Speaker 1: Quest Love Show is a production of iHeart Radio.
Speaker 2: All right, people, You know I can't have this moniker,
Speaker 2: this name Questlove and not display my mastery of what
Speaker 2: it is that I really really do. And you know,
Speaker 2: I know, I'm all things to all people. But at
Speaker 2: the end of the day, I'm a curator.
Speaker 1: I'm a pruner.
Speaker 2: I'm a farmer of music at heart, meaning having grown
Speaker 2: up in a household with three thousand records, currently owning
Speaker 2: two hundred thousand records. I will say that I believe
Speaker 2: that I know a finger or two around the kitchen,
Speaker 2: if you will, when it comes to curating music. And
Speaker 2: of course there are various times out the year where
Speaker 2: a lot of my friends will tap me to make
Speaker 2: them a mixtape right quick. Thanksgiving I'm always asked to
Speaker 2: put together to four hour Thanksgiving mix, which is harder
Speaker 2: than you think because you want something that fills the
Speaker 2: room with music, but you don't want it too wordy.
Speaker 2: So often, for like dinner requests, I do instrumental jazz,
Speaker 2: but like vibrant because you know, if you play something
Speaker 2: too mellow, then that'll bring the mood down. Of course
Speaker 2: I'll get the birthday request or you know, the office
Speaker 2: party request, or some of my chef friends will have
Speaker 2: a opening and need a five hour playlist. And you know,
Speaker 2: I do playlists like most people do the New York
Speaker 2: Times puzzles, like I just I got to challenge myself
Speaker 2: to discover new songs. But I will say that February
Speaker 2: fourteenth of every year of my life is probably the busiest.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: Back when I was in the do you want more
Speaker 2: elodelf Half Life Days, yeah, I would make customize mixtapes,
Speaker 2: meaning individual cassettes specifically for that person and make a
Speaker 2: pretty penny doing it.
Speaker 1: Nowadays, I just I want to share the love and
Speaker 1: share the joy.
Speaker 2: So Valentine's Days represents two types of playlists for me,
Speaker 2: playlist of people in love and play list for people
Speaker 2: who are depressed.
Speaker 1: Because they lost love. And the thing is with slow jams.
Speaker 2: I find that when I do these two playlists, oftentimes
Speaker 2: the depressing playlist is the most popular one. Matter of fact,
Speaker 2: my most high file client couple, the female half of this,
Speaker 2: has gotten word back to me that the breakup Heartbreak
Speaker 2: one is our favorite because that has the most jams
Speaker 2: on it. So, you know, toxic love and us just
Speaker 2: mixing it up. That's nothing new spoiler alert. When I
Speaker 2: do the Earth Wind and Fire podcast, Philip Bailey, in
Speaker 2: a very humorous way, breaks down the song Reasons because
Speaker 2: a lot of us.
Speaker 1: Are like, oh, that's my song, that's my song, and.
Speaker 2: Reasons is about an affair like earth Wind and Fire
Speaker 2: famously turned down two million dollars to play Reasons at
Speaker 2: a wedding, only because Philip Bailey had to tell the
Speaker 2: bride and groom like, dude, you do not want your
Speaker 2: wedding to be ruined by a song about a couple
Speaker 2: cheating on each other. So I know that we tend
Speaker 2: to make toxic songs about affairs like Whitney Houston saving
Speaker 2: All My Love for You, or Sweet Thing by Rufus
Speaker 2: and Chaka Khan, or even Reasons by Earth Went and Fire.
Speaker 1: Those are our jams.
Speaker 2: But I decided to make two playlists, like one that's
Speaker 2: sort of affirmational love, real true love, and the other
Speaker 2: is the toxic breakup love, the sad love, the songs
Speaker 2: that you want to cry to.
Speaker 1: Because we like being melodramatic.
Speaker 2: So usually when I make a playlist, I start with
Speaker 2: either an interlude or in this case, a poem.
Speaker 1: One of my proudest moments.
Speaker 2: Is helping singer Cody Chestnut get to the limelight for
Speaker 2: that brief period in two thousand and two when he
Speaker 2: did The Seed two point zero with the Roots. But
Speaker 2: he had a brilliant, brilliant, kind of do it yourself
Speaker 2: record called The Headphone Masterpiece, and he opens that record
Speaker 2: with a poem by poet artist Sonya Marie, and it's
Speaker 2: called with Me and Mind and I don't know Man.
