 0:09:47.839 That this is gonna be enough for you? Meaning music 0:09:47.840 --> 0:09:49.360 will be in your life maybe in some other way. 0:09:49.480 --> 0:09:52.840 Something tells me your love, your worship, music being in 0:09:52.880 --> 0:09:55.840 your DNA in the way it is so completely from 0:09:55.840 --> 0:09:59.120 what I read. I mean, you being you people, you're 0:09:59.200 --> 0:10:03.640 like some company of like, uh, you're like Mozart and 0:10:03.720 --> 0:10:07.680 Alan Turing. You know this savantage freak in a good 0:10:07.679 --> 0:10:10.400 way about music and so for an entertainment for that matter. 0:10:10.800 --> 0:10:13.200 But I'm wondering, so I assume you'll have some place 0:10:13.280 --> 0:10:16.640 in your life where do you think it's weird? Because 0:10:16.720 --> 0:10:22.080 since that New Yorker article came out, um, it is 0:10:22.800 --> 0:10:27.720 blossom and bloomed tenfold um to the point where I 0:10:27.760 --> 0:10:34.360 guess at that time, uh, I had let's say I 0:10:34.400 --> 0:10:41.560 had maybe eight jobs, um up until early January. I 0:10:41.559 --> 0:10:49.079 mean I had six sixteen jobs. Like, I just decided 0:10:49.200 --> 0:10:51.280 maybe a month ago to not return to m y 0:10:51.400 --> 0:10:56.640 U to teach, um because what were you teaching there? Um? 0:10:57.679 --> 0:11:01.440 I taught music history. I taught at Clive Davis Music School. 0:11:01.880 --> 0:11:08.679 Me and Harry Wagner, who controls all of Universal Music's reissues. 0:11:08.960 --> 0:11:11.920 So anytime you get like, he's the guy that has 0:11:11.960 --> 0:11:14.120 to sit back and figure out how to resell you 0:11:14.160 --> 0:11:18.280 Marvin Gaye's box set or anything from Motown or anything 0:11:18.280 --> 0:11:23.520 from the Rolling Stones, anybody Universal related on that label. 0:11:23.559 --> 0:11:26.360 So he and I taught at n y U for 0:11:26.480 --> 0:11:32.960 the last five years, um, and mostly we we I 0:11:33.040 --> 0:11:37.000 like with that experience. Uh, it got scary the last 0:11:37.080 --> 0:11:41.760 year because suddenly I realized, I mean, I mean you 0:11:41.760 --> 0:11:44.800 you you have children, so I'm sure that there's a 0:11:44.840 --> 0:11:47.760 point in your life where you just a sentence started 0:11:47.800 --> 0:11:53.400 with millennials like you know, I go there, right, And 0:11:53.920 --> 0:11:59.480 it was frustrating. It's it's it's an amazing mystery because 0:11:59.760 --> 0:12:05.280 the rich kids, no, I mean some some are I 0:12:05.320 --> 0:12:09.200 mean some are well to do. I've realized that some 0:12:09.320 --> 0:12:12.000 came from the lineage of Oh, that's your father, you know, 0:12:12.080 --> 0:12:14.440 that sort of thing. Um. But it was to the 0:12:14.480 --> 0:12:21.360 point where, because the information is so abundant now, I 0:12:21.520 --> 0:12:27.640 actually caught myself wanting them to teach me as I was. 0:12:27.800 --> 0:12:32.000 I mean, the questions they were asking about, Uh, like 0:12:32.160 --> 0:12:36.120 the production methods of Michael Jackson's thriller, Well, you know, 0:12:36.240 --> 0:12:39.280 on human nature. Uh here a fairlight synthesizer. But what 0:12:39.320 --> 0:12:41.400 do you think that was the eighty two module or 0:12:41.480 --> 0:12:49.480 the yeah that's using that class. It got scary for 0:12:49.520 --> 0:12:55.240 a