Joe Kay of Soulection

Questlove sits down with Soulection founder Joe Kay live backstage at the 2026 Roots Picnic in Philadelphia. The conversation traces the origins of a global movement that grew from zip files and SoundCloud posts into a worldwide community. Joe reflects on his earliest musical memories—from family deep cuts and white-label promos to discovering J Dilla—and how those influences helped shape the unmistakable Soulection sound. He and Questlove dig into the craft of DJing, from set architecture and “go-to” records to reading the room and balancing nostalgia with discovery. Joe also explains why he left Los Angeles for Miami in search of a new international energy. Along the way, they explore the role of curators as culture-shapers, the artists Soulection helped amplify—from Brent Faiyaz to Kaytranada—and what it takes to build a movement that still feels fresh 15 years in. See omnystudio.com/listener https://omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Questlove?

  This is an iHeart Podcast.

• 0:03Questlove?

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• 0:05Speaker 01

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• 1:02Speaker 03

  Hey, I'm Niall Rogers. This fall, I'll be driving across the country, meeting some of today's coolest and most fascinating artists. We'll explore the stories before the moments that changed everything. Because every musician remembers the moment where it all began. Experience Before the Moment, a Lincoln original series on the iHeart Radio app, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.

• 1:34Questlove?

  The Questlove Show is a production of iHeart Radio.

• 1:54Questlove?

  What's up, y'all? Good morning, good afternoon. This is Questlove. We're here today in what I will say the Republic of Philadelphia. This glorious May 31st of 2026, we are at the Roots Picnic, a gathering of minds and creatives. Name them, Yolanda Adams, Jay-Z, Andre Day, Erykah Badu, Letty C, Kalani, Adam Blackstone, oh, The Roots, DJ Cash Money, Jazzy Jeff, Sasha Kibol, Kareem Bailey Ray. I'm missing names, Wale, The Game's here, Big Daddy Kane's here, De La Soul. I'm missing crucial names, but I will say that our illustrious guest today

• 2:38Questlove?

  is a part of a movement. And you know me and movements. You know, oftentimes, founders of the movement sort of go uncredited or unthanked. It's a thankless job, curating, discovering, putting people on to. But our guest does just that, and I think it's rather apropos here at the Roots Picnic, that I sort of picked the brain, kind of in a way that I don't think has been done before in the more traditional sense of the interview, to talk to a person that basically has taken the baton of creative music to the next level

• 3:18Questlove?

  for the last 10 years plus, we'll say 15. He's founded Selection, which, is it a vibe? Is it a movement? Is it a genre? How can you describe it? I know that when you, when you hear it, it's a feeling, you know? I instantly know a selection movement based on even the engineering of the song or whatever, but we'll get into that a little later. I absolutely want to thank you, Joe K, for coming to the show. I've been waiting for this one. Thank you, thank you. Okay, so tell me, what is your first musical memory in life? The first musical memory you had?

• 4:02Speaker 04

  First off, thank you for saying all that. We're celebrating Roots Picnic here. We're all here today, and you should be very proud, man, like what you've built. You guys have been going crazy on the lineups, by the way, like not just here in Philly. You know what I mean? The London lineup, crazy. The Rangers, insane, and

• 4:19Questlove?

  Thank you.

• 4:20Speaker 04

  You're three decades plus in the game, longer, however long, like timeless. And so I just want to say that I didn't even know that, that you knew about Selection or me. Not to say that you're not tapped in, I just, you just never know, you know, so.

• 4:35Questlove?

  I've been friends with Andre so long.

• 4:37Speaker 04

  Right.

• 4:37Questlove?

  And I think in my older age, I might not be as immersed in various cultures and whatnot, but just socially, I knew Andre first, maybe months before I seen him DJ before. Only because, you know, shout out Gila, hello, if I don't give you your flowers. You know, and so I got to know Andre first, and then I did the research later, like, oh, okay, you say he's a DJ? And then suddenly asking him to put me on to stuff, and then eventually, that's how I came in backwards.

• 5:14Speaker 04

  Right.

• 5:14Questlove?

  But, you know, I'm still coming in, even though backwards.

• 5:16Speaker 04

  Right. So to answer your question, my first memories, probably growing up in the house, my parents, both of them playing, anyone from Badu to DMX to Rage Against the Machine.

• 5:31Questlove?

  I'm sorry.

• 5:32Speaker 04

  To, you know, like, it's a lot of different sounds. Sade.

• 5:36Questlove?

  Okay, so on this platform, when I interview legacy artists, you know, like people are 70, 80 years old, and they'll say like, oh, you know, I grew up on like Little Milton and, you know, whatever. So I forget that

• 5:52Speaker 04

  Yeah, I'm 36.

• 5:55Questlove?

  So when you were saying that, I was like, wait a minute, like, wait a minute, no, that's the end of my train.

• 6:01Speaker 04

  I feel you. I mean, you were in it, you were a part of that. That's, that's what makes this a full circle moment. But yeah, I mean, I was born 89, so I was just old enough to appreciate it, you know what I mean? But that's what I grew, like, my mom was super big on Sade, and that's why a lot of the music, yeah.

• 6:15Questlove?

  That explains everything.

• 6:16Speaker 04

  Right.

• 6:17Questlove?

  If you say Sade, then that explains everything.

• 6:19Speaker 04

  Right. And, and so that, my, my uncle's playing house and deep house and reggae, all within the same couple hours at the crib. So I was always exposed to a lot of music early on, just a lot of different sounds. And I do feel like a lot of that is what makes up the selection sound, because you're hearing a lot of global sounds, but a lot of, it's rooted in instrumental music and the producer, right? And R&B and soul is what we're known for, and also the Caribbean sounds. But as we've gone on, the sounds have become, become more global, you know? So that's how, that's how it started, though.

• 6:53Questlove?

  Okay. Do you remember, and tell the truth, what is the first record that you purchased with your own money? And tell the truth. And look, this is what I'll say. I think in the beginning, of course, when people ask me this question, I'll be like, all right, yeah, the Jackson Vibe was my first, that's the safest answer.

• 7:14Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 7:15Questlove?

  Or you hear people say like, oh, Stevie Wonder.

• 7:16Speaker 04

  I already know, I remember.

• 7:17Questlove?

  What is yours?

• 7:18Speaker 04

  Mine was The Diplomats, Diplomatic Immunity. I think it was like the volume one. That, that was like, that was the first joint I got, that I purchased with my money.

• 7:27Questlove?

  Okay.

• 7:27Speaker 04

  Because my parents were buying me CDs back then. Every time we'd go to Tower Records, you know, that was my thing. Every week, buying, I remember buying Blueprint. I remember buying the Nas CD. I remember buying all those record, the G-Unit albums, like, because, you know, I grew up in that era, the Neptunes. But the first one I bought with my money was The Diplomats. And that's still a Rockefeller at the time. So I grew up to listening to all that. So last night was very nostalgic, you know? Obviously, we're here in Philly, but just seeing state property come out, it hit home. Even though I'm from LA, I'm from the West Coast, I grew up listening to all that, yeah.

• 8:04Questlove?

