Vince Staples

Vince Staples sits down with Questlove for a rare, unflinching conversation about community, survival, and growing as an artist without losing yourself. Speaking about his latest album, Crybaby, Vince shares hard-earned truths and wisdom from his life, cutting through myth and memory with his trademark clarity and dark humor. The two artists explore happiness, death, faith, hobbies, and the music industry’s shifting gaze on Black artists—while tracing Vince’s journey from riding the bus to Hollywood studios to becoming one of music's sharpest minds. 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. Guaranteed human.

• 0:05Speaker 01

  If you're a custodial supervisor at a local high school, you know that cleanliness is key and that the best place to get cleaning supplies is from Granger. Granger helps you stay fully stocked on the products you trust, from paper towels and disinfectants to floor scrubbers. Plus, you can rely on Granger for easy reordering, so you never run out of what you need. Call 1-800-GRANGER, click Granger.com, or just stop by. Granger, for the ones who get it done.

• 0:35Questlove?

  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.

• 1:07Questlove?

  The Questlove Show is a production of iHeart Radio.

• 1:29Questlove?

  Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to an episode of The Questlove Show. My name's Questlove. I'm gonna be very honest with you. Most artists have integrity. Their integrity meter, that sort of flickers, and I feel like our guest today sort of pinned that meter on full. And I'll be honest with you, since day one, I've been a fan of his, but I'll make a confession here on this platform, which is that I was afraid to work with our guest today, because

• 2:07Questlove?

  I talked myself in my head that I would be the one blemish on what is otherwise probably one of the most exemplary, this is not brown smoke, you know, hyperbole, but you know, I feel like his career is really like one of the most exemplary, remarkable runs of artistic growth that an artist can hope for. Like, you've seen artists that will evolve from point A to point B, and then they make this radical record, and then they make a departure record, and they make a jazz record, and then whatever, but you know, I've watched him pull off like musical impossibilities like in this entire career.

• 2:50Questlove?

  Ten-plus projects, be it LPs, or EPs, or mixtapes, or whatever, and somehow, he's managed to turn all types of emotions, be it fear, anger, surrealism, into a kind of cathartic means of expression, and you know, he's also armed with wit, humor. Really, I mean, his number one weapon, I would probably say, is honesty, and it does it with absolute bullseye execution, and manages to sort of speak to every generation, from references that only boomers would know, that Gen X would only know, that millennials

• 3:31Questlove?

  would only know, and alphas and whatever, so on, and especially on his latest album, which, you know, one could say is rock-leaning, Cry Baby is no exception. I didn't bring him here necessarily to figure out like what makes him tick, but I kind of brought him here so I could learn something, because I'd need people to follow suit, and I really hate over praising people in front of them, because I think it makes them uncomfortable. But I feel like a genius of his order really needs to be studied and followed, and I don't feel like the world really puts him in the conversation of, you know, artist or, you

• 4:14Questlove?

  know, italicized artist enough, and he kind of makes the rest of us out here feel like we're cosplaying as artists. So, I want to welcome someone that I really admire as a fan, Ben Staples.

• 4:27Speaker 02

  Thanks, man, I appreciate that.

• 4:28Questlove?

  Yeah.

• 4:29Speaker 02

  That was kind of you.

• 4:30Questlove?

  Because I believe that you have, not even high standard, just a general standard, and sometimes people will say this to me often, like, they feel like, they'll often say to Roots, like, "Oh, man, I feel like a fraud in front of you guys," and you know, and there's always been like an isolation thing. For you, though, do you feel as though you have community support, or is it just like the "if you know, you know" thing that sort of fuels the gas in your car?

• 4:58Speaker 02

  I think it really depends on what you consider community to be and what you consider support to be.

• 5:04Questlove?

  Right.

• 5:05Speaker 02

  I think aspiring is a strong motivator for a lot of people, even if we don't notice it, so people can only support you within the boundaries of what they want for themselves. So if people want to get out of the hood, and they feel like you've gotten out the hood, then they'll support that, if they support, I guess, your creativity, or they support your background, if they support the financial elements of it, or whatever they think your politics might be, then they'll support that. So I think that we do have, or I do have, a decent amount of support and community, but I think it's scattered, because people kind of view me in different lights. You know, it's not like an overall consensus of this is how I feel about this person, with

• 5:50Speaker 02

  me, I feel.