minute. But um, what what I specifically taught about was, um, 0:12:55.320 --> 0:12:58.880 the departure record. I'm really I'm really obsessed with the 0:12:58.920 --> 0:13:02.520 idea of self sap tajing Um. There's a movie that 0:13:02.600 --> 0:13:08.880 came out by comedian Mike Rabiglia called Don't Think Twice 0:13:09.760 --> 0:13:15.640 and actually, um coming up the follow up to Whiplash 0:13:15.760 --> 0:13:19.200 is the film called uh Land of La La with 0:13:20.520 --> 0:13:24.120 Emma Stone La La La La. I'm sorry, I'm getting 0:13:24.120 --> 0:13:27.600 that uh La La lamb with Emma Stone and um 0:13:27.720 --> 0:13:32.120 Ryan Gosling, which sort of uh deals with the same 0:13:33.320 --> 0:13:37.880 uh premise, which is have you seen Don't Think Twice 0:13:37.920 --> 0:13:40.360 or heard about this film? Okay, so Don't Think Twice 0:13:40.480 --> 0:13:47.240 is a film about um a groundlings or uh kind 0:13:47.280 --> 0:13:52.240 of a comedy troupe, um you CBS comedy troupe of 0:13:52.280 --> 0:13:55.600 like seven people, um who are really like at the 0:13:55.600 --> 0:13:58.560 top of the game with improv and then one day 0:13:59.520 --> 0:14:04.480 a Steve Higgins figure comes in and changes one of 0:14:04.520 --> 0:14:08.400 their lives by offering them a spot on an smlish 0:14:09.160 --> 0:14:15.600 type of platform. And uh, one of them, one of 0:14:15.640 --> 0:14:19.240 the seven that have been tightened it forever will clearly 0:14:19.400 --> 0:14:23.680 be a star. Um. And of the seven, you know, 0:14:23.760 --> 0:14:29.920 it's like it's how they deal with the idea of 0:14:29.960 --> 0:14:35.920 again separation and and it's it's just an amazing two 0:14:35.960 --> 0:14:39.560 hour exercise and self sabotage. So how it relates to 0:14:39.600 --> 0:14:45.080 the class that I teach uh, I teach about departure albums? Uh? 0:14:45.120 --> 0:14:49.360 In other words, Uh okay, So the Beatles got tired 0:14:49.360 --> 0:14:51.880 of being the Beatles. They got tired of playing in 0:14:52.160 --> 0:14:54.600 stadiums in which they couldn't hear themselves of the screaming 0:14:54.600 --> 0:14:57.480 and yeah, yeah, you know the story. Assuming that you're 0:14:57.480 --> 0:15:01.760 in love, love love, assuming that you're listeners are on 0:15:01.920 --> 0:15:07.920 your i Q level. Um okay, So they get a 0:15:07.920 --> 0:15:10.080 SHA stadium. After that they pack it in right then 0:15:10.120 --> 0:15:12.480 they decide we're tired of being the Beatles, so let's 0:15:12.520 --> 0:15:16.440 just make uh you know, a psychedelic record and Tim 0:15:16.480 --> 0:15:20.720 Panaley references and and we'll stop being the Beatles. And 0:15:20.760 --> 0:15:23.720 then it backfires. It really makes them like the greatest 0:15:24.800 --> 0:15:28.640 band of all time. So speaking of Sergeant Peppers, that's 0:15:28.640 --> 0:15:34.680 an example, or the opposite is sly Stone, whom uh 0:15:34.800 --> 0:15:39.760 after having a massive like one single, hits off of 0:15:39.800 --> 0:15:44.520 his records, finally hits jackpot in uh n nine with 0:15:44.600 --> 0:15:47.800 the stand album and then a very you know uh 0:15:48.000 --> 0:15:54.360 uh uh a victorious uh uh run at at Woodstock 0:15:55.240 --> 0:15:59.480 uh leaves his audience like just you know, begging for more. 0:15:59.560 --> 0:16:02.200 In whatever is follow up records is going to be