  I'm, I'm still getting over it right now, so I haven't processed what I just went through. So you mentioned like your uncle and your parents and whatnot. What three figureheads would you say are really responsible for your, not your love of music, but just like, everyone needs an older figure to put you on to stuff. Yo, you need to check this out, you need, so like, what three figureheads would you credit?

• 8:32Speaker 04

  I would say, um, I mean, there's so many people I can name, but I would say off top, one of my, my godfathers, Nerve One, he put me on, like, just showing me around, taking me on his promo runs.

• 8:44Questlove?

  Right.

• 8:45Speaker 04

  Uh, cause he worked at Universal at the time, so he would take me with him on his runs and I was exposed to just, you know, what it's like on, on a, on a rollout, you know what I mean? So, a radio run, so when an artist is in town, he would take me around and.

• 8:56Questlove?

  So he would take him record store to record store to?

• 8:59Speaker 04

  When Wayne and, and Juvi first were coming up, he was taking them around. This is like when, when those records first came out, I think it was high.

• 9:07Questlove?

  Oh, Four Hundred Degrees?

• 9:09Speaker 04

  Yeah, all that era. So anyways, that, I remember G Unit, when they were first coming up. So he was taking them around and so I wasn't around all the time, but he would give me like records and. Promos? Yeah, I would get promos.

• 9:22Questlove?

  There's none like an uncle that gives you the white labels, you feel like?

• 9:25Speaker 04

  I just always had like this nice goody bag of, of just heat. And I, and I think that's where a lot of my, me being someone that always is ahead with having, you know, white labels and exclusives and demos and things. That's always been my thing.

• 9:41Questlove?

  Okay.

• 9:41Speaker 04

  Even since high school, middle school, I was making CDs and I always had bootlegs. So I think that's how a lot of it started. Also, my guy, Eric Coleman, you know, Mo Chilla, and he's, you know, he shot the cover of Mad Villain and so many other legends and he always had like, was always kind to play me exclusive Mad Lib and, and Dilla early on and his association with Stone Throw and coming up in that pocket and me being from LA, so being exposed to that sound. So I was like a beathead, you know what I mean? And then, I mean, man, there's so many people I, I can name, but I would say those two were like very core to like my upbringing, yeah.

• 10:20Questlove?

  I got it.

• 10:20Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 10:20Questlove?

  Yeah, I, I had a sort of an uncle figure that worked for like black radio in the seventies. So I didn't know it then, but he would just always give me his throwaway records. Like, I grew up, I was like the receptacle of the records that nobody wanted. So, all the flop singles and, and I think it's different when you, the first fifteen years of your life, you take in everything, like you're not discerning, oh, that's whack or that. I mean, there's things you like and things you don't like, but matter of fact, I would often, like as a five-year-old, write like DJ promotional, like just because I thought those were special records, like those black and white, white labels and whatnot.

• 11:01Questlove?

  So when did your love of compiling music start? Like, do you remember like the first mixtape you made or, like, what was your first creative project that you did?

• 11:13Speaker 04

  First creative was, I mean, I was already making CDs for all my friends, right? I was known as that guy in, in high school. Uh, I was on LimeWire, MySpace, all the blog spots, just, you know, downloading records.

• 11:25Questlove?

  You were just making compilations, did you have equipment as a kid?

• 11:27Speaker 04

  Not yet. No, I didn't start DJing until college, so around twenty-ten. Twenty-ten, I started DJing. I had got my first turntables, which I still have, and I still use them to this day, they're just in prime condition.

• 11:40Questlove?

  Damn.

• 11:41Speaker 04

  Got my Technic twelve hundreds for like five hundo, you know what I mean? Got like a little DJing four hundred mixer, that's still like my setup at the crib. I still, I still thrive off being in tune with what I started with. And I made sure like, they were refer, like I got them, they look brand new, you couldn't tell. But anyways, before that, I started doing a podcast, like a musical podcast where I was Ill Vibes.

• 12:03Questlove?

  Ill Vibes, yeah.

• 12:04Speaker 04

  Yeah, that's where it started. The Ill Vibes, for me, I wasn't mixing records, it was just more about track curation and track selection. So from that point, I was making these mixes and within year one, I got like thirty thousand followers on, on that podcast, you know, through the, the iTunes podcast feed. So I was able to get a nice following and that was essentially the preliminary era in time of building my foundation and network. That's even how Andre and I met, he, he had listened to one of the mixes. And so, long story short, I just built this like really global network of producers. We, we mainly focused on producers, you know what I mean?

• 12:43Speaker 04

  I came up listening to Flying Lotus and wondering like, oh, who's behind the Tribe records and who's behind Common and Badu and, and then that's when I started learning about Dilla. You know what I mean? I'm like, oh, I've been a fan of Dilla this whole time, I just didn't know he was behind the records, right? So this was like two thousand and seven when I was two thousand and six.

• 13:02Questlove?

  Dilla like around thirteen, fourteen?

• 13:05Speaker 04

  Yeah, pretty much. And again, I was a fan.

• 13:08Questlove?

  Did you know it was special then or did you just? Dilla was special to me only because he was the timeline, the Mason Dixon line of, wait, this sounds way different than everything else I'm used to. But I always wanted to know, what was it about his music that attracted you?

• 13:25Speaker 04

  It was just his swing, his, his snares, I don't know. His drums, I'm very, to this day, drums and snares, I'm, I'm so picky about. It has to hit and he had the crispiest snares.

• 13:37Questlove?

  Perfect sounding, yeah.

• 13:38Speaker 04

  And, and his swing, like we, we know about his non-quantized swing, it just, he just has that effect. So I think it was his swing and hit the way he sampled, you know, and the way he flipped things. And then again, I just realized that all the records I loved, listening on radio at the time, you know, I'd have to, we'd have to listen, there wasn't streaming today, we didn't have control of the music like that, so we would have to, uh, wait for the top twenty-five, top forty records.

• 14:06Questlove?

  Right.

• 14:06Speaker 04

  To go on rotation, so I could record it on my tape deck at the time and I'd have to like wait. But I was, I was realizing like, okay, he's, he's like the mastermind behind the sound. Even if he wasn't credited properly, cause we know about that too. You know, if he was responsible for the ideas, it was him that really I started to, to study. But I, I was already a huge fan of Neptunes and Timbaland, those were like my top two.

• 14:29Questlove?

  Yeah.

• 14:29Speaker 04

  And still like, still are people that I still play in my sets today. The Neptunes and, and Timbo, those sounds were, so those three were, were like my, my holy grail, you know?

• 14:39Questlove?

  How often are you asked to make mixes or curate for special events? Like people coming up like, yo, I need a Quiet Storm mix or a car trip or, like, how often are you asked?

• 14:52Speaker 04

  All the time, all the time. And even when we're just in the car, like, I'm always, you know, I'm sure you are too, like, yo, here's the, like, sometimes I just wanna chew, you know what I mean? Sometimes I'm like, let me pass this and let, let's give someone else another chance, all the time.

• 15:05Questlove?

  So when you're in the car with other people like me, are you secretly trying to put them on to something that they might not be hip to?

• 15:14Speaker 04

  All the time, all the time.

• 15:16Questlove?

