Sept. 4, 2026
Philly Cheesesteaks & Escape Rooms — A Rabbit-Hole Mailbag Edition
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Castro Questlove and Cousin Jake field some deceptively simple mailbag questions about cheesesteaks and cereal. Ahmir breaks down his fiercely loyal cheesesteak habits, giving way to tempting side quests about ketchup etiquette and Ultramagnetic MC’s memorabilia on South Street.
The Q&A then pivots to music nerdery, with Ahmir naming his all-time favorite live album and dissecting what makes a live recording sonically “perfect.” He also shares the story of his first time onstage with his parents’ band as a kid. Along the way, the conversation hits bygone Philly landmarks, 2 a.m. laser tag, and what we can learn from escape rooms.
As a reminder, hit QuestloveSupreme.com to submit questions or DM us on Instagram or Facebook.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
00:00:00
Speaker 1: The Questlove Show is a production of iHeartRadio.
00:00:10
Speaker 2: What's up, everyone? This is Cousin Jake, one of the producers of the Questlove Show, and we're here for a mini episode doing the fan mail, the mailbag thing. At the top, I'm going to encourage you all Go to questlovesupreme.com. There's a contact us form. Send a question. You can, you know, leave it a comment, a thoughtful comment on YouTube or DM us at the QLS handle on Instagram. We want to get these read. We do this from time to time. So what I'm noticing, Amir, is we're getting a lot of questions that you're asking other people. And you're a big cereal guy. You know, you're always asking folks like what their cereal is. And then.
00:00:53
Speaker 1: I was a cereal guy if my trainer....
00:00:58
Speaker 2: When I say cereal guy, I also mean you like to talk about cereal.
00:01:01
Speaker 1: Yes. Food, I feel like for guys my age, is almost like the new strip club. I will look at, marvel at, and repost the most toxic foods of all time.
00:01:14
Speaker 2: You mean calorically speaking? Yeah.
00:01:17
Speaker 1: I really can't indulge in what it is that would rush me to The emergency room. But yeah, I love looking at it and fantasizing about food. That's where I am in life right now.
00:01:30
Speaker 2: No, listen. It's also my favorite form of small talk. Like this morning on the train up here, there's so many times I sit next to somebody if it's a crowded train and they'll ask me if I live in Philly or I live in New York. And I ask them what neighborhood. And then I mention like, oh, do you like this spot? And then I ask them like, what's your favorite spot in your neighborhood? Funny enough, 16 years ago, the first conversation you and I ever had, you put me on the game.
00:01:50
Speaker 1: I owe you.
00:01:52
Speaker 2: It was longer than 16 years ago. You put me on a Cosme's, which is now.
00:01:55
Speaker 1: Yeah, man.
00:01:56
Speaker 2: And you said that was your pandemic farewell to arms meal.
00:02:00
Speaker 1: Yeah. Cosme's is, you know, at one point, I take the Philadelphia cheesesteak and hoagie guide very seriously. Whenever Philadelphia Magazine does their annual ratings, I'm not going to indulge in all 50 sandwiches at once, but I will usually allow myself a two week period around Roots Picnic time in which, you know, for those 14 days that I'm in and out of Philadelphia, I will have tried at least 10 of those sandwiches. And I got to say, what I've been doing lately has been very, very foul. So this is something that I learned in New York City. So basically in Philadelphia, I'm very loyal to D'Alessandro's. And it's weird how Philly is because when a place gets too popular, then suddenly it gets pushed into the tourist trap, the tourist spot. You know, like back in the early 80s, Jim Steaks was like the destination place because it's like, yo, they're using Cheez Whiz. Oh, my God.
00:03:11
Speaker 2: In West or on 4th?
00:03:13
Speaker 1: Okay, so I didn't learn about West until, if you've seen many of my DJ gigs, you know that my longtime sidekick, Yamin Orworld, you know, he's from West Philly and 60th Street. And he told me the original Jim Stakes was right across the street from his house in the neighborhood. And of course it got so popular that they formed one on South Street. So the first time that I would venture on South Street, and this is when I was going to school in the same neighborhood at Performing Arts, the concept of putting Cheez Whiz on your cheesesteak to a 12-year-old is like dopamine rush, you know what I mean? But it got too popular, and then it just got sort of added into the... The tourist pile. And the same for ishka bibbles. Like, ishka bibbles, if the roots made, like, north of, like, $ 130 busking, sometimes we would skip our wawa meal.
00:04:16
Speaker 2: Like, turkey sandwich you always reference?
00:04:18
Speaker 1: Right, exactly. Like, literally, the goal of a Saturday with the busking roots, as you know it, was to make enough week money- But also, if we had like $ 20 left over, we would just get cold cuts. We would make a hoagie based on individual Amoroso rolls and turkey and pepper cheese and you get free condiments. But if we made like 40 bucks, we would go to Ishka Bibble's and get like a chicken cheesesteak and a gremlin.
00:04:51
Speaker 2: You'd go chicken. You got to at Ishka Bibble's.
00:04:53
Speaker 1: Yeah. You know what? I've never had... Ishka Bibble's to me is the one spot for whom their chicken cheesesteak is better than their actual cheesesteak.
00:05:03
Speaker 2: Agreed.
00:05:04
Speaker 1: I will say that, you know, I got hip to Della Sandro's when it was still like an underground secret of Philadelphia. And then it got too popular. And the same thing happened with Max's. But I do not mess with Max's. So, you know, all the slander there. The most respectful thing I can do is just say, air quote, slander, slander, slander, end quote. So, D'Alessandro's has always been my spot of choice, and it got so popular that someone wisely opened up, you know, set up shop across the street. Is it Chubby's? It's a spot called Chubby's. Chubby's is open.
00:05:49
Speaker 2: They set that up back in the day, right?
