Questlove Reaches Into The Mailbag & Answers - January 24
In this mini episode, Questlove opens the floor to listener (and viewer) questions—digging into James Brown’s recording techniques, his current favorite stand-up comedians, and much more. From there, the conversation drifts into the emotional power of music, spotlighting Afro-futurist and meditative sounds that soothe, ground, and inspire. Listeners also get exclusive updates on what’s brewing next, including the progress of the highly anticipated Roots album and new developments on the Earth, Wind & Fire documentary. And, because it wouldn’t be Questlove without it, there’s a behind-the-scenes look at his one-of-a-kind birthday ritual: an all-day movie marathon with great snacks to match. Remember, submit your questions via QuestloveSupreme.com, or by following on social and messaging.
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Speaker 1: The quest Loft Show is a production of iHeartRadio. What's Up, Good People? This is quest Love. In addition to our weekly interviews of The Quest Love Show, I'm going to be doing some things periodically where I'll tell you a little bit more about a guest or what's going on in my life. I think they call this musics. You know. Another thing we want to do is take your feedback, take your questions, and I will answer them to the best of my ability. So I'm giving you the listeners a chance to engage with me. You can DM me to either the QLs account. Matter of fact, only dm the QLs account. Don't DM my account because I barely check my own account. Okay, follow QLs on ig or go through Questlove Supreme dot com. And you know we'll be recording these a few times a month where I'll basically, you know, answer letters. All right, Alan Holm Mass, I have a question about how James Brown recorded in the studio based on the way he hells out changes in the song take him to the bridge where songs written in the studio? Did he chart songs ahead of time and then provides changes on the spot. Did he just hum the melody of the band and let him figure it out. Hopefully someone from the JB Glory days are still alive and I can ask them, Yes, I happen to know some of the methods to James Brown's madness. Some of the evidence is literally right there. You can find a lot of the answers if you go to kind of the reissue versions of stuff. There was a period in the late nineties early arts in which kind of full extended versions of songs or maybe alternate versions of songs and whatnot. So I would say that for the most part, I believe that James Brown will go to each individual member of the band and hum out what they sing. I do have for real, I forget what song it is. It might be super bad, but literally he's telling Jimmy Chank, Nolan Chank bring out that, and Chank gives it back to him. Yeah. But if you listen to the original give it up or turner loose, there's a part where the horn section is not catching James's Q and James says starting over again. And I often wondered why didn't they just stop the tape and start over again? But then I realized that that's a waste of tape, so oftentimes mistakes were just left in there. And actually, you know, James is one of the probably the best examples of just freestyling. There are some examples of like lyrics. My good friend Alan Weeds, who you know, that name holds Holy He's managed di'angelo the p Funk Universe. Prince got to start managing both Cool and Gang and James Brown in the early seventies. He was with the artists during their peak period and I believe the night that Sex Machine got recorded, James asked Allen Leads for a show poster and they pulled a poster off the wall and he grabbed an inkpin and on the back of the poster says like shake your arms, use your form, stay on the scene like a sex machine. Got to have feelings, she as you're born, get it together right on, right on, like you see the hamwritten lyrics for that. So sometimes he would just write occasional idea out but for the most part you can tell that he's freestyl and it's funk is a feeling, and it's just as effective. I mean, you know where a cat like Bob Dylan really sort of stretched the bounds of imagination on what an artist could and should talk about in songs. I believe that James Brown was just as effective and poetic kind of just living in the moment and see what happens, which, to me, that's the key of life, living in the moment, see what happens. So I hope that answers your question. Alan Okay, Darren See asked who my all time favorite comedian is. Comy's so weird man, because it's such a dated thing, tell you who I love currently now, right now, one of my favorite comedians is uh Fahim an War. Fahim an War to me is he knows the funny and every day life situations. But for me, the funniest bit he ever does is uh well, first of all, just go to his YouTube page and just fall down a rabbit hole of comedy there. But Fahim's take on Michael Jackson's The Way You Make Me Feel video, that's that's the one for the record books. I mean, I like a lot I became friends with. When I found out this particular comedian was from Dayton, Ohio, I was like, wait, from the birthplace of funk. Her name is Beth Stelling. She's from Dayton, Ohio. A lot of her Netflix specials are up. She's funny. I'm really sad that I kind of had a hope that Patrise O'Neil was going to pick up the baton where Chappelle left off. I felt like he