  Okay, so when you make a mix for a car mix, what are your three go-to songs that are like the best for, and depending on what time you drive?

• 15:26Speaker 04

  Right, what's the mood, it depends.

• 15:28Questlove?

  In a day like this today, which is like perfect weather, what are the three records that come to mind for you?

• 15:35Speaker 04

  That's a tough one, cause I was just, I was putting my set together in my room today, so I was just providing a lot of different sounds.

• 15:42Questlove?

  Okay.

• 15:42Speaker 04

  I'm still high off yesterday, man, and so.

• 15:45Questlove?

  I, yo, I.

• 15:46Speaker 04

  And I know, I know, I know everyone's hit you.

• 15:49Questlove?

  For, for those that don't know, um, last, well, yeah, you've seen the news. Uh, by the time this comes on, uh, this is not even twenty-four hours after the Jay-Z performance of which.

• 15:59Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 16:00Questlove?

  There's still a high that I'm going through right now, so.

• 16:02Speaker 04

  Exactly. So I mean, I, one of my favorite albums was Blueprint, so like I love records like, like All I Need and, and I love, I, I'm thinking about Freeway, like What We Do and I'm thinking about records that just nostalgic, but keep me going, you know what I mean? So.

• 16:20Questlove?

  How often do you prep for a DJ gig? Does it depend on it, like, is muscle memory intact now where you automatically know what's working for now or?

• 16:30Speaker 04

  Like, I, I mean, I just played New York on Saturday at Knockdown Center in the ruins, so I, that was more focused on my like Afro-electronic side, so I, I have a deep love for music from South Africa and Lisbon. And it's this very like deep spiritual electronic sound, um, you know, it's not just I'm a piano, it's like three-step and, and Afro tech and, and gom and, and piano and, and batida and there's all these different sounds. So I just did a set there, but I know today's a bit of a different crowd, right? I did Chicago last week, I played a festival, like an R and B festival, uh, it was called Forever Mind. And that's more of my global open format set, so I have different layers to me where

• 17:10Speaker 04

  to, today, for example, is an open format set and I only have forty-five minutes, which is hella short.

• 17:16Questlove?

  That is.

• 17:16Speaker 04

  So.

• 17:18Questlove?

  Is it harder for you to do a half-hour set or a five-hour set?

• 17:23Speaker 04

  A half-hour set.

• 17:24Questlove?

  What is it that you would like to convey to people when you do a half-hour set? Because I'm trying to tell a story, but I feel like under an hour is not long enough to let you see what it is that I do. So for you, when you're given an hour or under an hour.

• 17:40Speaker 04

  Right.

• 17:41Questlove?

  What do you feel that you must get across?

• 17:44Speaker 04

  I mean, when you have under an hour, you have to be a lot more precise, at least for me. Precise, intentional, I gotta have all my cues and loops in order. I never do a preset type of session.

• 17:59Questlove?

  Now you busted me, but go ahead.

• 18:01Speaker 04

  If I have fifty tracks for today, doesn't mean I'm gonna play them all in order.

• 18:05Questlove?

  Right.

• 18:05Speaker 04

  I, I just, I gotta just know where I can find them, so I try to arrange them in like pockets. So if I know this is more of like my up-tempo sound, if this is like my Jamaican Caribbean joints, if these are like my edits. I try to like group them and then I just try to, um, ideally, at least the tracks that I wanna start off with, I try to put like the first ten that I like really love at the top, so I could find them. Forty-five minutes, I gotta hit them with like thirty seconds to a minute, twenty like transitions.

• 18:34Questlove?

  So you, you just?

• 18:34Speaker 04

  I gotta wake them up.

• 18:35Questlove?

  Okay, I got it.

• 18:36Speaker 04

  Yeah, and I go all over, like my tempos are like, I, I'm going all over the, the map.

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• 19:21Speaker 05

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  You know, a song is a story and the verse is setting the scene. And for me, at least, it's allowing me to be personal and vulnerable with the audience, whether it's about my wife and I'm being vulnerable about her, or it's about, you know, my parents and I'm being vulnerable to them. And it's almost like a cinematic piece in a way where each song tells that beautiful story.

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• 20:42Questlove?

  Behind every chart-topping hit, you know by heart there's an original. Writing it someplace where nobody was listening. Some basement, some bedroom, somebody with headphones on at 3:00 in the morning chasing a thing they couldn't even name yet. Behind the culture that marks a generation, there's an original. Already moving, already shaking things up, already looping that one bar, already off-tempo. On purpose, because on purpose was the point. Behind every night that changed the room, somebody had to walk in first. Not knowing it would land, but doing it anyway. Originals are out there. Living stories worth telling. What's yours?

• 21:27Questlove?

  Behind every original, live in Levi's.

• 21:36Questlove?

  So for me, I have five bulletproof stalling records. Because sometimes, like, I have to be my own opening act.

• 21:45Speaker 04

  Right.

• 21:45Questlove?

  And I'll say that the difference between the way I DJ now versus then is I'm not sure what demographic I'm gonna meet. You know, if it's older people, I know exactly what they want. Usually, I try to hit people when they're their high school age. And sometimes, I need a stalling tactic to figure out who my audience is. So I'll say like the Bam Bam rhythm, like Murder She Wrote. Like, that rhythm will never die. It works for old people, young people. So maybe I'll spend my first five records there. Like, is there a bulletproof starting five that you use just to figure out where you are and what your set's gonna be?

• 22:30Speaker 04

  You know, it always changes. For me, depending what type of crowd I'm playing for, I'm always mixing up the records. But I do have, I have a playlist called Go-To's. And in there is maybe about 20 to 30 records that I can play at any time, and it'll, it'll move.

• 22:48Questlove?

  Instantly.

• 22:48Speaker 04

  And yeah, so I do organize. And when I notice these records really move crowds no matter what their preference is, I keep sliding those into that playlist. And it's kind of like one of them everlasting. As time goes on, it just gets bigger.

• 23:02Questlove?

  Can you give an example of like three of your go-tos that like absolutely work?

• 23:06Speaker 04

  Ooh, I have this, uh, this one right now that I've been playing. Everyone knows this song because I've played it so much. Uh, it's this, uh, Maxwell Ascension edit, but it has like a, a, like a Lisbon flow, like a house kind of flow to it. And it just has like.

• 23:21Questlove?

  Andre gave me this.

• 23:22Speaker 04

  You know what I'm talking about?

• 23:23Questlove?

  Yeah, I know. I played it for Maxwell. I know exactly what you, I know what it is.

• 23:26Speaker 04

  Okay, that one, I mean, it's universal and it gets the women going, man.

• 23:30Questlove?

  Right.

• 23:30Speaker 04

  Like, for me, I'm trying to move the women. Like, if you can move the women, everyone else follows.

• 23:35Questlove?

  Right.

• 23:35Speaker 04

  You get, you get the women dancing and you, and, and records, you get them sing-along, you know what I mean? That line dancing, I mean, that's, that's the goal. That's the, you get them early, too.

• 23:45Questlove?