00:05:52
Speaker 1: You know what? There are four really intriguing spots on that block. Mm-hmm. There's two other like really good looking seafood spots where I always say, you know what? I'm going to give the seafood spot a try. But then I'm like, dog. I'm here. Yeah. I can only get a good cheesesteak once in a while. So I always go down to D'Alessandro's.
00:06:16
Speaker 2: No cheese was there.
00:06:17
Speaker 1: Yeah, none. No, no, no. I do it the real way. And so, you know, I've been hearing all this buzz about. Chubbies, and come on, my keyboard player is literally treating me like I'm having an extramarital affair. And I got to admit, during this past one, the Jay-Z picnic, I went with the intentions of going to D'Alessandro's, but- That line. The line, and I went across the street, and dog, yeah.
00:06:49
Speaker 2: I have never been.
00:06:51
Speaker 1: I'm a believer.
00:06:53
Speaker 2: You know, somebody told me that, you know, the ABC show in the 90s, Boy Meets World with Ben Savage, Fred Savage's younger brother.
00:07:01
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:07:01
Speaker 2: You know, it was set in Philly. I mean, as Hollywood backlot as you could possibly.
00:07:06
Speaker 1: Yes, exactly.
00:07:07
Speaker 2: But their hangout was called Chubbies. So, like, some people said it was always like a nod to Roxbury. Always a reference to it. I'm like, I got to fact check that a little bit.
00:07:14
Speaker 1: Yeah, that might be a little too deep. Like, I didn't hear much buzz on Chubbies until.
00:07:19
Speaker 2: Recently. Maybe like.
00:07:21
Speaker 1: A year ago when it started rising up in the ranks in Philadelphia. But also, you know, but Tariq is a lifelong Angelos.
00:07:32
Speaker 2: Okay.
00:07:32
Speaker 1: You know what? I'm not sold on seeded bread. I need my bread to be.
00:07:38
Speaker 2: You need that chew.
00:07:40
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's... But the thing is, you know, they also have Angelo's teamed up with Bradley Cooper.
00:07:47
Speaker 2: Right.
00:07:48
Speaker 1: And, you know, Angelo and Coop's spot in New York is all the rage. Like, the line is crazy. I don't like the soup Nazi method of it all. Like, but I respect it.
00:08:02
Speaker 2: Right.
00:08:03
Speaker 1: Where they sell you one thing, one thing only. And you can't adjust the order. You have to give it to them the way they give it to you. which I respect because it's New York and you got to represent like perfectly. It was only because of Angelo's that I learned that it's disrespectful to put ketchup on your cheesesteak.
00:08:24
Speaker 2: No kidding.
00:08:24
Speaker 1: Really? Dude, I didn't know this. And, you know, like other, and these are like out of town bloggers that like, if you put ketchup on a sandwich, that means that, That sandwich wasn't good on it. A sandwich has to be excellent on its own.
00:08:37
Speaker 2: It's like you and Padma Lakshmi, you told her that it's sacrilege to put ketchup on a hot dog, and she looked at you like, I do what I want.
00:08:44
Speaker 1: Yeah. No, no, no. Chicago believes it's sacrilegious. I put everything on my hot dog.
00:08:50
Speaker 2: You mentioned Jim. It's my favorite fun fact, and I hope it survived the fire at 4th and South. When you're waiting in line, and that line can be long, you get to the corner, and there's an autographed Ultra Magnetic MC's Next Plateau. They were Next Plateau, right? Press photo, autograph. And I asked Cool Keith about it one time. He's like, I love Jim's.
00:09:10
Speaker 1: I love it.
00:09:10
Speaker 2: He almost rode with me from the Bronx to Philly one time to get Jim.
00:09:13
Speaker 1: That's what, okay, that's odd because at Iska Bibble's right across the street is where I learned, okay, so Iska Bibble's, nothing scares me more than walking into a restaurant establishment and there are I feel like putting an 8x10 in a restaurant is a mark of death. It's a moment of time. If music is a Polaroid of where your life is at that moment, and a picture is literally a Polaroid of where your life is at that moment, nothing scares me more than to be frozen in time. And when you go into Ishka bibbles there's such a very specific 1989 to 1995 window of music where they have not changed any of those eight.
00:10:05
Speaker 2: By they were working on the wall and they're like yeah right.
00:10:07
Speaker 1: Exactly so i the only eight by ten that the roots have ever like collectively given to a spot to be hung up there is an ishka bibbles but then i'd Called it a curse. Okay. So when they weren't looking, I stole it back.
00:10:21
Speaker 2: You stole it back.
00:10:22
Speaker 1: Yeah, because I didn't want to get the mark of shame of it. But there's a Wild Pitch era, Ultraman, Netagim C's 8x10, and Iska Bibble's Across the Street.
00:10:33
Speaker 2: They might have just walked the street one day and handed them out. That's funny.
00:10:36
Speaker 1: Dude, there's no loyalty in the cheesesteak game, man. I promise you this.
00:10:39
Speaker 2: And it might be a way to hustle up a freebie of some kind. You know, like, hey, put this up. You know what?
00:10:44
Speaker 1: You know what the irony of it all is?
00:10:46
Speaker 2: Is I've been.
00:10:48
Speaker 1: sort of frequenting Ishka Bibbles since the days of the Roots busking. Matter of fact, I've done magazine articles in which I play, I cosplayed an employee there where for an hour, like some magazine.
00:11:06
Speaker 2: For like the photo shoot or for the actual- For.
00:11:08
Speaker 1: I think I, for two hours, I had to be an employee of Ishka Bibbles. Okay. To this day, after- 35-year history there. I still don't think they put two and two together or who or what I am. So I'm just a regular customer there. But also in Philly, I don't walk around looking like Questlove.