• 5:51Questlove?

  I've learned this myself. I'm definitely in the zone where I'm like all things to all people, and I have first five Roots albums, Only People, I got, I was seven when you guys did that song on Yo Gabba Gabba, People. I had people that, you know, only saw like my Finding Your Roots episode. I mean, for you, though, there's different ways that we enter you. I know people that just know you just for your Netflix show. I know people that know you because you give like one of the greatest interviews ever. So like, your sizzle reel of just your quotables on your interviews alone is like, "Yeah, man, he's crazy, he's funny," like, you know, that sort of thing.

• 6:33Questlove?

  Does it frustrate you that sometimes they don't look under the hood to see what it is that you really do?

• 6:41Speaker 02

  When I started making music, it wasn't that many people around. I think that's kind of carried over to today, so when I first started making music as a teenager, I don't want to miss anybody, but there was a guy named DJ that lived near me. His rap name was Lavish at the time, this guy named Chuck Rubin. Rubin's producer name was Chuck One, and there was a guy named Emmanuel, and he is, his, I think his rap name was E-Man, and there was a studio on 60th and John, across the street from Bret Hart, local school.

• 7:20Speaker 02

  We recorded there, and it was pretty much only us, and then after that, whether that's working, very specifically with my G or Sid and Matt, that later kind of formed the internet, or working with Earl Sweatshirt, or Speaks, or kind of these people, there were never that many people around, so there was never, I guess I would say, crowdsourcing. There was never like a brainstorm, like when it came to making music, and I think that...

• 7:54Questlove?

  So you never did like focus groups, like, "What do you think about this or that?"

• 7:57Speaker 02

  Yeah, never. So I think I just was kind of stuck with my own perception of things, and the way that I view the world, or kind of my own thoughts, and because I was from such a different, I guess, background than everybody else, I didn't have any relatability factor when it came to if people thought it was good or not. So at the beginning, I really didn't have any connection to music, because I was just, I would say the middle part, when I got like kind of sitting in, I just was making whatever kind of fit into their world, just because I didn't really have anywhere to go, and I wasn't going to school and stuff like that, to be honest, so I was just like hanging, because I had a nice house and shit, so I was like, I don't want to kind of spoil that, because it was cool, and their mom cooked, and there was a bunch of like cool stuff going on over there.

• 8:40Questlove?

  Right.

• 8:41Speaker 02

  So I think that was a big part of it, but when it came time to like actually make music, I kind of only had my own thoughts. So I never had anyone say, "This is too dark," or "This is too much," because it was a really weird thing to where anyone that I worked with knew me on an extremely personal level. So it wasn't as bad as it kind of could have been, or wasn't as dark as it could have been, I guess, if we want to talk about the darkness of it, but I think that the thoughtfulness that's kind of applied to the music is an entry point thing. So when you think about, just kind of round out what you were saying, the interview shit is like, all right, people kind of get uncomfortable, when people get uncomfortable, they laugh, or it's like, "Oh, I can't believe he says whatever he wants to say."

• 9:23Questlove?

  Yeah.

• 9:24Speaker 02

  And it's like, that's kind of funny, and then the show shit is just an easy entry point, because when we think about how people that just music, especially hip-hop music now, was not kind of what it used to be, like, when I was younger, if people had asked me if I was into music, or I listened to a lot of music, I would have said no, just because it meant a much different thing, but now, you have people that listen to thousands of songs, and they don't necessarily covet them as much as I might have coveted the couple songs that I knew, no matter where I got them from, but I think I have, I would probably have more music logic than would be considered typical for someone that makes the music I make within the genres that I make it. So I think it's just kind of a, it's kind of a snowball of just time passing, and I

• 10:08Speaker 02

  think that I've been dated. Stylistically, or just in the way that I perceive music since I came out. And that's because people kind of knew who I was three or four years after Tyler and Earl and all those people. So I was newer in two thousand and fourteen, fifteen, thirteen. But I had been making music since two thousand nine, if that makes sense.

• 10:31Questlove?