was going to be next, But I don't know. I love hanging around comedians because I just love watching their madness. Of course, being around the Big Hohuna, especially now and is probably his most dangerous, controversial period. It's so weird because like for me, I love my entertainment dangerous, like I love writ the risk factor of it all and one of the craziest nights in comedy I ever saw. I love observing Chappelle because I love watching people freestyle and figuring out how do they get out of this situation? You know when people come up t Reek and ask on the spot like you know, find me and Ryan for Bronosaurus and within seconds like Tarik's like instantly has something. I was at a club one night at one in the morning and Chappelle was just in rare form and when I mean in rare forum, I mean controversial rare for him, this new Chappelle that we got, and it's like he says something and the audience turned on him and half the audience walked out and I sat there and I was like, oh, I've never seen this before. And then he managed to dig himself out of the hole four minutes later and it was like sh okay. Cause again, to me, the joy watching him is how he navigates himself out of a situation. And he got back on safe ground again. It was like, oh, back to Dave and said, you know, funny stuff and haha. And then I saw a look at his eye and then he went somewhere else controversial and the whole audience turned against him again and I was like, Dave, I don't think you can say that dog, And he got himself out of it. This happens like six times, and afterwards I'm it's like, yo, dude, like are you purposely trying to for him? That's the zone where he's in now, where it's almost like a psychological exercise. Look up this documentary called The Aristocrats, and it's a bit that comedians do when they're about to bomb, like if they're about to have a bad night. It's a smoke signal to let the other comedians know I'm messed up and I'm giving up. And they do this joke the Aristocrats, and it's not a funny joke, but it's just a wink to the other comedians, like, well, that was a bomb, so let me just ruin it. And that joke requires a kind of creativity that really requires you to use your brain. And I feel like he's taking it a step further where he's like silently telling me a mirror check this out. Now. Most people will use the check this out moment to do something like crazy, like shoot a ball from half court, or the way that Jazzy Jeff cuts or like a crazy shack solo. Not watch me lose the entire audience and get them back in four minutes, and he'll get them back and then he'll be comfortable and he'll press the button. I'm gonna lose the audience again. And I see no one that takes more joy in this kind of new found wizardry power right now than Dave. So I don't know. I mean, it reminds me of listening to NWA. It reminds me of like listen to a Dirty Mind era prints, Like I know, it's weird to embrace that level of danger. Some I wouldn't personally do, but I am curious about daredevils who kind of do the Lukmano hands tricks with their craft. So anyway, hope that answers your question, Darren See Michelle Davis wrote, I'm listening to the Bonnie Raid episode I forgot we did a Bonnie Rad episode while running errands today and we were talking about being human nature to not be able to enjoy a moment for long before moving on from that feeling to something like worry anxiety, and for me, certain music can extend that moment. I'm not at all trained to music, so maybe it's easier for non musicians to use music in that way. My question is, is it possible for you to enjoy music in that way? Are there some bands, performers, albums, etc. That extend those positive feelings of joy for you? Just had this conversation with someone I'm seeing right now. She's rather curious about my choice of music that I listen to in my spare time, when I sleep, when I wake. Right now, my favorite music aren't songs. You know. There's kochhy Bells, so there's a musician. Well, there's a collective called doctor tones and float waves, and all they do is just this very calming like it's the kind of music you listen to if you go into a spa, if you get a massage, sort of eperial music. But that to me is pedestrian. I mean, anyone could do that. These are very specific sounds and patches, like sound bowls, koshi bells. To me, just the sound of a sound bowl is the most comforting. That's what I learned in twenty twenty. Sometimes I'll grab a few balls just, you know, while my lady friends taking a nap or whatever. I'll just start playing that and you can't stop. Like once you do it, it's like I keep on and then next thing you know, you're like playing sound bowls for like two hours or arms are tired. But I often make playlists, so it's not one particular album. But there are some songs like Alice Coltrane's music calms me. Some John Coltrane ballads do that to me. I mean I could listen to Naima. I wish there was like a an hour version of just Naima by John Coltrane. Don Cherry, the father of Eagle Eye, and Nna Cherry have there's a meditative chant song that he has called North Brazilian ceremonial hymn. When I first wake up in the morning, I sing that song, and when I go to bed, I also sing that song. There's Pharaoh Sanders his electric period in the early seventies, a song called Astro Traveling, a song called Summer Nights by Lennie Listen Smith, and