like, 0:16:02.280 --> 0:16:04.880 you know, it's it's the ultimate alley you set up 0:16:04.920 --> 0:16:08.080 someone just shot of alley you and all he has 0:16:08.080 --> 0:16:10.520 to do is run to the to the rim and 0:16:10.640 --> 0:16:13.560 dunk it. And what does he do? He makes one 0:16:13.560 --> 0:16:20.120 of the most depressing let's go get that what is 0:16:20.200 --> 0:16:22.840 that's called there's a riot going on? Now? The thing 0:16:22.960 --> 0:16:27.440 is that, yeah, family affair. Here's the thing, there's a 0:16:27.560 --> 0:16:31.400 riot going on. Leaves a lot of people in conflict 0:16:31.680 --> 0:16:38.560 because it's essentially the first funk record. But what I 0:16:38.640 --> 0:16:40.920 try to explain to the class is the equivalent of 0:16:41.000 --> 0:16:45.040 you know, how like your first okay, not for you personally, 0:16:45.080 --> 0:16:48.600 but how a person in two thousand and six, how 0:16:48.640 --> 0:16:51.640 their first instinct will be to pull out their cell phone. 0:16:52.000 --> 0:16:55.760 If a car accident happens, they pull out their cell phone. Oh, 0:16:55.880 --> 0:16:58.840 fight happens, I'm gonna pull out my cell phone to 0:16:58.920 --> 0:17:01.800 watch it. What there's the right going on is is 0:17:01.960 --> 0:17:05.879 really you're you're watching in real time a human being 0:17:05.960 --> 0:17:13.400 having a meltdown on wax and it's it is It's like, 0:17:13.760 --> 0:17:15.920 do you know personally, why was he melting down? Well, 0:17:16.720 --> 0:17:22.160 that's the thing. There's there's survivor's guilt that people don't 0:17:22.200 --> 0:17:25.800 talk about, especially with black people. The idea of like 0:17:25.840 --> 0:17:27.680 you reference in the article where you say the thirty 0:17:27.720 --> 0:17:29.560 three kids and this one's dead, this one's in jail, 0:17:29.600 --> 0:17:32.040 this one's bright and you made it dude, survivor's guilt. 0:17:32.280 --> 0:17:35.880 Survivor's guilt is real. Where is he from. He's from 0:17:36.359 --> 0:17:39.600 the Bay Area, Oakland. So I mean there's the pressure 0:17:39.840 --> 0:17:45.360 of staying true, staying true to yourself, not not selling out. Uh, 0:17:45.440 --> 0:17:50.080 the just the pressure of having to now deal with 0:17:50.280 --> 0:17:52.359 be careful. You know, you here all the time, be 0:17:52.440 --> 0:17:56.760 careful what you asked for. And I feel as though 0:17:57.320 --> 0:18:01.960 in those two years of of the pressure of now, 0:18:02.080 --> 0:18:04.399 I have to live up to the expectation and the 0:18:04.440 --> 0:18:08.520 brilliance that people expect of me. And what does he do? He? 0:18:10.040 --> 0:18:12.600 I mean, Slim and Family Stone was in the age 0:18:12.600 --> 0:18:15.960 of Martin Luther King, the the utopian dream. It was 0:18:16.400 --> 0:18:19.000 a group of black and white musicians, a male and 0:18:19.040 --> 0:18:22.399 female musicians. I mean, it was the utopian post idea 0:18:22.440 --> 0:18:25.919 of what Martin Luther King's dreams should have been. And 0:18:26.680 --> 0:18:31.760 he just piste on the legacy. In turn, he also 0:18:31.800 --> 0:18:34.600 gave us funk music. I mean, you know, historians will 0:18:34.640 --> 0:18:36.840 be like, you know, it's the first time a drum 0:18:36.840 --> 0:18:39.479 machine was used, and it's the first time, you know, 0:18:39.600 --> 0:18:41.600 the e cord was used on a on a base 0:18:41.640 --> 0:18:44.320 for funk reasons. So it's like, what's the big hit 0:18:44.400 --> 0:18:46.359 that comes out before this album? What's he riding the 0:18:46.359 --> 0:18:50.639 wave on? What song? Uh? The the hit before was? Uh? 0:18:50.880 --> 0:18:53.840 I mean the album before was stand Now. To sort 0:18:53.840 --> 0:18:58.639 of stall for time, Epic Records put out the Greatest 0:18:58.720 --> 0:19:02.119 Hits Album and put three other songs that weren't associated 0:19:02.200 --> 0:19:05.439 so thank you for myself, thank you for letting me 0:19:05.440 --> 0:19:11.000 be myself hot fun this summertime. Everybody's like, even even 0:19:11.000 --> 0:19:14.359 the Throwaway singers were like, yes, we're waiting, we're waiting 0:19:14.359 --> 0:19:17.320 for this big statement and he pisses all over it. 0:19:17.800 --> 0:19:21.040 But you know it's the same for you know, Michael 0:19:21.119 --> 0:19:25.520 Jackson wanting to escape the family and be his own 0:19:25.560 --> 0:19:28.200 man Like. Making Off the Wall was a departure record. 0:19:28.320 --> 0:19:32.280 The Beastie Boys not wanting to be known as these 0:19:32.320 --> 0:19:36.560 these party frat guys and want to make a serious, 0:19:36.720 --> 0:19:41.080 uh piece of art with Paul's boutique, the follow up 0:19:41.160 --> 0:19:44.199 to License to Ill. So what I basically do is 0:19:44.240 --> 0:19:51.080 I take eight or nine records of departure records. Some 0:19:51.240 --> 0:19:53.760 of them they were all made with the premise of 0:19:53.920 --> 0:19:56.320 I need to throw away and run away from what 0:19:56.359 --> 0:19:59.320 I once was. Some of them made a more successful 0:19:59.400 --> 0:20:02.720 all the be Les. Uh. Some of them were complete bust. 0:20:02.800 --> 0:20:07.280 I mean, there's the jury still out on Satanic Majesty's 0:20:07.320 --> 0:20:12.480 request by the Stones, but you know it's it's you know, 0:20:12.600 --> 0:20:15.359 it's it's it's the Stones were never gonna get Beatles love, 0:20:15.400 --> 0:20:18.320 and they know it well. They tried. I mean, you know, 0:20:18.320 --> 0:20:19.760 I have to give it to them. They tried. So 0:20:20.080 --> 0:20:27.560 it's really it's really just about examining the psychological process 0:20:27.800 --> 0:20:31.040 of of making music and why we run away from 0:20:31.080 --> 0:20:34.240 success or the idea of doing it. Did you wait, 0:20:34.320 --> 0:20:35.800 let me ask you, because this is the first did 0:20:35.840 --> 0:20:38.840 you did you run away from success? Um? Okay? So 0:20:38.880 --> 0:20:45.520 the Roots were everyone's favorite underground secret, Like you know, 0:20:45.560 --> 0:20:48.119 that's if you ever meet a music snob and there's 0:20:48.200 --> 0:20:51.960 like that that one thing that you know, there's the 0:20:52.000 --> 0:20:54.080 band that they know about that you don't know about, 0:20:54.160 --> 0:20:56.879 and that makes them cooler than you, and then suddenly 0:20:56.960 --> 0:20:59.320 you discover it, and then everyone discovers it, and then 0:20:59.320 --> 0:21:02.000 it's suddenly it's like, uh, like everyone has my toy 0:21:02.080 --> 0:21:06.320 now in the pool. Yeah, we were that for a 0:21:06.400 --> 0:21:10.600 lot of people, and then with our fourth record, suddenly 0:21:10.800 --> 0:21:15.000 we hit jack pop because we realized what the formula 0:21:15.240 --> 0:21:22.240 was to not to monetize, but to to two gain acceptance. 