Speaker 1: Quest Loft Show is a production of iHeart Radio. All right, y'all,
Speaker 1: this is letters to the Quest Love Show again. If
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Speaker 1: build a nation of inform music heads here. Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 1: I like doing this. Give me more questions.
Speaker 2: All right, this is a question from Charlie. Okay, question
Speaker 2: for Questlove. My musical Mount Rushmore is DiAngelo, Prince Stevie
Speaker 2: and Amy Winehouse. Life is a music fan has become
Speaker 2: exponentially less exciting as three of them have passed away,
Speaker 2: and I'm just a fan. I've had to accept that
Speaker 2: and I'll never have an experience like the first time
Speaker 2: I heard Voodoo ever again is somebody who obviously knew
Speaker 2: and collaborated with them. Have you had times when it
Speaker 2: feels like it's not worth it or the same without them?
Speaker 2: Thanks and sorry for being a downer.
Speaker 1: One by one. As the aforementioned three went to the
Speaker 1: next plane, I will say that I probably go through
Speaker 1: a month of sort of pondering what does this mean.
Speaker 1: What happens with me is when someone leaves, there's a
Speaker 1: pressure pointed to me, basically that now you're going to
Speaker 1: have to lead, And you know, it's weird. When Prince passed,
Speaker 1: I was on the phone with DiAngelo. He and I
Speaker 1: were talking for maybe maybe twenty minutes before the CNN
Speaker 1: like CNN happened to be on and we were talking,
Speaker 1: and I believe he asked me. He's like, yo, you
Speaker 1: get worried. Yet We've had a lot of discussions on
Speaker 1: Prince's reactions to his music, and it kind of maybe
Speaker 1: by the top of January twenty fifteen, when you know,
Speaker 1: Black Messiah's like not even a month old. He hit
Speaker 1: me up, Yo, you hear anything. So it was my
Speaker 1: job to test the waters and tell him. You know
Speaker 1: what our peers is saying, like, all right, what does
Speaker 1: she say about the record? What do you say about it?
Speaker 1: But you know, for me, I specifically, I'm sorry I
Speaker 1: would have laughed at this. I have to say the
Speaker 1: arrival of Black Messiah might have been I can speak
Speaker 1: on it now, might have been a little bit too
Speaker 1: much for Prince at the time in his life. Look,
Speaker 1: haven't seen it, and I know I'll never not humble
Speaker 1: brag or being the fortunate whatever. Twenty people to have
Speaker 1: seen the nine hour Book of Prince Doc. But twenty
Speaker 1: fifteen twenty sixteen was like a rough period on Prince mentally.
Speaker 1: So I will say that I sniffed around various band members,
Speaker 1: various peers of his to just be like, yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: shoot the shit and see what's up. And two of them,
Speaker 1: I finally just came out and said, so does he
Speaker 1: do I need to send you on copy of the record?
Speaker 1: Does he have it? You know? And the way they
Speaker 1: looked at each other, I knew there was a mental
Speaker 1: telepic fy thing happened. And I was like, let me
Speaker 1: in and they started laughing. And this is how I
Speaker 1: knew this is the highest honor. You know. I told
Speaker 1: D'Angelo ticket is a high honor. Word was that, you know?
Speaker 1: He refused to He's like, I don't want to. I
Speaker 1: don't want to talk about that record. I don't want
Speaker 1: to listen to it. Which, look, it happens. It happens
Speaker 1: like when I'm creating music, there are certain artists I
Speaker 1: don't want to listen to because I don't want to
Speaker 1: be derivative of it or whatever. But you know, the
Speaker 1: whole point was that when Prince passed, d and I
Speaker 1: probably have one of our longest conversations just about like
Speaker 1: and I try. You know, I was very careful to
Speaker 1: not I know what scares him off, and you know,
Speaker 1: but I would still speak in terms of, like, you know,
Speaker 1: the balls in our court now, like the way that
Speaker 1: you were ten year old or an eight year old
Speaker 1: when Dirty Mind came out and then purple rinting, like
Speaker 1: you were a kid and that built you. There are
Speaker 1: people that are doing that now with Voodoo. That's one
Speaker 1: thing I will say. He was absolutely unaware of the
Speaker 1: Voodoo renaissance. You know, I'd explained to him Pitchfork had
Speaker 1: done a review of the album like ten to fifteen
Speaker 1: years later, and it was so eloquently written that suddenly
Speaker 1: the second round of you know, these Pitchfork based you know,
Speaker 1: D'Angelo fans are coming to the plate, and I feel
Speaker 1: as though that's the you know, because I'll be honest
Speaker 1: with you, the day that we finished mastering the record,
Speaker 1: we took a victory dinner, like literally when the album
Speaker 1: was done. Okay, so the very last day of mastering.