the Cosmic Echoes. So well, a lot of futuristic, like afrofuturist music is what I listened to. Sir Green Down by John L. Manet is one of my favorites. Jimmy Hendrix's nineteen eighty three Amerman I Should Turn to Be is also that way. So yeah, there's a lot. Thank you for your question. Michelle, a commenter on Spotify, said that they really appreciated me for sharing the twenty twenty six lock in with the Roots and forecasted a ten from Pitchfork after I was discussing open Mike Eagles critical acclaim A weekend into the year, how's it going? It is going great. I have locked the Earth, Wind and Fire film. I'm eager to show it to people. HBO is very happy with it. As far as the roots are concerned. We are closer than ever than nipping this bad boy in the butt, slowly mixing all the songs I recorded, were just mixing them now, And yeah, that's how it's going. Like I feel more alive than ever as a creative, as a musical creative. And then I'm gonna do my next film project in May. Yep, there you go, all right. So an anonymous listener reminded me that I have a birthday this month and asked if I have any special plans for birthday rituals that I can share. Yes, I do have a birthday ritual. My previous ritual was not being available. There was a moment when I turned thirty and I was under the impression that my peeps were going to throw this big, giant blowout party for me. So rented a car, put a suit on. And this is before the Tonight Show days, so you know, me rocking a suit back in two thousand and one, you know, had my suit on. I had a show for driven my day and I went to like a nice fancy seafood spot and I arrived at this place that I thought my friends were like gonna bestow me surprise, and I walked in and was like dead empty. And I went to the friends like, Okay, what's going on? And they were like, yeah, man, I you know, I guess the it being the Martin Luther King holiday and the presidential inauguration. This is when I think Bush two was in office around that period. It's like, yeah, man, like everyone's throwing parties tonight, so no one's coming. And in my mind, I'm like, wait, based on the questions you guys were asking me earlier, like I was hinting like all right, y'all pull my leg or is this like is in everyone like waiting to yell surprise in another room in this big ass nightclub that's empty as hell? And they looked perplexed, like no, like we wanted you to DJ, and why you wear in a suit? I was like, uh, you guys wanted me to DJ, and I like left my records home because and they were shocked, like why would you come to the club with no records? And I didn't want to tell them like, oh, I thought you guys were throwing me a birthday party. Like they didn't realize. I just went home and they were like, yeah, there's no need to do it. Anyway because no one's here, and it wasn't until the next day they were like, yoh, we're so sorry, we didn't know, like and so to save face. Normally I would book gigs in Japan. So there was a period maybe from fifteen to twenty years where I was not at home. I was either in Japan or at Sun Dance. But this year I've been doing the same thing for the last like seven years. Is I rent out a movie theater and for twenty four hours, well not for twenty four hours, like sixteen hours, I show movies so and I curate them all. So this year I do the same thing. Number one is We're gonna have a cereal bar with over forty different cereals shout out by the way, I don't know if you guys know this Post Cereal makes all of Walmart cereal, like the Walmart brand I can't front man. The Walmart brand of Cereal, which is Post Cereal is the best, better than Captain Crunch, like literally, like who has like French vanilla ice cream with apple pie cereal? Anyway, I think it's called morning Glow or something like that. I don't know, but we have a Cereal Orgy over forty different cereals, and our hosts show classic cartoons from the seventies, sixties, seventies, and eighties. I like the Animaniacs, and I also like Rocky and Bullweakle. They more or less show like hilarious. Didn't know it was problematic then, but you know, like cartoons, like a lot of g I Joe's stuff from the eighties is hilarious now, Jim, I'm even catching up on like the kind of nineties stuff that I outgrew, like I wasn't hip with. I wasn't hip to, like Dug or Magic school Bus, Magic school Buses wild Yo, Like, so I guess Magic school Bus is a cartoon in which a school bus is inside the body of a kid and this kid has diarrhea and he has to throw up. It's like a sick day. And so basically the Magic school Bus is like stalled in mud. And I say mud in air quotes because we know what it is. But I was literally this kid either had to throw it up or shit it out, and they did that anyway. So we're showing cartoons in the morning, and then at one o'clock we are going to have a lunch tasting menu for the seventies original version of Willy Wanka, So everything that they eat in the film, we're also eating out here. So we are doing the Willy Wanka Tasting Show, and then at four we are going to show Love and Basketball, and then at six thirty we're going to see the classic movie called Heat with Robert De Niro and Al Pacino. And then closing, I'm going to debut my Earthwood and Fire doc for a select few. So yeah, I ran out a movie theater and just going to watch movies all day and day. I highly recommend it. There you go.