00:11:32
Speaker 2: You're not going to cut the line also at Del Sandro's. You are a civilian.
00:11:37
Speaker 1: Never.
00:11:37
Speaker 2: That's funny. That's great. Well, the question... That was asked.
00:11:41
Speaker 1: Oh, wait, we didn't even get to the question.
00:11:43
Speaker 2: No, but this is great. People ask us about this all the time. Mike, Open Mike and I were talking about cheesesteaks. We needed you. But here's the question. What is the most overrated cereal of all time? And that is from Trav from Columbus, Ohio.
00:11:55
Speaker 1: Overrated cereal. Yes. Good people, I am not completely sold. And I think the cereal only meant something for the millennial 80s generation. I have not been sold on, what's the cookie cereal?
00:12:14
Speaker 2: Cookie Crisp?
00:12:15
Speaker 1: I've not been sold on Cookie Crisp and really Cinnamon Toast Crunch. I don't know why I'm not team Cinnamon Toast Crunch. And I often hear people who are six to 10 years younger than me really riding for Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Monthly, I do... As a New Yorker, if I'm home on a Saturday afternoon, there is a spot that I go to, the Nighthawk Movie Theater, in which once a month they'll show Saturday morning cartoons, and they'll also have a buffet bar of at least an option of 40 different cereals, and they'll bring in cereals from around the world. Fun fact, the Post Cereal brand uses the Walmart businesses to test future cereals that you'll get. So I think the Walmart cereal brand is called Morning, not Morning Dew or Morning Sunrise or whatever. It's the no frills of Walmart, like the cheap cereal. But no, it's really post cereal testing out new flavors like Strawberry Shortcake or the Duce Leche or a French toast cereal. The Walmart brand cereal is the best cereals of all time.
00:13:43
Speaker 2: Okay.
00:13:44
Speaker 1: And I can't believe I just said that.
00:13:45
Speaker 2: You're going to get me in the Wally world, and it takes a lot. Yeah.
00:13:49
Speaker 1: I got to admit it.
00:14:00
Speaker 2: So another question we got, this is from Flying Tortoise, not Flying Lotus.
00:14:05
Speaker 1: Okay.
00:14:06
Speaker 2: What is your favorite live album, and is there a show you attended that you wish was recorded?
00:14:10
Speaker 1: So, oh, God, this is so weird to say. Okay, so my favorite live album is also my favorite album of all time. And I believe that a big part of this is because, I mean, most of you know the lure of how it was called The Drums with Steve Ferron and Average White Band. A year later, after seeing that Soul Train performance, they released a double live album called Person to Person, which is pretty much my North Star. We purchased that album. First day of school, we binge shopped as a way for my parents to con me into going to school. I thought we were going record shopping, and then they're dropping me off with a bunch of kids, and I'm crying like, wait, what's going on here? I feel like the first day of school for any kid is almost like being dropped off to prison. And, you know, they called and checked on me. He's crying all day, whatever. And they take me bin shopping for records. And so as a reward for completing first grade, they would take me bin... They took me bin shopping on the last day of school.
00:15:16
Speaker 2: Okay.
00:15:16
Speaker 1: And so.
00:15:17
Speaker 2: Same record store each time?
00:15:19
Speaker 1: Same record store. King James in West Philadelphia. And, you know, my dad shops like I do right now where we just... Michael Jackson style. Yes, exactly. Like coming home with a box of like 90 or 100 records. And yeah, person to person spoke to me. However, I will say that ideally the equipment and the recording conditions of whatever Grover Washington Jr. used for Live at the Bijou in 1976- I feel is probably one of the most exemplary, perfect sonic recordings of funk musicians in a zone. It's so good that I will say that Premiere has easily, during Premiere's 1990, from Daily Operation to maybe the group home album. So let's say like between 91 and 95, there are at least six or seven gems that you'll hear from that Grover. Like the drums are mic'd perfectly. That was like my north star for the first Roots Come Alive album. A live album that I'm still not too happy with because it sonically doesn't feel like what it is when you're at a Roots show. um we tried to to match it but it's also very slow and lethargic sounding like so that was the moment you know person like will walk past himself in the mirror and be like oh i gotta lose weight yeah when i mastered the roots come alive and realize how slow the next movement was then i was like dog i gotta drop 100 pounds man i'm drumming like a turtle like but yeah i'll say that um However, this is the first for this show, I really never toot my own horn for anything of self-promotion. I will say that I am very, very, very impressed with how The Roots Come Alive 2 turned out sonically. As a person who, I knew what we had coming against us. First of all, it's like, you know, when a legacy act is like, here's our 17th record. And, you know, it's like, all right, it's not like the five that I like, you know, that you stick to. Like there's no group that has ever, at the most you can hope for like one or two good songs from like their new album. So in my mind, I knew going into making The Roots Come Alive 2, like what barriers of cynicism do I have to knock over in order to, like make people do the Dame Dash Kanye thing where it's like, oh shit, this ain't whack. And so the way that we captured and recorded, uh, which thanks to the, uh, our, you know, now that Dave guy and Ian uncle chief, uh, Hendrickson are roots members from the Dap King world. Um, you know, I've been doing a lot of recording of, of the new album and of things that I do, um, over the studios that they used in Brooklyn, especially now that they're not being utilized that much now that Sharon's not here. Um, so they have a mobile truck, uh, that's pretty much vintage seventies. Like it takes you back into a time period. So pretty much this new roots album. If you guys just give it a chance and listen to it from top, you will. Yeah. Tariq's astounding breath control is there just sonically. It is, I feel like one of our most perfect recorded time capsules. And I rarely toot my horn. So if I'm like, it's all right, then it must be good.
00:19:30
Speaker 2: No, that's great. We'll end on a simple note. I've heard you speak of this before, but I want to honor the question. This is from Frank Miller.