Speaker 1: The night before, we tried to fit There's one more
Speaker 1: song that didn't make the record, called the City, that
Speaker 1: was supposed to come right after Player Player before Devil's
Speaker 1: Pops called the City and we recorded it, mixed it
Speaker 1: the night before. You know, Russ went to go master
Speaker 1: it with Tom Coin, and I took over the studio
Speaker 1: that because it was free ID and Russ permission to
Speaker 1: use that studio. I believe that pass of day La
Speaker 1: Soul wanted me to try to fill in a drum
Speaker 1: break that they couldn't clear for the AOI album. They
Speaker 1: couldn't clear the the ot to Billy Joe break from view.
Speaker 1: So I redid it while the albums get mastered, and
Speaker 1: then Russ came in, like here it is the final sequence,
Speaker 1: and me pass Russ. We listened to Voodoo for the
Speaker 1: first time, and it was weird, like it was over.
Speaker 1: It was like four years of living in this basement
Speaker 1: at an electric lady from like ninety six to now.
Speaker 1: I got a copy of it and I felt victorious.
Speaker 1: So the first thing I did was I went I
Speaker 1: had date night that night, and I remember I went
Speaker 1: to some like soul food restaurant uptown and I told them,
Speaker 1: I'm like, yeah, man, I got I got that new d'
Speaker 1: angelo record and whatever. And they were like, oh okay.
Speaker 1: They put it on and uh, right after player player,
Speaker 1: they like lowered the volume. Then they put on like
Speaker 1: R Kelly, they put like regular R and B. And
Speaker 1: I was telling them like, no, no, no, it's it's the
Speaker 1: entire record. He said, oh, you know, we thought it
Speaker 1: was just one song or whatever. And you know, I'm
Speaker 1: not trying to brag to them, like yo, I'm giving
Speaker 1: you guys gold, like I'm letting you listen to this
Speaker 1: D'Angelo record. But for me, it was like the last
Speaker 1: four years of my life. And I got to tell you, man,
Speaker 1: there were eight people I played the record for and
Speaker 1: they all hated it. My assistant hated it. One of
Speaker 1: the tour managers hated it. I think my manager Rich
Speaker 1: had jokes like you don't even know what the fuck
Speaker 1: he's saying, like where's the single? You know, it's like
Speaker 1: that environment it was. It was. It was two thousand
Speaker 1: and you know, so I kind of had the feeling that, uh,
Speaker 1: I was like, shit, I ruined this guy's career, and
Speaker 1: so I almost felt like I owed it to him
Speaker 1: to see it through by doing the entire tour with him,
Speaker 1: which was not good news in the Roots camp because
Speaker 1: we just want our Grammy and it's like, okay, let's
Speaker 1: cash in the roots. You know, we got momentum, let's
Speaker 1: go on the road. And it's like, oh, by the way,
Speaker 1: I'm going to take all two thousand off and tour
Speaker 1: with this guy, which you know, I've many threat memos
Speaker 1: of yo, man, like what the fuck? You know, that
Speaker 1: sort of thing. But all that's to say is that
Speaker 1: you know I told D, like, you know, we have
Speaker 1: a responsibility now to see the mission through, and now
Speaker 1: that D's not here, I feel that responsibility more than ever. So,
Speaker 1: you know, James myself balal like the fragments that are
Speaker 1: left of the Soul Aquarians. You know, we spoke. The
Speaker 1: family is going to get back together, and you know
Speaker 1: it's it's not a down. Sorry for being like the
Speaker 1: long expansive explanation that this is probably twenty five minute explanation.