  Yeah, like the way that the whole idea of the concept of like our future. When it was first presented to me, weird enough, it was presented to me back when the Lonely Island guys were still on SNL. And, you know, they would come down and suggest shit and whatever. And they were like, so they were like explaining to me like, yo, there's a new collective out there with all these rappers and everything. And then one night I went to go see them perform and it was just like thirty people on a New York stage. And then I learned that later, like, these are different collectives and whatnot. Like, were you ever officially like in?

• 11:08Speaker 02

  No, I just knew.

• 11:08Questlove?

  That circle?

• 11:09Speaker 02

  Yeah, I just knew them. Yeah, I just knew them and Sid had a studio in her guest home.

• 11:15Questlove?

  Right.

• 11:15Speaker 02

  And a lot of people recorded there. I just think I'm one of the people that was able to sustain something on my own.

• 11:23Questlove?

  Right.

• 11:23Speaker 02

  Uh, not on my own as if I didn't have help, but just outside of that collective structure. And I know that's very, very important to hip hop, at least it used to be. So it's like you can't tie, you have to be tied to something, even if it's just like in theory, you know?

• 11:36Questlove?

  Right. Well, I love the idea of a collective. Like, that's what I tried to do with Soul Quarians, where it was like, and it was never on purpose. Like, literally, the Soul Quarians ended the day we did that vibe shoot. We did, we did a thing where it was like, you know, D'Angelo, me, Erykah, most, like, all these were suspects. The day we took that photo, immediately, that's when our power skipped, like, oh, wait, we're a collective? And then that's when it fell apart. But for good four years, it was just, you knew that you could use the bathroom at Electric Lady because the three of us would have all the studios locked down. And, and then you get on keyboards and start jamming. The next thing you know, the tape is running and then you're making a song.

• 12:18Questlove?

  But I just always like romanticized the idea of a collective. And, you know, I kind of, in my mind, and I guess that might be a Gen X thing, like, I just wanted to see that, that thing again that I saw Wu-Tang do and that I saw the Native Tonges do and that, you know, so.

• 12:38Speaker 02

  And I think music translated from it being something that you needed other people to do to kind of something that you were able to do in your bedroom on your own through Splice Loops and things of that nature and YouTube and social media. So like my first projects didn't have like a home. It was like media fire links and things of that nature that you just put on the internet.

• 12:59Questlove?

  Right.

• 13:00Speaker 02

  And, um, so as time changes, these things change. But I feel like it's all historical context. Like, if we're trying to reference something that happened yesterday or last week or last year or last decade, we're gonna need a name for it. Like, it's just a human thing. Like, it's never bothered me, but I've never worked closely with anybody, to be honest. I don't think I've ever worked with anybody for more than like maybe a project and a half, if that.

• 13:27Questlove?

  I can tell that. And the fact that you can make, your albums do sound like it was created by one person. You know what I mean? And that's what I admire the most about it. Now, that was my pre-questions. My first real question is to you, what is your idea of perfect happiness? And do you believe that it's genuinely obtainable?

• 13:50Speaker 02

  I think happiness is allowing yourself to be content within your circumstances. And, uh, you know, the success and the failures of life and just being content with that. So I do think it's attainable. I think, I don't think a lot of people want it. I feel like, especially within a creative medium, you kind of need a chip on your shoulder. Or you just need something to kind of propel you forward. Yeah, the conflict is important, so. Um, but for me, I don't, I'm not like a competitive type person. Like, I've never been that kind of person. So I think it's relatively easy for me to find some sort of happiness or peace, you know, in life. Like, I'm very realistic about where I am, like creatively, financially.

• 14:33Speaker 02

  Um, I've been able to sustain a lifestyle and take care of my family with having music that most people don't know. Or, you know, being a face that most people don't know. More people know me from Abbott Elementary to my, you know, two decade long music career.

• 14:48Questlove?

  Same.

• 14:49Speaker 02

  And I don't look at that as if it's a negative thing. I look at it as, oh, I get to go to the grocery store. Or, you know what I mean? I get to go to the park or ride a bike or yada, yada. So I think that there's a, there's something to look forward to and everything. And I think that's probably just because of my background and things of that nature. So you kind of do certain things and you live certain types of lifestyles. Certain things just kind of be miniscule and like almost silly. So when it comes to like happiness and things of that nature, like if you can be content with who you are and where you are, I think that's a beautiful thing, but also I think it reflects in writing. Because you're able to kind of stay on you and your life, because that's really what people care about, your perspective. But you're able to kind of give a new outlook on it.