00:19:38
Speaker 1: Wait, my Frank Miller?
00:19:39
Speaker 2: No, I don't think so.
00:19:40
Speaker 1: Okay, I was like, wait a minute.
00:19:42
Speaker 2: There's a few Frank Millers in the world. I know at least two of them. Okay. Where was your first professional playing gig?
00:19:49
Speaker 1: Like the first time I played? in front of an audience yeah we can say that okay so I mean everyone knows the story of how I was a part of my parents show at the age of seven as a means to keep an eye on me not because like hey our son has a talent but more or less like we want to know where he is 24 7 because you might get kidnapped So, you know, they would sit me. Weird enough, I was, imagine a seven-year-old sitting at a bar in a nightclub, you know.
00:20:17
Speaker 2: Back in the smoking era, too. Just, you know, a nightclub.
00:20:21
Speaker 1: In the worst era. And I live in the don't talk to strangers type, you know. There are heavy repercussions if we catch you talking to strangers. But you're putting me, a cute kid at a bar, you know, in whatever, Bloomfield Park. You know, that sort of thing. All I remember is it was 76 and my dad had just introduced covering Paul McCartney and Wings' Let Em In into the set. And my parents were always big on like the crowd participation thing. Like seeing the rappers do the whole somebody say ho thing or I want to see which side is liver. This side or this side, you know. My parents were doing that since the 70s. Like, my dad would represent the fellas. Men, now we want you to sing. And if we don't catch you singing it, then they run up to them and put the mic in their face and put them on the spot.
00:21:15
Speaker 2: Front row it. Yeah.
00:21:16
Speaker 1: Oh, but they would go throughout the nightclub. So if you weren't singing with enthusiasm, they put you on the spot. And my parents had, like, really good comic timing. So I think out of fear because the bar was getting a little too crowded, They called me on stage to sing Let Him In. Wow. And, you know, back in the 70s, Michael Jackson was the only prototype we had, and I already had an afro like him, so I would just dance like, Michael Jackson.
00:21:48
Speaker 2: Not even the silvers you just said we went?
00:21:50
Speaker 1: No, yeah, straight Jackson. Just like that whole skippy thing with his left leg and scuffle with his right leg.
00:21:55
Speaker 2: And that bought some time in their set. Someone's knocking at the door.
00:21:58
Speaker 1: Someone's ringing the bell. And, like, you know, people, like, knocked out. Like, oh, shit, he's so cute. So, yeah, that's the first moment that I performed in front of an audience. I was, like, five.
00:22:10
Speaker 2: Nice. Five years old.
00:22:11
Speaker 1: That's a good story.
00:22:12
Speaker 2: There you go, Frank. Every time. I enjoy doing this so much. Please, in the comments, let us know the Philly natives and those that have passed through. Advocate for your cheesesteak. I'm going to tell you mine is Little Sicily 2. Oh, where's that? It's another chicken joint. Columbus Boulevard, right by where the movie theater used to be, in that little shopping with the gas station.
00:22:33
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:22:34
Speaker 2: It's an Indian fusion cheese. It's owned by Indian folks. Indian fusion chicken cheesesteak.
00:22:38
Speaker 1: Whew. In that cut?
00:22:40
Speaker 2: In that cut.
00:22:41
Speaker 1: Is that movie theater that United Artists?
00:22:43
Speaker 2: It almost came back. What? No, I think they're turning into lofts. Trader Joe's is coming now.
00:22:48
Speaker 1: So fun side story. I would, there was a laser tag spot there. Okay. So pretty much during Things Fall Apart recording and Phrenology recording, when we were done recording at like one in the morning, one of the first times I flexed my Michael Jackson muscles, You would always hear things like stores opening for Michael Jackson, like FAO Swartz opened up at 3 a.m. so Michael could come in. I would often pay the laser tech spot. I'd slide them a couple hundred dollars just to stay open until 4 a.m. I'm certain that they just pocketed whatever employees were there at the time.
00:23:30
Speaker 2: The owner did not know.
00:23:31
Speaker 1: Right. The owner absolutely did not know. And the levels of evil- strategy of us playing a laser tag at two in the morning. That's where, you know, pretty much our hangout spot would be like after we record, go do laser tag from midnight to three.
00:23:53
Speaker 2: Cool off.
00:23:53
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly.
00:23:55
Speaker 2: What if laser tag is going to make its Renaissance? Like people are so in love with like nineties culture that in virtual reality.
00:24:01
Speaker 1: So is that going out? All right. So I just came back from Minnesota and, you know, kind of my, Integrity thing is making sure that I get my steps in. Try to do like 15 to 20,000 a day, which is a lot for my schedule. And when I was in Minnesota, I decided, all right, I'm going to get up at 6 a.m. And way to find out the mall doesn't open till 11. You just walked around the mall? Well, I did two rotations around the actual mall structure.
00:24:32
Speaker 2: Mall of America, man.
00:24:33
Speaker 1: And then I followed a guide online of how to go to every spot. And if you do the entire Mall of America, which it has a complete amusement park inside the mall. Right. So pretty much you're going to get 18,000 steps in it. And when I was going through it, One, it was the last mall I've ever seen in which people still actively visit it. Like now malls are a ghost town. But man, in Minnesota at Mall of America, there were like a lot of laser tag spots.
00:25:08
Speaker 2: No kidding.
00:25:09
Speaker 1: Okay. And so I think those group activity things are good for work. Now there's a group of us, Janina, actress Janina Gavin Carr. Mm-hmm. Sometimes, Chappelle, like, we will organize Escape the Rooms. Okay.
00:25:27
Speaker 2: Escape Rooms, yeah.