  My method of DJing like for three hours is there's 10 songs that I want to be a pinnacle moment, but I learned early. Like, I used to be an amateur where I would just do killer, killer, killer, killer, killer. But after like 11 killers, people are numb. And I feed off the adrenaline of, holy shit, he's playing that shit. So after like the 11th record, then it's just like, oh yeah, he's a good DJ. And there's no more, you're just numb. Are you aware of that? Like, are you, must everything be a killer? Or, like, right now, I'm obsessed with bad records. Like, I'm, I'm, oh, I'm in Daredevil mode. Like, I will play some shit purposely whack where they'll be like, alright, let's go to the bathroom.

• 24:30Questlove?

  Knowing my next record's gonna be like, holy shit. So for you, do you have that sort of method when you do that?

• 24:37Speaker 04

  My, my method, uh, I'm not, no, I'm definitely not a every, I'm not like launching rockets every, every like track. Uh, I pace it out. I take people on a journey. You know, that's why I, I like to take people high. I could keep it up here the whole time. I might keep it there for three to 10 minutes max. But overall, I like to vibe them out. I like to bring them back home.

• 25:00Questlove?

  Got you.

• 25:01Speaker 04

  And kind of build them up and kind of just take them on this journey versus just high-energy, wear them out. Now, again, today, I wouldn't say I'm gonna go like super hard the whole time, but there's gonna be moments today. But since I have 45 minutes and it's a, Festival Joe's a little different. Like how I play my intimate sets or how I play sold-out show for 1,000 to 2,000 people for like that's, that people are coming to see me. Today, I understand there's a lot of people who don't know who I am. And there's people that do, there's people that don't. So, and it's festive, it's a lot of nostalgic but contemporary sounds, R&B, hip-hop, you know what I mean? Centric, soul music. So I know the audience I'm playing for.

• 25:43Speaker 04

  So everything, I have the edits, um, the blends, originals. Everything is in pocket for today. And a few left-field records that maybe they would never listen to are still in pocket that I feel like I could still, there's still some music discovery going on.

• 25:59Questlove?

  What, in your opinion, is the perfect closing record? Like, when you're done, are, are you just spinning until the cops like, the club owner's like, you gotta stop now?

• 26:09Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 26:10Questlove?

  Or do you have an intentional closing record that's like?

• 26:12Speaker 04

  It always changes. Sometimes I lose track of time and I'm like, oh damn, I only have five minutes, only three. And I kind of just end where I'm at. But, um, every now and then, I have a couple. But oh, for the most part, it just depends on the type of crowd. Like, what I played again in New York the other night is different from how I would end today because that one was in a certain theme and pocket. Here's more, like I said, a more global, open-format set. So it's gonna be different from this set to, to the last one.

• 26:41Questlove?

  When you spin, do you watch your audience? Or are you just focused? I don't wanna watch the audience because I might get in my head if something's not working. So I always keep.

• 26:54Speaker 04

  You know what I don't like? My biggest peeve is when people are on their leaning against the rails in the front.

• 26:59Questlove?

  Oh, trying to get you.

• 27:00Speaker 04

  When, no, no, no, when they're just leaning on their phone or they're kind of airing you out. Because that front crowd, they determine a lot of the energy. You can have people behind you dancing. You can have people on the side, in the back. But when these people are up there and they're looking at you.

• 27:13Questlove?

  And just wanna watch?

• 27:14Speaker 04

  Right. I, I don't, I, I, man, that's personally one of my pet peeves. But yeah, absolutely watch the crowd. Because, I mean, I'm not like staring at them the whole time, but I constantly look up every record to see, are they feeling this? Do I need to take it somewhere else?

• 27:27Questlove?

  Right.

• 27:28Speaker 04

  You know, so, uh, but I feel you. But I also use four CDJs usually. So I'm up there working, like, I'm up there lining all my shit up. And by the time I look up, but I'm, I'm, I'm mostly focused on the mixer and what I'm bringing in.

• 27:43Questlove?

  Got you. Tell me your journey of trying to get put on. Did it start with Stones Throw, like trying to join the squad or?

• 27:50Speaker 04

  Yeah, at the time, I had just tried, I had tried to intern for them.

• 27:53Questlove?

  Okay.

• 27:53Speaker 04

  Yeah, I never got a call back and it was fine. I don't even think they probably even saw the resume. This was like.

• 27:58Questlove?

  Alright Wolf, now I'm playing.

• 28:00Speaker 04

  And it's cool, me and Wolf and that crew, we're, we're cool. You know, I've had them on the radio show. We laugh about it now, you know?

• 28:06Questlove?

  But the universe clearly wanted you to be the leader of your own. Which, this is clearly the better option.

• 28:12Speaker 04

  Because I wasn't getting calls back. I had to apply to like be an intern at Alpha Pub or Low End Theory. You know, for the legendary Low End Theory, not the album, but the, the.

• 28:22Questlove?

  The dance party.

• 28:23Speaker 04

  The event in LA that, that lasted about, what, 15, 10, 15 years? I used to go there. That was like my space, my safe space to go to and hear about new producers and get beat CDs there that no one had. That was another thing, I would go there and, you know, that's where I would see Flying Lotus or I would see, shoot, even Tyler. It's dope, you know, I saw a video, I didn't even know he's here, but seeing Tyler, Tyler, the creator here as a fan. Like, he's just a huge music fan. He pulled up to Low End Theory back in the day and was just there as a fan. And then he ended up playing when he was on his rise. And, you know, I just, I appreciate people like that. So that, that was my early stomping grounds. But I, again, the formation of selection came because I didn't hear back. So I'm like, man, I, I have to show my own proof of concept.

• 29:08Speaker 04

  If someone doesn't believe in this, I have to create that myself. Uh, I can't wait on other people. Um, so I ended up creating, that's how selection, the foundation of it. And, and the podcast before selection. It was like, I gotta just show people what I can do because I can sit here and try to explain or they already have their resonance and stuff. I don't expect them to just put me on. But I had to show someone what I can do. And that's how, that's what I started doing.

• 29:33Questlove?

  Did you intentionally say, okay, I wanna start this movement? I kind of accidentally just wound up in it. And then someone told me like five years into it like, well dude, this, this is a movement you got here. But then it was just like, hey, let's do it in my house or?

• 29:48Speaker 04

  I never like. Was like, okay, this is gonna be a movement. I was just so passionate, more so about the radio. It was always radio first and then the label side. And at that time, there was no streaming or distribution. There was no, you know, the services we have today where anyone could upload a record today. Back then, it was like, if you could put music up on SoundCloud and Bandcamp and get it up on the iTunes store and get like 100 records pressed, it was a huge deal for people. But the format at the time was SoundCloud and Bandcamp. That's what we were using to drop every week. And that was our format.

• 30:22Questlove?

  Well, okay, so I was gonna say, I mean, you literally started from zip files to this global movement now. In those 15 years, like, is there nostalgia for you? Like, in terms of, I mean, I'm sort of caught in between a digital world and an analog world. But I always want to know, for a person that started in digital, is there nostalgia for a digital movement? Like, is there something that you had in 2011 that is not available now that you miss?

• 30:57Speaker 04

  Like, in terms of a format?

• 30:58Questlove?

  Well, I mean, is there something along the way that you you miss that isn't there?