0:21:22.280 --> 0:21:25.320 We realized what the formula was, but acceptance with what 0:21:26.000 --> 0:21:28.359 you It says, it seems to me you wanted acceptance 0:21:28.440 --> 0:21:31.600 with something else, meaning something tells me, because you're so 0:21:32.200 --> 0:21:35.639 acute about music, you didn't have a number one single. 0:21:36.040 --> 0:21:37.600 This is what you're gonna learn about me? And you 0:21:37.640 --> 0:21:40.239 could and you could have sat down and something tells me, 0:21:40.280 --> 0:21:41.960 and I'm not saying this to be kind, you could 0:21:41.960 --> 0:21:44.320 write a number one single in the car on the 0:21:44.320 --> 0:21:46.320 way to the office right now when you leave here, 0:21:46.720 --> 0:21:51.520 and you didn't do that because fear fear. This is 0:21:51.560 --> 0:21:57.760 what happens. Okay. So when we started in UM, the 0:21:57.960 --> 0:22:02.080 idea of the roots, the idea of we would be 0:22:02.080 --> 0:22:05.120 pegged into alternative hip hop. Now, when we first came out, 0:22:05.160 --> 0:22:08.080 they were like or they asked jazz. It was like, basically, 0:22:08.119 --> 0:22:11.760 if you weren't, if you weren't holding your middle finger 0:22:11.800 --> 0:22:14.880 out to the camera, you know, saying singing straight out 0:22:14.880 --> 0:22:18.600 of Compton, if you weren't in way, you weren't the 0:22:18.680 --> 0:22:23.600 status quo of what people perceived to be as hip hop. UM. 0:22:23.960 --> 0:22:26.399 But again, like for people that are not immersed in 0:22:26.480 --> 0:22:28.679 hip hop culture and when they just turn the channel 0:22:29.160 --> 0:22:31.239 and just see no no bitches, no no, no, no no, 0:22:31.240 --> 0:22:33.480 no no, then they just think, oh, that's all it 0:22:33.640 --> 0:22:36.520 is UM, which it isn't. Like hip hop is a 0:22:36.560 --> 0:22:39.560 wide array of art and it just so happens that 0:22:39.640 --> 0:22:44.000 the five percent that catches on is what's in embroidered 0:22:44.119 --> 0:22:48.440 people's minds as what it is, but emotionally violent, that's 0:22:48.440 --> 0:22:50.200 what they think it is. But it's so much more 0:22:50.240 --> 0:22:55.080 than it is. So I came into uh metaphorically speaking, 0:22:55.119 --> 0:22:58.280 we got to the train platform as the first wave 0:22:58.520 --> 0:23:02.639 of alternative hip hop. Uh train was leaving, you know, 0:23:02.680 --> 0:23:04.320 like when you run for the train and the doors 0:23:04.359 --> 0:23:06.720 closed and you see the train leaving, you have to 0:23:06.720 --> 0:23:08.800 wait for another twelve minutes for the next train to come. 0:23:09.400 --> 0:23:12.960 That was the roots. The first train was the Jungle Brothers, 0:23:13.040 --> 0:23:17.280 a tripolic quest de las soul. Uh. It kind of 0:23:17.960 --> 0:23:22.199 uh ended with arrested development like a ninety one, like 0:23:22.240 --> 0:23:24.640 they won like four Grammys. They were the darlings of 0:23:25.119 --> 0:23:28.479 you know, finally hip hop as in art, like you know, 0:23:28.560 --> 0:23:34.120 people were were exclaiming that like our new savers, and 0:23:34.200 --> 0:23:39.280 then the backlash happened, like imagine that being the Obama era, 0:23:39.800 --> 0:23:42.800 like