00:25:28
Speaker 1: So I use Escape the Rooms as kind of a low-key kind of tester for people. Like, this shows me who they are in terms of how do you work in groups, how do you solve problems, how smart you are, how patient you are, how you strategize. Right. Escape the Rooms was sort of the genesis to the game nights I do now. Okay. So before the game nights, I would say that at... Like, Janina Gavin Carr is kind of my game wife.
00:26:03
Speaker 2: Okay.
00:26:03
Speaker 1: In which, even now, like, I think she's coming to shoot a movie here in New York for two weeks. And her first thing is, like, four nights of Escape the Room. But she's, like.
00:26:13
Speaker 2: And you're going on new ones, so you don't know.
00:26:15
Speaker 1: Total new. Like, her level... the way that she finds new escape, the rooms is, is crazy. She's even done a kind of a, what do you call it? A Houdini level, not in the water, but like literally like escape the safe. That's trapped inside of a thing. Wow. Boxing.
00:26:33
Speaker 2: It's like, yeah, it's, it's, she's ready for like Michael Douglas, Sean Penn, the game.
00:26:37
Speaker 1: Oh, she's past that. She's way past that. So yeah. Escape the rooms. Nice.
00:26:41
Speaker 2: All right. Well, please let us know your cheesesteak spots, greater Philly proper. Submit questions. These are fun to do. Episodes, mini episodes between the big episodes. Like I said, QLS on Instagram. DM us. Leave a comment. Or the easiest way, the way it absolutely gets seen is go to questlovesupreme.com and hit the contact us. But, Amir, thank you, man. Until the next time. Thank you.
00:27:03
Speaker 1: Peace. All right. The What's Up Show is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 1: The Questlove Show is a production of iHeartRadio.
00:00:10
Speaker 2: What's up, everyone? This is Cousin Jake, one of the producers of the Questlove Show, and we're here for a mini episode doing the fan mail, the mailbag thing. At the top, I'm going to encourage you all Go to questlovesupreme.com. There's a contact us form. Send a question. You can, you know, leave it a comment, a thoughtful comment on YouTube or DM us at the QLS handle on Instagram. We want to get these read. We do this from time to time. So what I'm noticing, Amir, is we're getting a lot of questions that you're asking other people. And you're a big cereal guy. You know, you're always asking folks like what their cereal is. And then.
00:00:53
Speaker 1: I was a cereal guy if my trainer....
00:00:58
Speaker 2: When I say cereal guy, I also mean you like to talk about cereal.
00:01:01
Speaker 1: Yes. Food, I feel like for guys my age, is almost like the new strip club. I will look at, marvel at, and repost the most toxic foods of all time.
00:01:14
Speaker 2: You mean calorically speaking? Yeah.
00:01:17
Speaker 1: I really can't indulge in what it is that would rush me to The emergency room. But yeah, I love looking at it and fantasizing about food. That's where I am in life right now.
00:01:30
Speaker 2: No, listen. It's also my favorite form of small talk. Like this morning on the train up here, there's so many times I sit next to somebody if it's a crowded train and they'll ask me if I live in Philly or I live in New York. And I ask them what neighborhood. And then I mention like, oh, do you like this spot? And then I ask them like, what's your favorite spot in your neighborhood? Funny enough, 16 years ago, the first conversation you and I ever had, you put me on the game.
00:01:50
Speaker 1: I owe you.
00:01:52
Speaker 2: It was longer than 16 years ago. You put me on a Cosme's, which is now.
00:01:55
Speaker 1: Yeah, man.
00:01:56
Speaker 2: And you said that was your pandemic farewell to arms meal.
00:02:00
Speaker 1: Yeah. Cosme's is, you know, at one point, I take the Philadelphia cheesesteak and hoagie guide very seriously. Whenever Philadelphia Magazine does their annual ratings, I'm not going to indulge in all 50 sandwiches at once, but I will usually allow myself a two week period around Roots Picnic time in which, you know, for those 14 days that I'm in and out of Philadelphia, I will have tried at least 10 of those sandwiches. And I got to say, what I've been doing lately has been very, very foul. So this is something that I learned in New York City. So basically in Philadelphia, I'm very loyal to D'Alessandro's. And it's weird how Philly is because when a place gets too popular, then suddenly it gets pushed into the tourist trap, the tourist spot. You know, like back in the early 80s, Jim Steaks was like the destination place because it's like, yo, they're using Cheez Whiz. Oh, my God.
00:03:11
Speaker 2: In West or on 4th?
00:03:13
Speaker 1: Okay, so I didn't learn about West until, if you've seen many of my DJ gigs, you know that my longtime sidekick, Yamin Orworld, you know, he's from West Philly and 60th Street. And he told me the original Jim Stakes was right across the street from his house in the neighborhood. And of course it got so popular that they formed one on South Street. So the first time that I would venture on South Street, and this is when I was going to school in the same neighborhood at Performing Arts, the concept of putting Cheez Whiz on your cheesesteak to a 12-year-old is like dopamine rush, you know what I mean? But it got too popular, and then it just got sort of added into the... The tourist pile. And the same for ishka bibbles. Like, ishka bibbles, if the roots made, like, north of, like, $ 130 busking, sometimes we would skip our wawa meal.
00:04:16
Speaker 2: Like, turkey sandwich you always reference?
00:04:18
Speaker 1: Right, exactly. Like, literally, the goal of a Saturday with the busking roots, as you know it, was to make enough week money- But also, if we had like $ 20 left over, we would just get cold cuts. We would make a hoagie based on individual Amoroso rolls and turkey and pepper cheese and you get free condiments. But if we made like 40 bucks, we would go to Ishka Bibble's and get like a chicken cheesesteak and a gremlin.
00:04:51
Speaker 2: You'd go chicken. You got to at Ishka Bibble's.
