Questlove Salutes Sinners

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Speaker 1: Quest Love Show is a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 2: I am cousin Jake, producer of The Quest Love Show. Throughout this season, as you've noticed, we've been doing many episodes. I'm sitting here with Amir Thompson aka Questlove and you know, throughout the year it just drop us a line. Hit us in the DMS of the QLs channels. Go to Questlove Supreme dot com. There's a contact us page, but ask questions, give us comments, give us feedback. We're gonna do some themed episodes beyond those questions. If you have any ideas just for these little mini conversations, do let us know and please be liking subscribing Amir. On the latest episode of The Quest Love Show, Jamie Lee Curtis told you how you jarred her with manifesting her oscar win with four words, dust off your mantle. Earlier this season, on the second episode of The Quest Love Show, you also told Autumn durald Archipa from Cinems that she should be prepared for her own award tour. Yeah, you don't say that to everyone for everything. So can you speak on your meter for knowing when something is truly award worthy?

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Speaker 1: I know that I have this rep as a music savant, you know, like with music, I'll get the occasional you know, hey, do you think like Steve gadd uses a process the fifty seven short of mic or does he use fifty eight or does he use a you know, Ribbon Royer, you know, like talking shop. But I've been in this this short six year journey of mine. In the world of film. There is nothing more attimidating than knowing a movie buff. And it's so intimidating. So that said, I mean, I watched way more movies than I probably should, and I think i'm it's probably the over compensatory nature of wanting to really master the art of filmmaking having not went to film school. So that said, I think I have this really good rhythm and knowing like when a person's moment is one. It's not even just judging the work, but it's just like, well for starters. With Jamie Lee one, it took me six minutes like wait, that's Jamie Lee Curtis, even though I knew she was in the movie. Once I started watching it, I lost myself And if you can fool me for six minutes. This also happened the first time I saw Good Time, I had no clue I was watching Robert Pattinson, which is strange because he's the star of Good Time. But when I see movies, i'm more or less I'm I'm a director head and I'm an editor head. So to me, it was like, oh, the Saftie Brothers had this new film out called Good Time. Let me go see that. And it wasn't until you know. I was like walking and leaving the movie theater and there are people talking about Twilight and Robert Pattison, Robert Patterson's and I went back to the poster and I actually went back to see it a second time. So I don't know. It's like when a person loses themselves in a character, I just immediately know. The one time I didn't call it, and I don't think it's my fault was when Mickey Rourke lost to Sean Penn for Best Actor Ystler and the wrestler, Yeah versus Milk. And once I did the research, I realize that I didn't see Mickey Rourke's accepting speech at the Golden Clothes kind of maybe Ben is shallow may moment of where you talk yourself out of your own award or whatever. But yeah, I think he like dedicated to it to his dead dog or whatever. Like he just freak people out a little bit. And I wish I'd known that because there was a period where there was this, uh, this kind of underground. I'm not a gambler at all, but the one thing that I used to bet on were award shows, and like I won great the year that Halle Berry and Denzel Washington won the same year, Like no one called a double wind for black people. So I mean like money and I lost so much money. I just knew Mickey Rourke was gonna take it home. And people were like, nah, man, it's gonna be showing pan. I'm like, no, man, Like I cried at the wrestler, you know. So that's the one time I failed at calling something. But I'm I'm pretty accurate and spot on for what I think the Academy will award someone.

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Speaker 2: So from Questlove Supreme in the Quest Love Show, it's very curated. I mean there are so many times where there's somebody will say you want to speak to or you'll run into somebody, and why haven't we had a conversation? I have to say in my four years running with this team. When we brought Autumn's name to you, it was one of the fastest resounding yeses. And not only did you say yes, you said I dream of working with her one day.

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Speaker 1: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: And you know, I'm just very curious because in your space so far, you know, cinematography is very different. But in seeing the film as many times as you did, what really stood out to you that was so amazing in the camera work.