Speaker 2: With Me and Mind is almost like as many times
Speaker 2: as an artist tries to emulate the sexiness that Prince
Speaker 2: represented back in his early eighties, Heyday, look up with
Speaker 2: Me and Mind by Cody Chestnut and Sonya Marie and
Speaker 2: Chestnut by the Ways with two t's h E S
Speaker 2: n U T T all Right Cody Chestnut and Sonya
Speaker 2: Marie with Me and Mind. Another song that I love
Speaker 2: is uh, you know, I'm always in Michelle and Deoceella's ear.
Speaker 2: One of her most brilliant projects she's ever done is
Speaker 2: the Grammy nominated album Van Triloquism, which I know is
Speaker 2: nominated for a Grammy.
Speaker 1: I don't know if it won.
Speaker 2: I know she recently won a Grammy, but I think
Speaker 2: this one was just nominated and what it is is
Speaker 2: it's like an interpretation of songs that we've known and love,
Speaker 2: and she does puts her little twist on it. And
Speaker 2: I told her, I was like, Yo, you need to
Speaker 2: do part two of Van Triloquism, and I think it's
Speaker 2: only right that you take your song back. And for
Speaker 2: people that don't know what I mean, if you are
Speaker 2: a lover of Brian McKnight's song anytime.
Speaker 1: Do I well show my anytime?
Speaker 2: You know that song is essentially just outside your Door
Speaker 2: by Michelle and Diguelo Cello. And it senses me that
Speaker 2: people don't know it's the original. And for me, I'm like, yo, Michelle,
Speaker 2: when you do Ventriloquism Part two, your collection of cover songs,
Speaker 2: you should redo anytime Brian McKnight as outside your Door
Speaker 2: to let him know. Yeah, I see what you did.
Speaker 2: Like you know, I love when an artist takes the
Speaker 2: high road. Artists being reltigious to each other is not
Speaker 2: my favorite thing, but you know, sometimes you got to
Speaker 2: call out a bite. I don't care how classic the
Speaker 2: song is, so outside your Door by Michelle and Decocello.
Speaker 2: And I also appreciate the fact that she did not
Speaker 2: rhyme the words waiting anticipating.
Speaker 1: Which every R and B artist does anyway.
Speaker 2: Next up, think of al Green's many classics, Simply Beautiful
Speaker 2: is probably his most loved, quiet, intimate song. That's him
Speaker 2: playing guitar on it. I didn't know he was playing
Speaker 2: acoustic guitar.
Speaker 1: Who knew?
Speaker 2: But simply Beautiful by al Green expresses love and intimacy
Speaker 2: and quietness, and it's feeling like if you really want
Speaker 2: to know what a soul ballot should sound like and
Speaker 2: feel like it shows sensitivity, it shows kind of a
Speaker 2: there's just some really human about that song. So simply
Speaker 2: Beautiful by Algreen be my third song. My fourth song
Speaker 2: is Sensuality by the Isisley Brothers. You know Isley Brothers
Speaker 2: are notorious for putting some of the best slow jams
Speaker 2: on side two of their records. I remember one person
Speaker 2: asked me once like, well, how did they make slow
Speaker 2: jams in the seventies if, like cassette tapes weren't prominent.
Speaker 1: Good question.
Speaker 2: If you were the household that had half inch reels,
Speaker 2: like if you were what they call a gear head,
Speaker 2: meaning if you had a high end high five stereo
Speaker 2: with tubes vacuum tubing like really good, like the good
Speaker 2: System for nineteen seventy three or seventy four or seventy
Speaker 2: six or whatever year. In this seventies, nine times out
Speaker 2: of ten, you also had to purchase a half inch reel,
Speaker 2: which is basically an adult cassette. They invented a cassette
Speaker 2: to get rid of the reels, So I mean, the
Speaker 2: tape is the same, but you would have to take
Speaker 2: this giant reel and hook it up and it would
Speaker 2: allow you to have anywhere between a half hour to
Speaker 2: an hour's worth.
Speaker 1: Of music on these tapes.
Speaker 2: And if your parents were the house party type, you know,
Speaker 2: this was their version of the playlist of streaming. So
Speaker 2: you know, nowadays people hit me up, yo, just stream
Speaker 2: some music so I can play it for an hour
Speaker 2: and then you hook it up to your Bluetooth speakers.