00:04:53
Speaker 1: Yeah. You know what? I've never had... Ishka Bibble's to me is the one spot for whom their chicken cheesesteak is better than their actual cheesesteak.
00:05:03
Speaker 2: Agreed.
00:05:04
Speaker 1: I will say that, you know, I got hip to Della Sandro's when it was still like an underground secret of Philadelphia. And then it got too popular. And the same thing happened with Max's. But I do not mess with Max's. So, you know, all the slander there. The most respectful thing I can do is just say, air quote, slander, slander, slander, end quote. So, D'Alessandro's has always been my spot of choice, and it got so popular that someone wisely opened up, you know, set up shop across the street. Is it Chubby's? It's a spot called Chubby's. Chubby's is open.
00:05:49
Speaker 2: They set that up back in the day, right?
00:05:52
Speaker 1: You know what? There are four really intriguing spots on that block. Mm-hmm. There's two other like really good looking seafood spots where I always say, you know what? I'm going to give the seafood spot a try. But then I'm like, dog. I'm here. Yeah. I can only get a good cheesesteak once in a while. So I always go down to D'Alessandro's.
00:06:16
Speaker 2: No cheese was there.
00:06:17
Speaker 1: Yeah, none. No, no, no. I do it the real way. And so, you know, I've been hearing all this buzz about. Chubbies, and come on, my keyboard player is literally treating me like I'm having an extramarital affair. And I got to admit, during this past one, the Jay-Z picnic, I went with the intentions of going to D'Alessandro's, but- That line. The line, and I went across the street, and dog, yeah.
00:06:49
Speaker 2: I have never been.
00:06:51
Speaker 1: I'm a believer.
00:06:53
Speaker 2: You know, somebody told me that, you know, the ABC show in the 90s, Boy Meets World with Ben Savage, Fred Savage's younger brother.
00:07:01
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:07:01
Speaker 2: You know, it was set in Philly. I mean, as Hollywood backlot as you could possibly.
00:07:06
Speaker 1: Yes, exactly.
00:07:07
Speaker 2: But their hangout was called Chubbies. So, like, some people said it was always like a nod to Roxbury. Always a reference to it. I'm like, I got to fact check that a little bit.
00:07:14
Speaker 1: Yeah, that might be a little too deep. Like, I didn't hear much buzz on Chubbies until.
00:07:19
Speaker 2: Recently. Maybe like.
00:07:21
Speaker 1: A year ago when it started rising up in the ranks in Philadelphia. But also, you know, but Tariq is a lifelong Angelos.
00:07:32
Speaker 2: Okay.
00:07:32
Speaker 1: You know what? I'm not sold on seeded bread. I need my bread to be.
00:07:38
Speaker 2: You need that chew.
00:07:40
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's... But the thing is, you know, they also have Angelo's teamed up with Bradley Cooper.
00:07:47
Speaker 2: Right.
00:07:48
Speaker 1: And, you know, Angelo and Coop's spot in New York is all the rage. Like, the line is crazy. I don't like the soup Nazi method of it all. Like, but I respect it.
00:08:02
Speaker 2: Right.
00:08:03
Speaker 1: Where they sell you one thing, one thing only. And you can't adjust the order. You have to give it to them the way they give it to you. which I respect because it's New York and you got to represent like perfectly. It was only because of Angelo's that I learned that it's disrespectful to put ketchup on your cheesesteak.
00:08:24
Speaker 2: No kidding.
00:08:24
Speaker 1: Really? Dude, I didn't know this. And, you know, like other, and these are like out of town bloggers that like, if you put ketchup on a sandwich, that means that, That sandwich wasn't good on it. A sandwich has to be excellent on its own.
00:08:37
Speaker 2: It's like you and Padma Lakshmi, you told her that it's sacrilege to put ketchup on a hot dog, and she looked at you like, I do what I want.
00:08:44
Speaker 1: Yeah. No, no, no. Chicago believes it's sacrilegious. I put everything on my hot dog.
00:08:50
Speaker 2: You mentioned Jim. It's my favorite fun fact, and I hope it survived the fire at 4th and South. When you're waiting in line, and that line can be long, you get to the corner, and there's an autographed Ultra Magnetic MC's Next Plateau. They were Next Plateau, right? Press photo, autograph. And I asked Cool Keith about it one time. He's like, I love Jim's.
00:09:10
Speaker 1: I love it.
00:09:10
Speaker 2: He almost rode with me from the Bronx to Philly one time to get Jim.
00:09:13
Speaker 1: That's what, okay, that's odd because at Iska Bibble's right across the street is where I learned, okay, so Iska Bibble's, nothing scares me more than walking into a restaurant establishment and there are I feel like putting an 8x10 in a restaurant is a mark of death. It's a moment of time. If music is a Polaroid of where your life is at that moment, and a picture is literally a Polaroid of where your life is at that moment, nothing scares me more than to be frozen in time. And when you go into Ishka bibbles there's such a very specific 1989 to 1995 window of music where they have not changed any of those eight.
00:10:05
Speaker 2: By they were working on the wall and they're like yeah right.
00:10:07
Speaker 1: Exactly so i the only eight by ten that the roots have ever like collectively given to a spot to be hung up there is an ishka bibbles but then i'd Called it a curse. Okay. So when they weren't looking, I stole it back.
00:10:21
Speaker 2: You stole it back.
00:10:22
Speaker 1: Yeah, because I didn't want to get the mark of shame of it. But there's a Wild Pitch era, Ultraman, Netagim C's 8x10, and Iska Bibble's Across the Street.
00:10:33
Speaker 2: They might have just walked the street one day and handed them out. That's funny.
00:10:36
Speaker 1: Dude, there's no loyalty in the cheesesteak game, man. I promise you this.