finally a new beginning. And then suddenly the next 0:23:42.840 --> 0:23:45.600 train comes in and the night Dr Dre and Snoop 0:23:45.640 --> 0:23:48.679 Dogg coming in with guns and bitches and ship and 0:23:48.720 --> 0:23:50.840 people like, no, this is what we want. So imagine 0:23:50.840 --> 0:23:54.120 this election, like how can we go twelve steps back? 0:23:54.320 --> 0:23:57.800 And that was the mentality, and so we had to 0:23:57.840 --> 0:24:02.240 wait it out and waited out and literally embraced for 0:24:02.280 --> 0:24:05.640 it's a tsunami. We just said we're gonna, Paul Hendricks, 0:24:05.800 --> 0:24:09.160 We're gonna leave America. We're gonna move to London as 0:24:09.200 --> 0:24:14.800 a hub, find refuge in in in London. Uh, get 0:24:14.800 --> 0:24:18.240 our musicianship together, get our show together, get our songwriting together, 0:24:18.280 --> 0:24:22.480 get our production. Uh. We got a record deal in 0:24:22.600 --> 0:24:31.160 ninety two. We exiled in Um three years when three 0:24:31.240 --> 0:24:33.800 years you live we were on. We were on Geffin Records, 0:24:34.920 --> 0:24:42.359 and In Records had so much money, Guns and Roses, Nirvana, Uh, 0:24:42.400 --> 0:24:46.280 Aaron Smith. They made so much money that Geffen was like, Yo, 0:24:46.400 --> 0:24:49.359 let's start a black music department where rock label. We 0:24:49.400 --> 0:24:51.800 have no black acts, and you know we want to 0:24:51.880 --> 0:24:56.639 cash in on on you know, the craze and so 0:24:57.600 --> 0:25:02.280 name you just stayed ge Well, I mean there was 0:25:02.280 --> 0:25:06.960 a d G C. But um, we were basically kind 0:25:07.000 --> 0:25:10.800 of their guinea pig experiment. Um. They were like, you know, 0:25:10.840 --> 0:25:13.880 we'll we'll build the staff eventually, but for now, look 0:25:13.960 --> 0:25:18.920 just keep the receipts. Here's the credit card. Like that's 0:25:18.960 --> 0:25:21.639 what we did. And then, um, anybody married back then 0:25:21.640 --> 0:25:23.280 with kids that they had to pull over there or no, 0:25:23.560 --> 0:25:26.320 everybody was single. No, we were all single, were all 0:25:26.359 --> 0:25:28.840 out of high school and college and everything. And so 0:25:28.920 --> 0:25:33.600 what winds up happening was when we first signed, Aerosmith announced, well, 0:25:33.600 --> 0:25:36.639 we're gonna leave Geffen. Remember Pump came out and it 0:25:36.680 --> 0:25:38.639 was like really big seller. So they went back to 0:25:39.040 --> 0:25:41.919 Sony and so I was like, all right, whatever. And 0:25:41.960 --> 0:25:44.840 then a little bit later it was kind of obviously 0:25:44.840 --> 0:25:46.919 like Guns and Roses was not going to have a 0:25:46.960 --> 0:25:50.000 follow up to use your loosen one and two, and 0:25:51.240 --> 0:25:53.240 I mean they had an ep of the spaghetti incidence, 0:25:53.280 --> 0:25:56.359 but that really didn't make any noise. And so Guns 0:25:56.400 --> 0:25:59.399 and Roses wasn't there to have a fill up record 0:25:59.440 --> 0:26:03.639 to make the more millions. And then Nirvana came and 0:26:04.000 --> 0:26:09.000 you know, just changed everything and make gazillions. So then 0:26:09.000 --> 0:26:17.520 when April comes and Kurt Cobain makes his exodus, my 0:26:17.720 --> 0:26:21.879 manager called me at one in the afternoon and said, 0:26:22.920 --> 0:26:25.840