Speaker 2: While I well, back in the seventies, yeah, I had
Speaker 2: to watch my dad like take tape and rail the
Speaker 2: real tape and play his favorite song and wait for
Speaker 2: the ending. And in order for us to have an
Speaker 2: hour worth of music enjoyment, Dad would almost have to
Speaker 2: do this like three to four hour process. So yeah,
Speaker 2: Sensuality by the AlSi Brothers is one of those songs
Speaker 2: that were always a mainstay on my dad's tapes. Fun
Speaker 2: fact for you Soul Aquarium fans. When James Poyser and
Speaker 2: I worked on Balau's Queen of Sanity, we literally I
Speaker 2: remember putting Sensuality on. We went to my record room
Speaker 2: in Philly, played it twice and did the same thing.
Speaker 2: James used the moods that Chris Jasper use, and a
Speaker 2: lot of times when I'm playing drums and a seventy
Speaker 2: soul reference, I will morph or shape shift into Ernie Eisley,
Speaker 2: primarily known for guitar playing, but Ernie Eisley also played
Speaker 2: drums on most of the Isley Brothers songs in their
Speaker 2: seventies heydays. So all those roles like in Fight the Power,
Speaker 2: just you know those roles, that's an Ernie Isley role.
Speaker 2: But in Sensuality, his tom tom work, he would have
Speaker 2: no high hats in it and he would just hit
Speaker 2: these tom times like they were like boulders rolling down
Speaker 2: the hill and it's quiet. I emulated that for Queen
Speaker 2: of Sanity for Balau. So shout out to drummer Ernie Isley.
Speaker 2: Number five is a group from the seventies called Brainstorm
Speaker 2: some of you may not be familiar with them. I
Speaker 2: know that at one point they were based out of Detroit, Michigan,
Speaker 2: that much I do know. I know that they were
Speaker 2: on Taboo Records. Shout out to Clarence Avon. I think
Speaker 2: they were one of his first clients. Singer Ella Woods
Speaker 2: her vocal on it. Also there's a male singer. I
Speaker 2: don't know if it's a professor R. J. Ross or
Speaker 2: if it's Lamont Johnson, I'm not certain. But also if
Speaker 2: you're a fan of George Michael's work with whim dion Estes,
Speaker 2: he had a song called Heaven Helped Me, like in
Speaker 2: eighty eight, but he first started out playing with Brainstorm,
Speaker 2: and they had what we would call a quiet Storm
Speaker 2: staple of a song, and that song was called this
Speaker 2: Must be Heaven, and so pretty much just in the
Speaker 2: late seventies, that song was a mainstay on quiet Storm,
Speaker 2: Black Radio and escapable and it still works to this day.
Speaker 2: Like most people gravitates towards the floaters float on, you know,
Speaker 2: because they liked the whole introduction of the band and
Speaker 2: the zodiac signs. But no, This Must Be Heaven is
Speaker 2: to me quintessential seventies kind of just atmospheric, beautiful soul.
Speaker 1: Ballads that are unsung.
Speaker 2: Number six, I will say is by one of my
Speaker 2: favorite singers, Minnie Julia Ripperton aka.
Speaker 1: Maya Rudolph's mama.
Speaker 2: Of course, Minnie Ripperton had a cult classic of a
Speaker 2: group called the Rotary Connection on Chess Records, produced by
Speaker 2: Charles Stephanie, who, of course will also get behind the
Speaker 2: boards for Earth.
Speaker 1: Wind and Fire.
Speaker 2: And you know, Stevie Wonder was such a fan that
Speaker 2: I believe Maya Rudolph told us on the very first
Speaker 2: quest of Supreme that his way of introducing himself to
Speaker 2: Minnie Ripperton was stopping by Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles to
Speaker 2: get a bucket of chicken and no pun intended blind
Speaker 2: knocking on her door. Hi, I'm Stevie Wonder, and instead
Speaker 2: of a bouquet, he gave her a bucket of fried
Speaker 2: chickens like I love your voice and any who. He
Speaker 2: wanted to produce Mini Rippleton, and Motown blocked this order.
Speaker 2: I don't know how that happened, but yes, Motown blocked
Speaker 2: him producing Mini Ripleton, but he did it anyway. So
Speaker 2: I believe that the album which is called Perfect Angel
Speaker 2: is produced by a figure called El Toro negro, which
Speaker 2: means the black bull, which means someone born May thirteenth,
Speaker 2: which means that they are a tarus, which means that
Speaker 2: was Steve Lamb Marris doing the production duties.
Speaker 1: So Loving You.