00:10:39
Speaker 2: And it might be a way to hustle up a freebie of some kind. You know, like, hey, put this up. You know what?
00:10:44
Speaker 1: You know what the irony of it all is?
00:10:46
Speaker 2: Is I've been.
00:10:48
Speaker 1: sort of frequenting Ishka Bibbles since the days of the Roots busking. Matter of fact, I've done magazine articles in which I play, I cosplayed an employee there where for an hour, like some magazine.
00:11:06
Speaker 2: For like the photo shoot or for the actual- For.
00:11:08
Speaker 1: I think I, for two hours, I had to be an employee of Ishka Bibbles. Okay. To this day, after- 35-year history there. I still don't think they put two and two together or who or what I am. So I'm just a regular customer there. But also in Philly, I don't walk around looking like Questlove.
00:11:32
Speaker 2: You're not going to cut the line also at Del Sandro's. You are a civilian.
00:11:37
Speaker 1: Never.
00:11:37
Speaker 2: That's funny. That's great. Well, the question... That was asked.
00:11:41
Speaker 1: Oh, wait, we didn't even get to the question.
00:11:43
Speaker 2: No, but this is great. People ask us about this all the time. Mike, Open Mike and I were talking about cheesesteaks. We needed you. But here's the question. What is the most overrated cereal of all time? And that is from Trav from Columbus, Ohio.
00:11:55
Speaker 1: Overrated cereal. Yes. Good people, I am not completely sold. And I think the cereal only meant something for the millennial 80s generation. I have not been sold on, what's the cookie cereal?
00:12:14
Speaker 2: Cookie Crisp?
00:12:15
Speaker 1: I've not been sold on Cookie Crisp and really Cinnamon Toast Crunch. I don't know why I'm not team Cinnamon Toast Crunch. And I often hear people who are six to 10 years younger than me really riding for Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Monthly, I do... As a New Yorker, if I'm home on a Saturday afternoon, there is a spot that I go to, the Nighthawk Movie Theater, in which once a month they'll show Saturday morning cartoons, and they'll also have a buffet bar of at least an option of 40 different cereals, and they'll bring in cereals from around the world. Fun fact, the Post Cereal brand uses the Walmart businesses to test future cereals that you'll get. So I think the Walmart cereal brand is called Morning, not Morning Dew or Morning Sunrise or whatever. It's the no frills of Walmart, like the cheap cereal. But no, it's really post cereal testing out new flavors like Strawberry Shortcake or the Duce Leche or a French toast cereal. The Walmart brand cereal is the best cereals of all time.
00:13:43
Speaker 2: Okay.
00:13:44
Speaker 1: And I can't believe I just said that.
00:13:45
Speaker 2: You're going to get me in the Wally world, and it takes a lot. Yeah.
00:13:49
Speaker 1: I got to admit it.
00:14:00
Speaker 2: So another question we got, this is from Flying Tortoise, not Flying Lotus.
00:14:05
Speaker 1: Okay.
00:14:06
Speaker 2: What is your favorite live album, and is there a show you attended that you wish was recorded?
00:14:10
Speaker 1: So, oh, God, this is so weird to say. Okay, so my favorite live album is also my favorite album of all time. And I believe that a big part of this is because, I mean, most of you know the lure of how it was called The Drums with Steve Ferron and Average White Band. A year later, after seeing that Soul Train performance, they released a double live album called Person to Person, which is pretty much my North Star. We purchased that album. First day of school, we binge shopped as a way for my parents to con me into going to school. I thought we were going record shopping, and then they're dropping me off with a bunch of kids, and I'm crying like, wait, what's going on here? I feel like the first day of school for any kid is almost like being dropped off to prison. And, you know, they called and checked on me. He's crying all day, whatever. And they take me bin shopping for records. And so as a reward for completing first grade, they would take me bin... They took me bin shopping on the last day of school.
00:15:16
Speaker 2: Okay.
00:15:16
Speaker 1: And so.
00:15:17
Speaker 2: Same record store each time?
00:15:19
Speaker 1: Same record store. King James in West Philadelphia. And, you know, my dad shops like I do right now where we just...
00:19:30
Speaker 2: No, that's great. We'll end on a simple note. I've heard you speak of this before, but I want to honor the question. This is from Frank Miller.
00:19:38
Speaker 1: Wait, my Frank Miller?
00:19:39
Speaker 2: No, I don't think so.
00:19:40
Speaker 1: Okay, I was like, wait a minute.
00:19:42
Speaker 2: There's a few Frank Millers in the world. I know at least two of them. Okay. Where was your first professional playing gig?
00:19:49
Speaker 1: Like the first time I played? in front of an audience yeah we can say that okay so I mean everyone knows the story of how I was a part of my parents show at the age of seven as a means to keep an eye on me not because like hey our son has a talent but more or less like we want to know where he is 24 7 because you might get kidnapped So, you know, they would sit me. Weird enough, I was, imagine a seven-year-old sitting at a bar in a nightclub, you know.
00:20:17
Speaker 2: Back in the smoking era, too. Just, you know, a nightclub.
00:20:21
Speaker 1: In the worst era. And I live in the don't talk to strangers type, you know. There are heavy repercussions if we catch you talking to strangers. But you're putting me, a cute kid at a bar, you know, in whatever, Bloomfield Park. You know, that sort of thing. All I remember is it was 76 and my dad had just introduced covering Paul McCartney and Wings' Let Em In into the set. And my parents were always big on like the crowd participation thing. Like seeing the rappers do the whole somebody say ho thing or I want to see which side is liver. This side or this side, you know. My parents were doing that since the 70s. Like, my dad would represent the fellas. Men, now we want you to sing. And if we don't catch you singing it, then they run up to them and put the mic in their face and put them on the spot.
00:21:15
Speaker 2: Front row it. Yeah.