• 15:30Speaker 02

  Because as you become more content with your surroundings and you're more aware of where you actually are, you're able to kind of have a new outlook on the same stories.

• 15:40Questlove?

  Are you at all concerned about being typecast? I'll, I'll give an example. So I know that there's a sect of fans that love the idea of a depressed Mary J. Blige. Because she will then express a kind of blue misery that they themselves feel and that they can relate to. And then every two albums, Mary finds happiness and a bright spot. And then the fans are a little like, oh, man, she's happy now. Fuck this, you know? Do you ever worry that finding content and happiness might affect the product that is attracting us to you?

• 16:25Speaker 02

  It starts early, right? Because for one, you have, you have family. So being an outlier within your own family, then kind of being an outlier within your community and like being an outlier within the kind of micro communities that exist in these communities. And, you know, being the weird dude from the weird gang in the weird city. Music is relatively easy. The entire time I've made music, most people haven't liked my music. And I don't think it's because.

• 16:54Questlove?

  Really?

• 16:55Speaker 02

  Yeah, for sure. But I don't think it's because of.

• 16:58Questlove?

  So I don't count?

• 17:00Speaker 02

  This is what I mean, right? We, we look at things from a certain vantage point. Okay, he's from California. Okay, he's from Los Angeles. Okay, he's a gang member making gangster rap. They don't look like that. Automatically, people are thrown off since I've started making music. So I think not really necessarily fitting into how people perceive things isn't a me problem. And it's also not a them problem. That's just the gaze of how we understand things. So I think proximity and like your reality being defined, like, I don't want to say it in a negative way, but just not being full of shit are important. Because if I know that most people don't understand these street dynamics,

• 17:43Speaker 02

  I don't know most black people are good and kind and hardworking, God fearing, people that go to church every Sunday and help grandma with the groceries. Um, and I say that in a good way, not to make it sound like a slight. People just think I'm always being asshole nowadays, but, um,

• 17:56Speaker 02

  it's the comedy shit. But, um, then I don't, it doesn't bother me that people are probably more comfortable seeing this black woman depressed. They're more comfortable seeing this black man rap about the street. They're more comfortable seeing, you know what I mean? These kind of, I don't want to say stereotypes, but these kind of tropes that are very real in a lot of our communities and, and are the easier connection point. So I think that because of the people I started making music with, like, I remember when that stuff started with, you know, Tyler and Tebe and all these guys, most people locally called them weird and didn't support them. And to this day, it's very hard to find local people within our communities that support their, their music.

• 18:39Speaker 02

  A lot of people support the success that's been garnered from it. But people to this day still talk about if Tyler's a real L.A. artist or things like that, when he's playing Iranians and it's kind of world renowned. It's like, it's silly to me. So I think that I've always noticed that. So when it comes to people wanting things from me, I understand they're wanting something based on their perception of something that they have no idea of for real.

• 19:05Questlove?

  Do you have a morning routine? And what is it? Like, what's the first thing you did, uh, in the half hour this morning? What do you, what did you do?

• 19:15Speaker 02

  Today, I flew here and I got here, but usually.

• 19:17Questlove?

  Oh, you literally landed and?

• 19:19Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 19:20Questlove?

  Shit.

• 19:20Speaker 02

  At AM.

• 19:21Questlove?

  All right. I appreciate this.

• 19:22Speaker 02

  No, it's all good, bro. Yeah, usually I wake up at like four o'clock, let the dogs outside, do some stuff around the house, kind of do some family stuff. Uh, but I'm relatively simple, bro. Like, um, I never thought I would, um.

• 19:39Speaker 02

  Do anything. So I never had like any dream or aspiration or anything like that growing up. So life is pretty simple for me, as wild as that might seem. But I think it's important to like think and kind of be within your own thoughts and because that's kind of our job. So I just try to have as much clarity as possible. Like I rarely work like on music. I rarely, I don't have meetings. We don't do any of that. Corey pretty much does everything to be honest.

• 20:11Questlove?

  Shout to Corey. Hello?

• 20:13Speaker 02

  Yeah, hello Corey.

• 20:15Questlove?