Speaker 2: One of the greatest songs that I believe Stevie Wonder
Speaker 2: has ever written for someone besides himself. By the way,
Speaker 2: for you hardcore fans out there, look up the reissue
Speaker 2: of the Perfect Angel album and there's an alternate version
Speaker 2: of Loving You in which Stevie has like a full
Speaker 2: fledged rhythm section on there. Of course, the version we
Speaker 2: all know in Love is just stripped down to just
Speaker 2: Rhodes and synth and birds, which makes it more.
Speaker 1: Intimate and sexy.
Speaker 2: And then there's the version where it's kind of like
Speaker 2: a slow Latin groove.
Speaker 1: But it's very, very interesting.
Speaker 2: So the deal is Isaac Hayes, who probably the two
Speaker 2: things that he did to push the needle or the
Speaker 2: envelope for it as far as music creativity in the
Speaker 2: seventies is number one, adding orchestration to his work. Of course,
Speaker 2: then Barry White will follow suit, and then my guys
Speaker 2: Gamble and Huff for Philadelphia will take it even further
Speaker 2: by having lush orchestrations in their work. But really, I mean,
Speaker 2: I will say that Isaac Hayes is really the true
Speaker 2: pioneer of giving a lot of space and the agency
Speaker 2: to his orchestral arrangements on top of these like soulful
Speaker 2: rhythmic sections, and I will say that probably of these songs, oh,
Speaker 2: I'm sorry. The second aspect besides your orchestration is his
Speaker 2: ability to stretch a song. Once the album format was
Speaker 2: the epicenter of how music was delivered before nineteen sixty.
Speaker 1: Seven, it was about forty fives.
Speaker 2: And then when Sergeant Pepper's came out by the Beatles
Speaker 2: and Sully, that made the album important. Like suddenly there's
Speaker 2: things like liner notes and gatefolds, and you know, an
Speaker 2: album could be a piece of art, not just disc
Speaker 2: with your three hits and a bunch of cover songs,
Speaker 2: like it'd be conceptual and all those things. So by
Speaker 2: the time Isaaca's made the Black Moses album, he was
Speaker 2: turning like his slow jams. Typical time would be somewhere
Speaker 2: between twelve to nineteen minutes, almost an entire side of
Speaker 2: an album, which you know, long slow jams. Oh Jesus
Speaker 2: Christ so he would have a motif on all these
Speaker 2: albums called Ike's Rap, and this sort of starts the blueprint.
Speaker 2: This is the blueprint of which you know when you
Speaker 2: hear those like slow jams and someone has to talk,
Speaker 2: Hey baby, Barry White does it well? Like Barry White
Speaker 2: and Isaac CAA's were like neck and neck as far
Speaker 2: as they are execution these these new untested ideas. But
Speaker 2: in terms of timing, Isaac Cay's was the first, and
Speaker 2: the reason why they're called Ike's Rap is like he'll
Speaker 2: usually the first three to four minutes, sometimes five minutes,
Speaker 2: he'll just start off with a monologue where it's like
Speaker 2: a one way conversation where he's talking to his woman
Speaker 2: on the phone or he's just on a couch, Like
Speaker 2: you hear him preparing the wine, you hear the champagne popping,
Speaker 2: and you hear him serving a glass, and like it
Speaker 2: feels like you're actually like it's like a reality show,
Speaker 2: like you're inside of his living room as he's talking
Speaker 2: to his lady. And for me, one of his best
Speaker 2: Ikes rap, I believe there's like six all together, but
Speaker 2: my favorite Ikes Rap wasn't Part three, which is called
Speaker 2: Your Love is So Dog Going Good.
Speaker 1: It's a nine minute just.
Speaker 2: Masterstroke of quiet storm genius. So Ike's wrap three. Your
Speaker 2: Love Is So Dog Go Good is my seventh choice.
Speaker 2: My eighth choice is a band that was produced by
Speaker 2: the grandfather of my longtime tour manager. Tina Farris has
Speaker 2: been tour manager of the Roots for twenty five years.
Speaker 2: We've known her for thirty back when she was a
Speaker 2: student at She was just a student at UCLA and
Speaker 2: we were just a band playing at UCLA, and we
Speaker 2: met her after the show, became friends with her, and
Speaker 2: then five years later she came to see us perform
Speaker 2: in Paris and she knew I speak a little French,
Speaker 2: and you know, she would get around and next thing
Speaker 2: I know, we were asking her to be our tour manager.
Speaker 2: And she's kind of the go to person. But her
Speaker 2: grandfather is the legendary Harvey Fucoa who of course started
Speaker 2: off in the legendary Duke wop group called Harvey and
Speaker 2: the Moon Close.
Speaker 1: He most famously.