• 31:02Speaker 04

  I do miss that cosmic, that Flying Lotus, After One Sound, you know, that 2008 through 2011 pocket, where I feel like they were the poster child of Dilla. They were like, young, up and coming, but they had this, like, new wave sound, but it was still in pocket. I'm like, damn, I really, there wasn't enough music that came out in that pocket. And beyond that, I mean, I just think that era of, like I said, 2010 through like 2015, pre-streaming was special. I started DJing at the end of the analog vinyl era, where it was still there. But at that point, Serato was already around. Everyone had their laptops.

• 31:44Speaker 04

  So you didn't have to walk around with, you know, with crates or bags of 45s and stuff like that, which is nothing wrong with that. It's good to see it come back.

• 31:52Questlove?

  How do you feel about this 45 resurgence movement? Have you jumped on it yet, or?

• 31:57Speaker 04

  Yeah, I've been pressing, I've been laying down some of my white labels and stuff like that. I've been, I've been playing at Dante's Hi-Fi. I've always collected vinyl, even when I started digital, I always had records. I just wasn't out doing vinyl sets. It wasn't, I wasn't trying to be, I was just like, man, I want, I want this record. I want to collect it. When I went to Japan, Japan actually re-inspired me to get back and playing records again, like publicly, you know. So Japan's a special place to me. And so, went to some kisas and some, some listening bars. And I'm like, man, this sound system, this, this Dev Oha sound system, I gotta, I gotta play on this, you know what I mean? So it kind of got kicked back off there. And then my guys at Dante's Hi-Fi is really what inspired.

• 32:40Speaker 04

  So I've been, I've been back on it. I've been, I've been pressing my own records and and I

• 32:46Questlove?

  Yeah, you're gonna force me back into this?

• 32:48Speaker 04

  Yeah, man, but it's been, it's been great because I'm such a digital guy. And it's because these records aren't all on vinyl, on wax. I've just been laying, I've been laying these down. And it's been nice to just have one of ones for myself to play out. Because I feel like when people listen to a vinyl set, especially the youth, I feel like they're more likely to actually sit there and listen to the record playing. Because they know it's on vinyl. Versus, any of us could switch up a track in 20 seconds and it's just like, it loses that feeling. People are just like, oh, this is just another DJ set. Anyone could buy a FLX4 now, a $200 controller, and now they're, they're playing at your local speakeasy that took you three years to get in. And they're playing that

• 33:31Speaker 04

  overnight because of a TikTok or a Blender, an idea they had. So it's, it's a lot different nowadays, you know?

• 33:37Questlove?

  Tell me about the genesis of starting the selection collation or movement, like, hooking up with Andre and like

• 33:46Speaker 04

  Just everything, the whole crew, the Sango, like you see, you brought up Taku Karmak. But it was, it was literally just finding them on SoundCloud and hitting them up on a message of, hey, I love your music. This is what we do. By that point, we already had X amount of, of SoundCloud and Bandcamp releases, just unofficial things. It's like, do you want to just, you have a loose record that you're, a demo idea, send it over? We'll, we'll come up with the artwork. We'll put that shit out tomorrow. It was that easy. Man, we just, it was about the music. And remember at that era, in 20, 2011 and onwards, videos didn't even exist on, on Instagram. TikTok didn't even exist. So remember, it was just like, you had to post a still, a flyer. It was about the music. And that's

• 34:29Speaker 04

  what I loved. I missed that era, you know? And so that's how we came up. But it was really, like I said, I started doing this in 2008, 2007. And it was those four plus years of developing and networking that when it came to selection, I already had this network of friends from all over the world, that I had already been pushing through my podcasting on my own. So when it came to selection, the foundation, the rapport was already there. And then, after that, when I started selection radio, that was like the weekly bulletin that enabled me to promote the records that we were putting out and all my friends and music that I was finding on a, on a weekly basis.

• 35:07Questlove?

  Okay, so you currently living in Miami right now?

• 35:10Speaker 04

  Yes, yes.

• 35:10Questlove?

  Okay, so I gotta ask you this thing. What made you want to relocate down there? Because even to this day, like, I reject Miami gigs because it's one of the hardest gigs I've ever had to face. Because I usually just wind up compromising and saying, all right, let me play what they play, just so I can get invited back again. But

• 35:33Speaker 04

  As of today, what do you consider the sound of Miami?

• 35:36Questlove?

  Well, the thing is, is that also, when I play Miami, it's also a niche party. Like, if the do-over is there. Well, first of all, when, when a music conference was a very active thing, I would go down there. And of course, it's, it's niche parties, you know, where you can be a hip hop head and play on South Beach or whatever. But, you know, for the most part, you know, I've always thought that movements start where there is no culture. Like Philly's very easy. Now Philly's like, oh, neo-soul and all that stuff. But the reason why it works here is because we had nothing. We were in New York shadow. And we were consistent. So my thing is that, I was very curious to why would

• 36:17Questlove?

  you want to leave the comfort zone of California, which, everything that you stand for, like, as far as your movement is concerned, is out there. Whereas, I did not see any of that in Miami. And what made you choose that?

• 36:34Speaker 04

  Right. No, it's a great question. You know, I've been going to Miami for, I want to say 12, 13 years. And so we've been building the selection sound there for a long time. And I built a community of, of people that support me. And then as I got closer to people like, like Sven and, and, you know, the guys at Dante's Hi-Fi, 1-800-LUCKY, Coil Taco, you know, Alan and, and the crew and shout out Rich. And man, there's so many great guys part of that team. It, it just, I started to feel more of a connection because Miami's smaller. It's a smaller regional proximity than like, let's say LA. LA is massive. New

• 37:13Speaker 04

  York, massive geography. I feel, outside of New York, Miami's one of the most international, if not the most international city in the US. And so for me, I could hop on a flight, an hour and some changes that to, to Jamaica, right? If I want to go to PR, DR and all the other, the, the West Indies, I have access. If I want to pop into, to Colombia or South America, I'm right there. If I want to go to London, if I want to go to New York, I'm three hours out, right? So I think geographically, being on the East Coast time zone is good for my mind. And also, like I said, the community that I built. So I've been able to tap in. And I've been tapping in with the Haitians. There's like a, the, the huge Haitian community.

• 37:56Speaker 04

  So I've just been learning about their, I, I knew about their culture and, and genres and sounds. But now I'm in it. Now I'm going to their parties. Now, my boy Jason Pantone's not just invited me to his Afrobeat Afro Caribbean party, but then he's taking me to this up and coming Pierre Amo Piano Party on Sundays, that happens in this little shack outdoor spot. And they're playing, it's like the closest thing to South Africa you'll get in Miami, right?

• 38:24Questlove?

  Right.

• 38:25Speaker 04

  And, and then we did Club Space for 15 years of selection. We did 15 hours, right? And for us to bring the selection sound and the electronic sound together, having Benji B, Theo Parrish, J2G, myself, Sango and J-Rock, you know what I mean, from the Beat Junkies and all these legends, and Coco Roco, right? Having these people at hearing horns in Club Space, you don't hear that.

• 38:51Questlove?

  So you're saying it's safe to come back to Miami right now?

• 38:54Speaker 04

  It's safe. And it's not just, yeah, it's, it's

• 38:57Questlove?