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Speaker 1: I was in la and there was a meeting I was supposed to have and I knew that Sinners was going to be shown in seventy milimeter at one of my two favorite destinations of all time is both of Tarantino's the movie theaters. He has the New Beverly and he also has the L Ray. Yeah, I knew it was going to play at the L Ray. And I know this is like real nerd shit, but if like, there's something I've been dying to see on film in thirty five millimeter in a way that I know in movie snob will come in and curate the sound and make sure even down to the butter used on the popcorn, Like when you go to the New Beverly. Tarantino's whole structure is trying to bring you into what a Grindhouse was like back in nineteen seventy eight, seventy nine. Like everything he shows cartoons and previews very much like the Grindhouse movie. I won't hesitate for a second to just hop on a plane to go out there just to watch it and catch the Red Eye and come back home. I know it's like weird FLEXI shit to say, but I wanted to experience Centers on seventy millimeter in its prime, like when audiences are like packed and whatnot. And it just so happened that I had a major career breakthrough that day news. So I was already in my feelings with like, you know, oh my god, you know, so the news that I got had hit me in mo like I had to sit in my car and cry for like a half hour. You know. It's like I got the roller or whatever, like no, no, no, no happened. And so I was already in my feelings about the breakthrough that just happened, and I just sat there in a movie theater still. It was like I was subconsciously watching the film because I was just thinking of, like I can't believe this is about to happen. I can't believe this is about to happen. And so I saw it, but I didn't experience, but I'm still the visuals were just keeping me ground.

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Speaker 2: The thing you paid attention to the most that first time.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Like I sat like, this is a project I've been dying to do for like twelve years, and so when I finally got the green light, I just sat in the back of that theater like I can't believe it. I can't believe it's happening. It happened. So I really didn't consciously pay attention to the film because I just sat there like in the daze. But I'm still like still aware of the visuals and whatnot. And then I was like, well, I have just stay and see it. I wound up sitting there for three showings in a row froday. Yes, from the first showing, I think it was like eleven I left there and it was like ten eleven PM. Before I was making movies, I was just seeing movies and see movies. But now I am aware of sound and lighting and film stock. I'm looking at every aspect of so I almost have to see a film like three or four times once as a film and then like, okay, see what the editing is, Like, oh, let me see. And I was just really really impressed because oftentimes, like period pieces might get it wrong. And I literally had no notes of well why did they do it? And is too the film stocks too clean and whatever? Like, I had no notes whatsoever. So I was just in love with the look of it, like I'm with her. I was that way with Ernest Dickerson with Spike films, like I love Spike, but I love Ernest Dickerson, you know what I mean. So like, for me, cinematography and the look of a film is what gives you the feels.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and I mean Autumn, Ernest had the fish eye up here Autumn. It seems like it's a lot about motion. And she talked to you about building her own lenses. Yeah, anamorphic structure of it all. I'm curious when you drive the point home of seeing on seventy is it correct to say that you really capture the difference in the motion. Is it like how the film dances? What about seventy millimeter makes that experience enhanced? Well?

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Speaker 1: One being born in seventy one is really just I mean there's so many invisible timelines between what was life before nineteen seventy one and what life is in the future, socially, musically, entertainment, all those things. I think the first movie that I consciously remember seeing as a kid, I think my sister took me to go see King Kong. And it's only because of a particular movie theater we were in. I found an old advertisement and I saw that, oh seventy milimeter. Someone schooled me to the difference between seventy and thirty five millimeter, and so you know, since then, especially in those eighteen years of touring with the Roots, I became my own ze guide for every vintage movie house. So I meant pretty much the one thing that like I spent the most time doing, besides record shopping, my number one priority was driving movie theaters. And this way before the pandemic, like I was going to if we go to LA I might on a day off. Okay, it's like two hours and twenty minute drive, but I'm gonna go ceet at, you know. So I love driving movie theaters. I like second run movie theaters where they'll you know, shows space aliens, you know, attack my father and you know, they'll always show like a cowboy film, science fiction film, really bad you know b film. I mean, I'm in New York right now. There's a couple of niche spots. There's there's a someone turned their house in Brooklyn into this like niche movie theater where they show like Italian cinema. This is how I learned about what Dogma ninety five was like, even if I'm not into the genre or whatever.