Speaker 2: I think you gave Charlie more than they bargain for.
Speaker 1: There you go, I gave you a whole episode. Eric
Speaker 1: got the two parter.
Speaker 2: I'm going to frame it a little differently in twenty
Speaker 2: twenty six, What is your relationship with that site aka
Speaker 2: ok player and why did you stop posting?
Speaker 1: I think the goal for okay Player was always for
Speaker 1: me to take the training wheels off and see it,
Speaker 1: see if it gets staying on its own, see if
Speaker 1: it could last on its own, you know. But it's
Speaker 1: also like we just grow up. And I know a
Speaker 1: lot of the the original vets of that world say that,
Speaker 1: you know, once Twitter came, I abandoned the site, which
Speaker 1: is probably the case, but it wasn't you know, a
Speaker 1: time where I woke up, I'm like, you know, what,
Speaker 1: fuck this site? I don't care. It wasn't that, you know,
Speaker 1: I gave my entire life to that site. Like you
Speaker 1: gotta understand that between nineteen ninety nine and two thousand
Speaker 1: and six, I mean I would dedicate somewhere between two
Speaker 1: on a slow day to sometimes like ten hours every day.
Speaker 1: Like in hindsight, especially in light of the uh the
Speaker 1: kind of black Twitter doc that came out. I mean,
Speaker 1: I still stand on Tinto's when I say that I
Speaker 1: believe that okay Player was the beginning of social media.
Speaker 1: You know, it was really only the roots website for
Speaker 1: a quick Year and then there's something much more than that.
Speaker 1: But you know, I don't. I guess now you can
Speaker 1: say my relationship with Okay Player is because I still
Speaker 1: get you know, artists that come up like, yo, man,
Speaker 1: why y'all say this shit about my record? I guess
Speaker 1: I have Okay Players sort of how like Russell or
Speaker 1: Rick has def GM you know, like whatever the smallest
Speaker 1: steak is, I mean, it's still very much alive. And
Speaker 1: you know, I do know that Okay Africa has definitely
Speaker 1: taken legs of its own and help and spread the
Speaker 1: gospel of like new afrobeat and whatnot.
Speaker 2: But and you did appear on Don Will's Almanac of
Speaker 2: Wrap podcast, which Okay Player produces their recent web win.
Speaker 1: Absolutely yes, shout out to you guys winning. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: grow out of stuff sometimes and I do other things.
Speaker 2: So this is eric second that was actually like a
Speaker 2: two part run to itself.
Speaker 1: But here's the third.
Speaker 2: De Newmont Easier question, what is the likelihood we will
Speaker 2: get liner notes for the next roots album, whether written
Speaker 2: or podcast form.
Speaker 1: We'd love to have them. You know, I've never stop
Speaker 1: informing people, like even if you look at the the
Speaker 1: I mean, the only thing that I don't do is
Speaker 1: as much anymore. Is like the mammoth Mammoth mammoth Instagram posts. Well,
Speaker 1: one there's a character limit. And two, my my publisher
Speaker 1: hates when I give music lessons away for free. It's
Speaker 1: like that could have been in the book. So I
Speaker 1: will say that I know if I don't come with
Speaker 1: liner notes for this next record, you guys will kill me.