  And no offense to any, any of our people in Miami. I didn't mean like, I'll never go back. But it's just, you know, there's some markets where, at least in the market, when I was DJing, Vegas is harder.

• 39:10Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 39:11Questlove?

  Miami was one of those things, a little harder. Atlantic City harder. Like, there's some markets that were, where I didn't feel like fighting. Like, I'm gonna force you to dance to this J Dilla shit, whether you want to or not. You know what I mean?

• 39:23Speaker 04

  Right, right, right.

• 39:30Speaker 03

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  To rising stars like Alex Warren.

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• 40:43Questlove?

  On the iHeart Radio app, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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• 41:26Questlove?

  Behind every chart-topping hit, you know by heart there's an original. Writing it someplace where nobody was listening. Some basement, some bedroom, somebody with headphones on at 3:00 in the morning chasing a thing they couldn't even name yet. Behind the culture that marks a generation, there's an original. Already moving, already shaking things up, already looping that one bar, already off-tempo, on purpose, because on purpose was the point. Behind every night that changed the room, somebody had to walk in first. Not knowing it would land, but doing it anyway. Originals are out there, living stories worth telling. What's yours?

• 42:10Questlove?

  Behind every original, live and leave us.

• 42:20Questlove?

  How would you categorize? Because that's the one thing I am confused about. Like, in terms of, like, deep house versus classic house versus South African house versus I'm a piano versus reggaeton versus...

• 42:33Speaker 04

  There's so many sublabels now.

• 42:34Questlove?

  Like, for you, like, if I hear a lot of compression in the sound, like, a lot of compression, then I'm like, alright, so is it, you know what I mean? Like, so how do you categorize and know? And are the genres interchangeable? Or is it the parties that you're playing in? Can you mix of the genres?

• 42:53Speaker 04

  Yeah, that's, and I think that's my, my superpower, is that I'm not boxed into, if I'm playing, like, again, if I'm in my Afro-electronic bag, or if I'm playing for a crowd, even at space, I don't have to limit myself to just traditional house or tech house or whatever genres. I kind of play all these different sounds and diasporas from different countries, and I kind of bring it all into one, because they're all within the same range. They're all, especially 118 to 130, right? Like, they're all within that pocket. They just have different cadences, and they have different styles of production.

• 43:29Questlove?

  Okay.

• 43:29Speaker 04

  But I, I'm very front-facing and leaning towards the percussion and the tribal drum, like, we talked about Dilla. I'm a drum guy.

• 43:39Questlove?

  Right.

• 43:39Speaker 04

  So I love dirty drums. I love just some shit that wakes you up. It like wakes up the spirit. And a lot of it has swing. That's why I like Batida, because it's deep house, but it's soulful. But it has this Angolan, you know, rooted sound and Cape Verde and, and like, all these different energies and surrounding countries and parts of Africa that people don't know about, that the sound, it's a drum. That's why I love the log drum, you know, and I'm a piano, because now you're hearing it in Afro beats and you're hearing it in different sounds. Because, I don't know, there's something about that sound electronically, for me, it wakes me up, like, oh, what is that? I've never heard.

• 44:20Speaker 04

  It's like a grown, it's like being at, like, at a grown rave for, for real music heads, and they're hearing this, like, newer, not want to say techno sound, but it's just like a spiritual sound. And so, yeah, there's all these sounds. Now there's three-step, which is like a form of deep house and Afro tech, right? So there's all these sounds that I'm constantly learning about, and there's always going to be a new one, but, um, I just take the time to learn about them and about the artists and things like that.

• 44:49Questlove?

  Who do you feel right now is the sound of tomorrow? And do you get nervous about it in terms of, like, not maintaining a lock on your movement, but pivoting, moving forward, you know? Like, and there's a point in every creative's life...

• 45:08Speaker 04

  She's killing it right now, by the way.

• 45:09Questlove?

  I know.

• 45:10Speaker 04

  K1, K1's killing it. That's definitely a sound that's been, she got the women on lock.

• 45:15Questlove?

  So, yeah, but how do you know when it's time to pivot? And when it's time to search for what's next? How do you know what to leave behind you?

• 45:24Speaker 04

  It's a feeling and intuition. I wouldn't say I leave behind, I still keep my roots. However, I think it's just where my spirit guides me. It's like magnetic. I just know, this is what I'm feeling. I can't, I'm, at my age, I, I don't feel like, I'm not here to fake things. I'm 15, I've been doing selection 15 years, but I've been doing this 18, 19 years now total. So for me, at this point, I stay true to what I believe in, and I'm always trying to make it easier on my, on my audience to be like, hey, I know maybe you're used to this sound through selection, or you're, you want to hear your R&B and soul, and you want to hear the edits and blends, right? The blend culture that we know today and the stems, like, this is just a full cycle of what has been going on for ages.

• 46:09Speaker 04

  It's just more commercialized and digitalized now because of technology, you know what I mean? But I get off more, I'm putting people onto the unknown, the deeper sounds. I'm all about discovery and putting things on that they may recognize but are still unfamiliar with. And I find, I think about finding that balance.

• 46:29Questlove?

  So I'm sure you've been asked this before. You released your first EP, like, kind of 15 years into your career? What took you so long to finally put yourself in the spotlight instead of you discovering the next person?

• 46:46Speaker 04

  I, one, I got out of my head, my management, I, man, shout out to my management team, they're the best. They just really coached me through it, and they're like, man...

• 46:55Questlove?

  Yes.

• 46:55Speaker 04

  You, you have everything on lock, but you're missing music. You know, think about, at the time, if I would have put out a record with Bryson Tiller or Brent Faiyaz or Snow Allegra or Sir, Daniel Caesar, right? Like, Mosego. Like, it's not about trying to attach my name and take credit for everyone, but it's like artists that, that we were really early on before, when they had less than 5,000 followers, hundreds of followers, and taking that risk, and then having records out with them. Imagine where those records would be now. Even the records that I've helped push organically that weren't through selection, but I just loved them so much, and whether we played them over and over and made them, helped

• 47:39Speaker 04

  grow them organically, or flipped them and made them even, even bigger through remixes and the edit culture, those are still like, things that, it's like marketing that an artist, you could only hope for, you know? Especially when you get a crew like selection and myself organically pushing something. It makes those records reach millions of more people.

• 48:00Questlove?

  Right.

• 48:00Speaker 04

  So there's a lot of records like that, that we got behind early on, that I personally know and feel, that I wouldn't, I wouldn't say we are the sole reason these artists became who they are, but we were really early part of the foundation of these artists becoming more widespread through, through these edits or through how I was playing them on the show and then having a moment online or something like that.

• 48:21Questlove?

  Who, who would you say, and I know there's like a, I know there's probably asking you, what's your favorite breath you ever took? But of all the people that you've put on or gave shine light to, who would you say was like, the shining light of like, that made it into the spotlight that you'd feel like, wow, I, I helped seed them? Even if you don't get the credit for it, but who were some of the people that you, that you're cosign?

• 48:49Speaker 04

  I mean, some of the ones I just named, but when I look, I, I think about Sonder Brent Faiyaz.

• 48:54Questlove?

  Yeah.