00:21:16
Speaker 1: Oh, but they would go throughout the nightclub. So if you weren't singing with enthusiasm, they put you on the spot. And my parents had, like, really good comic timing. So I think out of fear because the bar was getting a little too crowded, They called me on stage to sing Let Him In. Wow. And, you know, back in the 70s, Michael Jackson was the only prototype we had, and I already had an afro like him, so I would just dance like, Michael Jackson.
00:21:48
Speaker 2: Not even the silvers you just said we went?
00:21:50
Speaker 1: No, yeah, straight Jackson. Just like that whole skippy thing with his left leg and scuffle with his right leg.
00:21:55
Speaker 2: And that bought some time in their set. Someone's knocking at the door.
00:21:58
Speaker 1: Someone's ringing the bell. And, like, you know, people, like, knocked out. Like, oh, shit, he's so cute. So, yeah, that's the first moment that I performed in front of an audience. I was, like, five.
00:22:10
Speaker 2: Nice. Five years old.
00:22:11
Speaker 1: That's a good story.
00:22:12
Speaker 2: There you go, Frank. Every time. I enjoy doing this so much. Please, in the comments, let us know the Philly natives and those that have passed through. Advocate for your cheesesteak. I'm going to tell you mine is Little Sicily 2. Oh, where's that? It's another chicken joint. Columbus Boulevard, right by where the movie theater used to be, in that little shopping with the gas station.
00:22:33
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:22:34
Speaker 2: It's an Indian fusion cheese. It's owned by Indian folks. Indian fusion chicken cheesesteak.
00:22:38
Speaker 1: Whew. In that cut?
00:22:40
Speaker 2: In that cut.
00:22:41
Speaker 1: Is that movie theater that United Artists?
00:22:43
Speaker 2: It almost came back. What? No, I think they're turning into lofts. Trader Joe's is coming now.
00:22:48
Speaker 1: So fun side story. I would, there was a laser tag spot there. Okay. So pretty much during Things Fall Apart recording and Phrenology recording, when we were done recording at like one in the morning, one of the first times I flexed my Michael Jackson muscles, You would always hear things like stores opening for Michael Jackson, like FAO Swartz opened up at 3 a.m. so Michael could come in. I would often pay the laser tech spot. I'd slide them a couple hundred dollars just to stay open until 4 a.m. I'm certain that they just pocketed whatever employees were there at the time.
00:23:30
Speaker 2: The owner did not know.
00:23:31
Speaker 1: Right. The owner absolutely did not know. And the levels of evil- strategy of us playing a laser tag at two in the morning. That's where, you know, pretty much our hangout spot would be like after we record, go do laser tag from midnight to three.
00:23:53
Speaker 2: Cool off.
00:23:53
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly.
00:23:55
Speaker 2: What if laser tag is going to make its Renaissance? Like people are so in love with like nineties culture that in virtual reality.
00:24:01
Speaker 1: So is that going out? All right. So I just came back from Minnesota and, you know, kind of my, Integrity thing is making sure that I get my steps in. Try to do like 15 to 20,000 a day, which is a lot for my schedule. And when I was in Minnesota, I decided, all right, I'm going to get up at 6 a.m. And way to find out the mall doesn't open till 11. You just walked around the mall? Well, I did two rotations around the actual mall structure.
00:24:32
Speaker 2: Mall of America, man.
00:24:33
Speaker 1: And then I followed a guide online of how to go to every spot. And if you do the entire Mall of America, which it has a complete amusement park inside the mall. Right. So pretty much you're going to get 18,000 steps in it. And when I was going through it, One, it was the last mall I've ever seen in which people still actively visit it. Like now malls are a ghost town. But man, in Minnesota at Mall of America, there were like a lot of laser tag spots.
00:25:08
Speaker 2: No kidding.
00:25:09
Speaker 1: Okay. And so I think those group activity things are good for work. Now there's a group of us, Janina, actress Janina Gavin Carr. Mm-hmm. Sometimes, Chappelle, like, we will organize Escape the Rooms. Okay.
00:25:27
Speaker 2: Escape Rooms, yeah.
00:25:28
Speaker 1: So I use Escape the Rooms as kind of a low-key kind of tester for people. Like, this shows me who they are in terms of how do you work in groups, how do you solve problems, how smart you are, how patient you are, how you strategize. Right. Escape the Rooms was sort of the genesis to the game nights I do now. Okay. So before the game nights, I would say that at... Like, Janina Gavin Carr is kind of my game wife.
00:26:03
Speaker 2: Okay.
00:26:03
Speaker 1: In which, even now, like, I think she's coming to shoot a movie here in New York for two weeks. And her first thing is, like, four nights of Escape the Room. But she's, like.
00:26:13
Speaker 2: And you're going on new ones, so you don't know.
00:26:15
Speaker 1: Total new. Like, her level... the way that she finds new escape, the rooms is, is crazy. She's even done a kind of a, what do you call it? A Houdini level, not in the water, but like literally like escape the safe. That's trapped inside of a thing. Wow. Boxing.
00:26:33
Speaker 2: It's like, yeah, it's, it's, she's ready for like Michael Douglas, Sean Penn, the game.
00:26:37
Speaker 1: Oh, she's past that. She's way past that. So yeah. Escape the rooms. Nice.
00:26:41
Speaker 2: All right. Well, please let us know your cheesesteak spots, greater Philly proper. Submit questions. These are fun to do. Episodes, mini episodes between the big episodes. Like I said, QLS on Instagram. DM us. Leave a comment. Or the easiest way, the way it absolutely gets seen is go to questlovesupreme.com and hit the contact us. But, Amir, thank you, man. Until the next time. Thank you.
00:27:03
Speaker 1: Peace. All right. The What's Up Show is a production of iHeartRadio.