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Speaker 2: Like I'll just go there just to Lars von Tree or all that stuff.

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Speaker 1: Yes, just to just to expand, you know. And yeah, sometimes it might be mister Thompson. Oh, I'm sorry, it's two am. So I really really love I love going to movies.

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Speaker 2: So this mini episode is just to show some love to sinners and also call back to the conversation with Autumn. I know there's other folks involved with that movie that that film that we were supposed to have on, that we will have on, but just leaving it with a blanket statement. You referenced the film a lot in conversations with different guests this season. How would you say today that film has affected you.

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Speaker 1: I love the art of the Hail Mary throw. The four seconds left in the game and you gotta fe this thing for ninety nine yards and pray to guy that someone catches it in the end zone to win the game. I think all the odds were against it. I read that Variety review and like, ah, man, damn. Variety is sort of like the first the first voice in the direction or the temperature of what a film's going to do, the first review that most people go.

00:13:26
Speaker 2: To, or Canary in the coal mine.

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Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, I mean even dude, even during Sly Lives, like the second the credits went up, Zarah's like, oh my god, look and I'm like, wait, are they reviewing Live on the spot? Like as we show this thing? And sure enough, like the person was in the back. But you know, for me, I just the odds were against it. And you know, I'm not big on the horror genre. I like thrillers, Like for me, seven is the type of thriller I like, or Silence of the Lambs, you know, and if you're going to go into like even with Beyond Centers, what was the film that Robert Rodriguez and oh Dussell Dorn like those sort of things where you might turn into a vampire. I was never into that, So like I mean, the odds were working against them. And even when I saw the first scene, I had one snark where they're inside the juke joint. I was like, wait, why why is he putting an eight to eight inside of the song? It's not twenty twenty six? And I sat there like what the fuck? And I was about to get my phone out, like yo, dog, like why are you doing? Trap me? Oh shit? And then like once that scene to me, that entire music sequence. The last time I saw a sequence that jarring to me or that was when Ernest and Spike did the seven minute taj Mahal Cracks for under Stevie Wonders, Living for the City for Jungle Fever, which until recently just started you know, in iTunes and you know you can see it now, but previously that was the one Spike Lee film you couldn't see. I don't know, like for me, I just think that it's felt like the odds were against it, and I think it was expected to just like, you know, accept the seat of the table, like at least you got here whatever. I don't know, I got personally invested in that entire journey and and I'm a board for whatever happens next with for anyone from mikeel to literally anyone inside of that whole film experience, Like I'm emotionally invested in now.

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Speaker 2: One last thought, because I've never heard you speak on this since it's Sinners related, what is your favorite blue song or blues album? Give us something from that genre.

00:15:56
Speaker 1: Oh God, I'm taking this back to one of the last conversations with DiAngelo. We were talking about him first starting out like he thought he was going to be a beat maker. You know. I was like, well, your beat maker just happened to lead like your church choir at the age of four. Like, were you're going to sing on your beats or whatever? He says, Nah, man, I just you know, I wanted to make some beats. I was like, so, what's the first thing you sampled? And he said that. You know, him and his cousin Marlon had a copy of bb Kings Live at Cook County and I was like really, and He's like, yo, man, so much like that entire record we took from Dad. And you know, the last night I saw him on the drive home, I happened to have that record queued up because I never heard it. I have this thing where like music sounds way different to me when death is kind of on the horizon, Like when someone dies, their music sounds different to me when I'm in a mournful state. Maybe it's just me not wanting to hear the silence of the natural silence of this music just speaks to me way different that way, And so I decided to put it on to see if I get to hear it as a ten year old Michael Archer hearing it for the first time in his household. And so that's kind of how It's almost like I have to ask for travel ask someone to hear music the way they hear it. That's kind of how I receive it. I know it's a weird answer, but that's how it is. Guys, this is the Quest Love Show. I really appreciate all your feedback. We do read the comments and all your feedback. Please like and subscribe the show. Spread the word of this show and give us suggestions. People you want to see on the show. Let us know and we will try to make your dreams come true. All right, Quest Love Show. It is a production of iHeart Radio