• 48:54Speaker 04

  You know, I think about Snow Allegra had, already had motion, and she was with, already with no ID.

• 49:00Questlove?

  Yeah.

• 49:00Speaker 04

  On the label side, but I feel like she had like, she had like a rebrand, and man, like, it was amazing to see her rebrand and us pushing that, you know? Again, Bryson Tiller, when he put out "Don't," and Trap Soul.

• 49:13Questlove?

  Yeah.

• 49:13Speaker 04

  Uh, there's actually Sango, Jay Louis, and a couple other people from, that came from the SoundCloud era, that came up in this, in the selection pocket, you know what I mean? And I, I feel close to that. Again, Mosego being really early on that, and then who else? I had, there was another name, I, I had mentioned Sir. I remember Sir early on, you know what I mean? Before he got signed to TDE.

• 49:35Questlove?

  Yeah.

• 49:35Speaker 04

  That was, it's just been a moment watching all these artists develop. And then one I can't forget, and again, this is a collaborative thing, he's done all the work, but just to this day, still play at least a couple of his records in my set, is Kaitranada. You know, when he was Kaitra Damas, pushing his records early on, but as Kaitra, that's someone that I feel is, he's the face of this all. I mean, he's, he can literally do 10,000 to 30,000 people of his, at, at his own show, sold out.

• 50:09Questlove?

  He was headlining here last year.

• 50:11Speaker 04

  That's what I'm saying, you know? And so I, we just played together, um, he did the mainst, same setup. He did main stage, I did the, the B-stage at, in Chicago, and it was fire. Like, I closed out, when I finished, he was coming on.

• 50:26Questlove?

  Yeah.

• 50:26Speaker 04

  So it was like a staggered thing, and I'm like, this is a perfect way to end a festival.

• 50:29Questlove?

  Yeah.

• 50:29Speaker 04

  You know what I mean? So...

• 50:30Questlove?

  So what's a part of your creative life that we're unaware of, that you have to go through in order to make this, this story, uh, work?

• 50:39Speaker 04

  It's a great question. To make this, um... Lately, for me, it's been, it's been a lot of traveling. When I travel, I'm getting inspired by different sounds and people.

• 50:50Questlove?

  Yes.

• 50:51Speaker 04

  And ideas, or it's just life moves. Honestly, my move from, from LA to Miami, it was a, you know, I didn't just like sell everything and start over. I moved my whole house over. So it was, it was very difficult to do that in the midst of our 15 year anniversary. This whole year has been a campaign for us. So that, those challenges and these like time blocks really put me in a position where I'm like, I might still be getting settled into my home, but I gotta hop on a flight to do this thing. So these challenges, uh, they make me more intentional with my time.

• 51:23Questlove?

  Yeah.

• 51:23Speaker 04

  And my, who I have around me and things like that. So I think the move has put me in a different headspace because I got out of my comfort zone. And so the creative has been like in my home because I spend the most time in my home. So I need to make sure that my space feels inspiring and motivational. So me just being there, being able to think that as soon as I, I go home tomorrow, I'm gonna sit there in my house. And sometimes I just, I'm in silence. I just stare. I'm, I'm an introvert at heart, but I'm social by association and by my career. But I'm really an introverted person. So when I go home, I'm just, I, I need to sit. Like you, like you haven't even had a moment to reflect on what just happened. And I don't know when you will, but hopefully you get at least half a day or like a day to yourself this week.

• 52:08Speaker 04

  And then it can kind of all just hit you. And I'm talking about like now where you're reflecting with your friends or the crew or with Jay. I'm talking about where you just get to sit there and just be present with what just happened. But then it's tough because this happens. And then like you said, you had that thing with Nas. You know what I'm saying? Like or the, and the whole, uh, the Hollywood Bowl, right?

• 52:27Questlove?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 52:28Speaker 04

  You're always on to the next thing. So I think the biggest thing for us is finding ways to still be present and take it all in. Cause there's always gonna be the next thing. Like fuck, I gotta hop on the next flight, the next show, the next set, the next rehearsal. So I'm even wondering like, how do you find time for yourself or to take it all in?

• 52:46Questlove?

  Well, okay, well, my last question to you is gonna be, what's your self-care routine? Um, you know, with me, I have a daytime routine and a nighttime routine. And both those routines require silence. I initially was the person that kept music playing when I fall asleep. Keep music on when I, you know what I mean? And.

• 53:10Speaker 04

  You stopped that?

• 53:11Questlove?

  Yeah, so once, well, my life changed during the pandemic where I discovered silence and meditation. And, and only when silence came did other ideas come. And, you know, as a result, this is kind of why I'm in the lane of where I didn't expect to be, which is movies. You know what I mean? But for me, it's just having a routine that I stick to, which is, you know, I gotta spend my first half hour of the day just sitting in silence, not looking at my phone.

• 53:42Speaker 04

  So you don't check your phone when you wake up?

• 53:44Questlove?

  I haven't talked to Jay yet, you know what I mean?

• 53:45Speaker 04

  Wow.

• 53:47Questlove?

  Like I, I still have to allow myself to, to, to sit.

• 53:52Speaker 04

  You know, I have so many questions. We gotta do a session where you come on my show, but I was gonna say.

• 53:56Questlove?

  I would love to do that.

• 53:57Speaker 04

  Cause I have, man, we don't have enough time unfortunately today, but I was gonna say, the, the main question for you.

• 54:03Questlove?

  Yeah.

• 54:03Speaker 04

  Is how long did it take to rehearse what y'all did?

• 54:06Questlove?

  The Jay-Z thing?

• 54:07Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 54:08Questlove?

  Okay, so I'll say that around January. First of all, asking Jay-Z to do the picnic has been an ongoing 18 year joke. And this year, usually we plan for the picnic. The picnic, we give ourselves a month off. This year will mark the first year in which I'm not taking a break in terms of more picnics. We wanted to always expand the picnic across the, the world. So this, you know, we're doing Philly, LA, uh, London, uh, we're doing Rotterdam.

• 54:45Speaker 04

  Oh, damn.

• 54:46Questlove?

  And, uh, there's one more we might consider. We might do Tokyo, I don't know. So the thing is, is that usually we take a month off just to, no more curating, no more listening to who's next and all those things. And then come August, we gotta work on next year. And usually it starts with calling the big guns. Hey, Mariah, you wanna do this year? Hey, Janet, you wanna do this year?

• 55:14Speaker 04

  Are you making those calls yourself? Some of them?

• 55:16Questlove?

  The only, listen, relationships are everything. Because this is.

• 55:21Speaker 04

  But only you could lock in Jay.

• 55:23Questlove?

  Well, yeah, I mean, the thing is, is that for this event and the types of acts we do. Number one, we always wanted to keep the price down under, well, I mean, before it was like, until three years ago, it was always under a hundred dollars. So, and we don't have much sponsorship and those things. So a lot of this is lookout for the cookout. Okay, well, we'll, uh, I mean, I'm not, I'm not, I wanna give people ideas like, hey, I'll drum for free on your next 12 albums. But it, it's, it's really friendship. You know what I mean? Like I'm friends with Usher, I'm friends with Jay, I'm friends with like anyone that's Erica, yo.