Speaker 2: Took the Tito the Tito Jackson of the Moon Close,
Speaker 2: a young man named Marvin Pence Gay to Motown and
Speaker 2: the rest is history. Harvey also co produced He was
Speaker 2: like a father figure of Mark and so he also
Speaker 2: helped work on the What's Going On album, also helped
Speaker 2: write Sexual Healing. But Harvey also produced this band called
Speaker 2: The New Birth, to whom they were also.
Speaker 1: Doubled as a band called The Night Lighters.
Speaker 2: There are so many unsung classics that this band has,
Speaker 2: and again from Detroit, Michigan, one of their best songs
Speaker 2: is It's been a long Time. If you're a fan
Speaker 2: of Doctor Dre's work with the World Class Record Crew,
Speaker 2: the first time we heard Doctor Dre's work, at least
Speaker 2: on a national level a song called turn Off the
Speaker 2: Lights where he gets Michelle Aid to sing the hook
Speaker 2: but the music backdrop has been a long time. And yeah,
Speaker 2: basically that song is an absolute, absolute, absolute must have.
Speaker 2: Singer Leslee Wilson sings that song like his life depends
Speaker 2: on it.
Speaker 1: One of the main.
Speaker 2: Regrets I have in life is Leslie just passed away
Speaker 2: shortly before Christmas of last year.
Speaker 1: I think he died in October.
Speaker 2: But he sings that song like it's just you just
Speaker 2: want to experience, like what some of the best ad
Speaker 2: libs singing ever in six minutes of a slow song.
Speaker 2: It's been a long time that's my number eight choice
Speaker 2: for new Birth. For number nine, I say it's Love
Speaker 2: Won't Let Me Wait by Major Harris.
Speaker 1: I remember when the song will come on.
Speaker 2: Major Harris, of course, was a key figure in Philadelphia.
Speaker 2: He started off as a member of the legendary Delphonics,
Speaker 2: and when the band sort of went their separate ways,
Speaker 2: Major Harris into Atlantic Records and release.
Speaker 1: The all time classic love Won't Let Me Wait.
Speaker 2: Many know Luther Vandrosi's cover the song, but for me,
Speaker 2: the two staples of this song that I feel that
Speaker 2: are forever lasting in proper slow jam quiet storm songs.
Speaker 2: First of all, it's kind of the silky tenor saxophone
Speaker 2: that always sounds like it's someone at a real swinky,
Speaker 2: French upscale dinner where you have to wear a tuxedo
Speaker 2: and you ordered the best wine. And you know, like,
Speaker 2: if you listen to the intro, that song like it
Speaker 2: has that this is an adult affair kind of feeling
Speaker 2: to it. And second, and most importantly, this is one
Speaker 2: of the first songs that I believe.
Speaker 1: Kind of captured the sound of.
Speaker 2: A woman having somewhere between a passionate expression and an orgasm.
Speaker 2: If you will so, I remember when the song would
Speaker 2: come on the radio, my parents would always like, just
Speaker 2: lower the volume when.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they would turn that down.
Speaker 2: So but Love Won't Let Me Wait is a song
Speaker 2: that any true collection of Quiet Storm music cannot do without.
Speaker 2: And my last choice for my love songs for love's
Speaker 2: sake is of course, whenever you hear artists talk about
Speaker 2: like who their favorite singer is, any soul singer worth
Speaker 2: their weight and goal will say that Donnie Hathaway is
Speaker 2: their favorite. However, there's a cover which I believe started
Speaker 2: with blood, sweat and tears.
Speaker 1: There's a cover.
Speaker 2: Of I Love You more than You Ever Know that
Speaker 2: he does. That's Live at at the Bitter End. Like
Speaker 2: I know that this song is on his Extensions of
Speaker 2: a Man album, but when he did his live record
Speaker 2: Live at the Bitter End, this was not included on
Speaker 2: the original Donnie Hathaway Live. However, since his passing, they've
Speaker 2: released the outtakes of there's several Donnie Hathaway live performances,
Speaker 2: and not to mention, I believe for that live album
Speaker 2: they recorded three live shows, so I think there might
Speaker 2: be two more live captures of him in concert, of
Speaker 2: which they do a devastating devastating cover of I Love
Speaker 2: You more than you'll ever know. So those are my
Speaker 2: heart filled of love, capturing of the perfect curated love
Speaker 2: songs for your valentine AND's needs. All right, So come
Speaker 2: back and I will have the antidote of that which
Speaker 2: is the heartbreak version.
Speaker 1: All right, thank you,