METROPOLIS: Questlove Interview

Ahmir Khalib “Questlove” Thompson’s career in music was perhaps inevitable,
given that he was raised in Philadelphia by two parents immersed in that city’s storied soul scene. Forming hip-hop outfit The Roots in the early ’90s, Questlove and the group gradually attracted a large audience throughout the decade, before enjoying a major breakthrough with 1999’s Things Fall Apart, an album which went platinum in the US and also earned a Grammy.
The Roots produced a steady stream of hit albums over the next ten years, but it was their appointment as house band for NBC’s Late Night with Jimmy Fallon in 2009 that gave their career a whole new dimension. Questlove and the group followed Fallon to The Tonight Show early last year when the presenter replaced Jay Leno and, if anything, the group’s popularity has exploded even further, thanks to their starring role in viral hits like ‘The History Of Rap’.
Shortly to arrive in Dublin for Metropolis, The Roots have already this year performed with the city’s best known musical export. The band and Jimmy Fallon appeared at one of U2’s Madison Square Garden shows in the summer, joining in with Bono and the boys on ‘Desire’ and ‘Angel Of Harlem’. Here, Questlove discusses various aspects of his musical career and how hip hop has developed in the 21st century.
Questlove On...
GROWING UP IN PHILADELPHIA
During my formative years, I felt Philadelphia needed better publicity. Not many people know that John Coltrane and Dizzy Gillespie come from there. And then of course you have acts like Three Degrees, Gamble & Huff and The O’Jays. I come from a musical family, so I had three people in the household feeding me different information. My father had a record collection of around 5000 albums. He liked Nat Cole, and he was very big on The Beatles, particularly Rubber Soul. Also, he loved Brian Wilson and Pet Sounds. He covered the pop thing, he was the guy who thought music died after 1973. He stayed in one area.
My mum was more eclectic – she listened to a lot of folk records, mixed in with stuff like James Brown and Earth, Wind & Fire. With my sister, because she was the only black student in an all-white school, to sort of socially get accepted, her musical palette was more AM radio rock. So I can remember her playing Physical Graffiti when I was five. If I was to break it down, I’d say I got the breakbeats from my mum, pop tunes from my dad and the John Bonham influence from my sister.
LIVING IN LONDON IN THE EARLY ’90S
We lived in Kentish Town, where we prepared for our musical journey. In ’93, Geffen was the top earning label, because it had Nirvana, Guns N’ Roses and Aerosmith. The day that Kurt Cobain committed suicide, we knew we were in trouble, because those three superpowers were funding the company. They sort of assumed, “Okay, Axl Rose is going to submit another record.” It was always, “Oh, his album’s coming next year and then we’ll have more money.” Aerosmith left to go back to Columbia and when Kurt committed suicide, we knew they were going to shut down the company. So, what we did was, we stole our budget. They had so much money they let us control our budget, so we stole it. And we got a flat in London and we ran away for a year. It’s not like they were waiting for reports – we just ran away for a year and then we came back.
1990s HIP HOP BOOM
1993 was a crucial year in US hip hop. With Dr Dre, that’s the first time that a credible artist earned that type of money. And once other hip hop artists saw that, it became a tsunami, so that was sort of Eve partaking in the apple. Sensing that we were going to drown in that tsunami, we grabbed the raft and we ran to Europe until the coast was clear. That was another part of the reason we ended up in London.
BEING FRIENDS WITH PRINCE
Yeah, we’re cool. I’d always made a rule to never, ever befriend your heroes, because they can disappoint you. However, he’s a bit of a cool dude. Probably the greatest night of my life was being in his house with him on bass and Stevie Wonder on keyboards. It was like an all-star jam at his house for about two hours. We did Stevie’s whole catalogue – that was the greatest thing ever.
HIP HOP’S CURRENT CULTURAL STATUS
I remember there was all that controversy about Noel Gallagher saying Jay Z shouldn’t be headlining Glastonbury. I told Jay, “That’s the best thing that ever happened to you.” The day that he got word of that, we were together and I’m like, “Are you going to cancel the show?” I was snickering about it, because I’ve seen hip hop suffer greatly on the main stage at Glastonbury and other festivals.
I’ve seen people having piss bottles ready for acts that they don’t approve of. Anyway, Jay just said, “I’m prepared.” Whenever his back’s against the wall, that’s when he comes out swinging, and he’s amazing. His performance at Glastonbury in ’08 was one of the best shows, I wish I’d been present. I put that band together, but I couldn’t be there.