• 56:05Questlove?

  And so, you know, one, it's relationships, but really it's just constantly that, I'll, I'll say the hardest part of it now is figuring out who's next. Now, thanks to The Tonight Show, I'm forced to know who's next. Cause the thing that makes The Tonight Show special is knowing an unknown Ariana Grande or an unknown, like anyone who's A-list now were unknowns back then. And here's a network debut, you know? So kind of being in The Tonight Show and by default, the SNL ecosystem constantly puts you in the mix with other people.

• 56:47Questlove?

  So at the end of the day, this is about your ears and what you like. One, can you still listen to music as a fan? Now, you know, when you talk about Dilla, Dilla taught me how to actually absorb music. Cause before I would just buy a record and then skip.

• 57:09Speaker 04

  Constantly searching and you're just like skip, skip. What's the next one? I need, what's my next record?

• 57:13Questlove?

  Right, and he, Sundays at his house, he would clean the house, he would drive around, he would listen to complete songs four, five, six, seven, eight times until, he says every song has something to reveal to him. He just has to subconsciously, oh, that bassline and make a note of it. And there was a part where I started being a machine and stopped being a music fan. Where are you versus being a machine and a human in terms of music is concerned?

• 57:47Speaker 04

  I'm definitely a machine. I was listening to music and digging for some music for today that I didn't have in my library. Still always finding new records, but what's been helping me listen fully is actually playing records at home. So every day when I wake up, I have my setup right where I spend 90% of my day. I have my turntables and I've just been on, I, I buy like new records still.

• 58:09Questlove?

  Right.

• 58:10Speaker 04

  So I've just been hitting play and like stuff that I might skip on, on streaming. Or if I'm in the car, since I'm moving around, it just plays. And it's become, it's kind of caused me to be a bit more patient and let the music speak and flow. So I'm in the middle because my job, I have a radio show every week that I do. And I have to find new music to play and program every week to the, to my people that listen, but also.

• 58:36Questlove?

  Are you numb to that process?

• 58:37Speaker 04

  It's a muscle memory. But I would say I'm numb is it's very difficult because I've gotten busier. And it's hard to still get these shows in every Friday. Uh, I pre-record them and then they air Sunday. It's hard while I'm in the middle of touring, but what's helped is when I have special guests and takeovers that will take, fill in the show for me. So like I had, I had a, I had a, uh, someone fill in for me this week.

• 59:01Questlove?

  Hello?

• 59:01Speaker 04

  Yeah, no, but it's real. And you're, and you're next, come on, man.

• 59:04Questlove?

  I definitely wanna do it. I definitely wanna do it.

• 59:06Speaker 04

  We gotta do that now. And we need another real conversation because I have 45 questions for you off top that I just, I feel like the people in the world, and I know people have asked this, but I feel like you, you laugh when I start talking about what generation I'm from. I feel like the generation I come from plus older folks, I feel like there's a bit of an angle I can hit you with that maybe others. I've seen the Red Bull, the RBMA ones, like killed it. But I just, there's just some things, man, especially with new life events. I'm so curious where your head is at, you know? So anyways, yeah, thank, thank you for taking the time and being here after an incredible night like that. You could have easily been like, man, I love you, Joe, selection, but like I'mma chill.

• 59:46Speaker 04

  Like I just had a, one of my biggest nights last night with, it's, it's a rarity for Jay to play. And like for you to still show up, show up on time, I pay attention to that stuff, man. This guy was on, we were walking in together, you know what I mean?

• 59:59Questlove?

  So like getting, getting to you to me is even more important because like, I'm a fan of curators. So, and this dates back, like a curator put the roots on, like Giles Peterson, you know what I mean? And the way that he put on Benji B and seeing you do that and so forth, like I can only learn from that. And the thing is, I don't wanna be the, the all-knowing know-it-all. I wanna be the student, so yeah, I appreciate that. Thank you, sir. Thank you for coming on the show.

• 1:00:28Speaker 04

  Thank you so much, man.

• 1:00:29Questlove?

  Yes.

• 1:00:29Speaker 04

  Appreciate you.

• 1:00:31Questlove?

  This is The Questlove Show. Thank you, Joe.

• 1:00:34Speaker 04

  Thank you, man.

• 1:00:35Questlove?

  I appreciate this and we'll see you on the next go around.

• 1:00:37Speaker 04

  Peace out.

• 1:00:42Questlove?

  Questlove Show is hosted by me, Amir Questlove Thompson. The executive producers are Sean G, Brian Calhoun, and me. Produced by Brittany Benjamin and Jake Payne. Produced for iHeart by Noel Brown. Edited by Alex Conley. iHeart Video Support by Mark Canton. Logos, graphics, and animation by Nick Alois. Additional support by Lance Colman. Special thanks to Kathy Braun. Special thanks to Sugar Steve Mandel. Please subscribe, rate, review, and share The Questlove Show wherever you stream your podcasts.

• 1:01:26Speaker 07

  Make sure you follow us on socials. That's at Q L S. Check out hundreds and hundreds of Q L S episodes, including the Questlove Supreme Shows in our podcast archives. Questlove Show is a production of iHeart Radio.

• 1:01:57Speaker 07

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• 1:02:28Questlove?

  Behind every chart-topping hit, you know by heart there's an original, writing it someplace where nobody was listening. Behind the culture that marks a generation, there's an original, already moving, already shaking things up. Behind every night that changed the room, somebody had to walk in first, not knowing it would land, but doing it anyway. Originals are out there, living stories worth telling. What's yours? Behind every original, live in Levi's.

• 1:03:03Speaker 07

  Honestly? Honestly? Honestly? No one wants to think about HIV, but there are things that everyone can do to help prevent it. Things like PrEP. PrEP stands for pre-exposure prophylaxis, and it means routinely taking prescription medicine before you're exposed to HIV to help reduce your chances of getting it. PrEP can be about 99% effective when taken as prescribed. It doesn't protect against other STIs, though, so be sure to use condoms and other healthy sex practices. Ask a healthcare provider about all your prevention options and visit findoutaboutprep.com to learn more. Sponsored by Gilead.

• 1:03:33Speaker 03

  If you love music and great artist interviews, check out Before the Moment, hosted by Nile Rodgers. This new series follows Nile as he travels across the country, talking with some of today's most fascinating artists about the moments that shaped their lives and careers. From hitmakers like Miguel to rising stars like Alex Warren, Nile explores the stories behind the careers, the songs, and the moments that changed everything, because every musician remembers the point where everything changed. And this podcast tells the stories that came before it. Listen to Before the Moment, a Lincoln Original Series, on the iHeart Radio app, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.

• 1:04:13Questlove?

  What's that?

• 1:04:13Speaker 01

  My fresh detector.

• 1:04:15Questlove?

  Uh, your what?

• 1:04:16Speaker 01

  There it is.

• 1:04:17Questlove?

  What is it detecting?

• 1:04:19Speaker 01

  Fresh produce? Fresh meat? Okay, what happens if it detects something really fresh? Apparently, we celebrate. At Food Lion, you can count on fresh food at fresher prices when your fresh detector is going off. Head to your local Food Lion or shop at foodlion.com. This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human.