Speaker 1: I do know who my audience is, and I know
Speaker 1: that a new roots album isn't just us releasing a
Speaker 1: roots album, but it's it's it's sort of figuring out
Speaker 1: a way to give you guys a feeling. But that said,
Speaker 1: and this is not you know, a preface or any
Speaker 1: or any warning or that sort of thing. You know,
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety nine was also nineteen ninety nine, So I
Speaker 1: want you guys to to understand that. In other words, Okay,
Speaker 1: I'll give you a great example. The Supreme Clientele two
Speaker 1: point zero record. Definitely an older sounding goes face killer,
Speaker 1: Like his voice is going down in texture and tone,
Speaker 1: so kind of that whiny trademark God make it, you know,
Speaker 1: like that's of the past, and we can't penalize him because,
Speaker 1: you know, a fifty six year old sounding goes is
Speaker 1: way different than the twenty six year old one that
Speaker 1: we have, So people also just need to know that
Speaker 1: people grow. But that said, this next Roots album is
Speaker 1: also the first album in which after Things Fall apart,
Speaker 1: like Roots Album sort of became a community project, but
Speaker 1: Things Fall Apart was like, you know, the album that
Speaker 1: I feel as though I had the most time in
Speaker 1: the driver's seat, despite the mini fumbles like shout out
Speaker 1: to Eve getting her retroactive grammy anyway, that said, yeah,
Speaker 1: I will include all the treats that it will take
Speaker 1: for you guys to come back to the yard. But
Speaker 1: that also said, you're talking to a guy that collects
Speaker 1: records like the oxygen he breathes, And that said, I
Speaker 1: know the live album is nothing exciting. I know a
Speaker 1: live album from a group that's been around for thirty
Speaker 1: years is not exciting. But I promise you I treated
Speaker 1: and produced that Roots Live at Blue Note album as
Speaker 1: the hardest musical cynic of all time. And everything I
Speaker 1: hate about live albums, everything I hate about groups that
Speaker 1: are forty years after their existence, I was acutely aware
Speaker 1: of those things, and I still say that do you
Speaker 1: want more? The Roots Come Alive? To record. It's probably
Speaker 1: one of our best albums in a minute, even if
Speaker 1: it is a time capsule. I mean. And the thing
Speaker 1: is a lot of vets from OK player are like,
Speaker 1: oh damn, I didn't know y'all. This like I'm dealing
Speaker 1: with the oh damn, I didn't know y'all was still good. Well,
Speaker 1: thanks a lot, so, you know, but just to let
Speaker 1: you know that's there as well, and it's worth a listen.
Speaker 1: And this is from the guy who finally listened to
Speaker 1: the entire Prints, Diamonds and Pearls five hour box set
Speaker 1: and was shocked that I put a nineteen song mixed
Speaker 1: together of what I feel is a masterpiece of an album.
Speaker 1: So you know what I was saying, You know my
Speaker 1: feelings of Oh I was wrong about this album. There's
Speaker 1: some things I do like, yes, come back to the roots.
Speaker 2: Far easier question from Raymond. You did DJ sets during
Speaker 2: the Lockdown that we're on YouTube and have now been
Speaker 2: taken down. If it's in your control, wink wink, is
Speaker 2: there any chance they can reappear?
Speaker 1: I know I'm sitting on kind of a historical gold mine. Yeah. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: positively documented every moment the of the lockdown, all those
Speaker 1: DJ sets are somewhat preserved at the time when we
Speaker 1: thought the world was coming to an end, you know,
Speaker 1: YouTube and all the publishers out there, like I'd to
Speaker 1: physically call them all and be like, yo, call the
Speaker 1: dogs off. I'm trying to entertain people, trying to keep
Speaker 1: them sane, and I thought they'd still be up there.
Speaker 1: But of course once the world came back to normal,
Speaker 1: all those things started disappearing. Understandable. Really, the question is,
Speaker 1: you know a lot of people are asking me, like,
Speaker 1: why don't you go back to doing that? Well, I'll
Speaker 1: ask you, guys, do you want me? Is there a
Speaker 1: way that we can take a pull to see if
Speaker 1: it's even worth me going back to a ninth job
Speaker 1: and coming back to DJ. Yeah, I still have my
Speaker 1: Twitch platform, but it's just like once I entered the
Speaker 1: world of movies.
Speaker 2: Man only twenty four hours in a day.
Speaker 1: So that's how much work it is. Question. Loum Show
Speaker 1: is a production of iHeartRadio.