  Yeah, the people can hear that wave, Corey. Corey Smith.

• 20:19Speaker 02

  I don't really ask for much, bro, but I think stillness is kind of important, quiet is important. Because without that, I can't really like think. And I'm still, I'm still in the same place where I grew up. Like I still know the same people and have the same friends as where I grew up. So my life is like extremely simple, bro.

• 20:40Questlove?

  Got you. What time do you typically go to sleep?

• 20:43Speaker 02

  Hmm, like nine something, maybe 10 or something, somebody call me.

• 20:48Questlove?

  Every lyrical genius I know has the same routine, which is they want to be in bed by 8:30, 9:00 so that they can get up. Tariq might get up at 3:30 a.m. just so that he can have four to five hours of no kids, no, like he gets the house to himself. And like silence is his favorite thing on earth.

• 21:13Speaker 02

  Yeah, and, and, and I don't have a lot of music. Like I know of course more now and I try to study as much as I can, learn as much as I can. But my, my, my musical knowledge is few and far between. So it's like for me to be able to receive what other people are saying, what other people are trying to push musically. I think I have to know where I am at all times. Because even when it comes to like translation, if I have an idea, I have to go like find the music to explain it to someone. I don't like have, hey, let's make an album that sounds like this. And I feel like that's very valuable, especially working with producers and, and, and things like that.

• 21:54Speaker 02

  Um, so I just, I just really need the time to figure out what I'm thinking and what I'm trying to, not really say, but do.

• 22:11Speaker 03

  Hey, it's Nile Rodgers, host of Before the Moment, a Lincoln original series. I'm driving across the country, meeting some of today's most fascinating artists. We're exploring the stories before the moment that changed everything. This week, I'm joined by my friend, John Legend. What still makes you just sit down at the piano?

• 22:33Speaker 04

  If you sat down at 9:00 a.m. and then at noon, you had a full song that you recorded and put in your voice recorder or you recorded at, at, at your studio. You've just created something brand new that didn't exist when you woke up. What a beautiful feeling it is. I'm always excited to write something new. I've been writing for Broadway, which has been a new challenge with new collaborators. And amazing performers who are triple threats, who can sing and dance and act and, and do all these amazing things. And I want to keep feeling that. And so that means not resting on my laurels, going out there and continuing to create something new.

• 23:08Speaker 03

  Experience Before the Moment, a Lincoln original series on the iHeartRadio app, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.

• 23:17Speaker 05

  Hey, what's up? This is Kelvin Washington from The Odd Couple with Rob Parker and Kelvin Washington. Buy smart, drive for less, and trade for more. That's Toyota affordability. And it starts with a great deal on off-road-ready Tacoma or half-ton Tundra. Two of Toyota's longest-lasting trucks, combining power for work, tech for adventures, and style in between. Built on a reputation for quality and reliability, Toyota trucks are known for holding their value, which could mean big savings when it's time for your next Toyota. So get a great deal today and a great value tomorrow. Shop toyota.com for more. Toyota, let's go places.

• 23:55Questlove?

  Behind every chart-topping hit, you know by heart there's an original. Writing at 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?

• 24:39Questlove?

  Behind every original, live in Levi's.

• 24:49Questlove?

  What singular event or occurrence that happened in your life was the tipping point? Like what singular event changed your life that brought you kind of here to this day?

• 25:02Speaker 02

  I think it's gonna be hard just because I've kind of been an attentive person for a long time. I always noticed like a certain complacency or just like a laziness in my broader family. Um, and I knew I didn't want to do that. And I was gonna kind of figure it out. I didn't want to be one of those people that kind of just let life happen to them. Um, and there have been a lot of things that have happened in my family, to my family, to where I felt like I would have reacted differently. And I think coming from an immature place, being a kid, it was kind of like out of disdain for them. So ever since I was a kid, I kind of didn't relate to my family.

• 25:45Speaker 02

  Um, or like even my friends, I don't want to put it specifically on my family, but I think the people of my, um, environment. I had an understanding of what the environment was and how the environment got there. I just didn't realize like, uh, like for example, this is an example, I grew up with no white, white friends. Or like white people around us, period. So it's like, when we got to school, like, it's not that you're not speaking to your teachers. It's just that I'm not speaking to white people because I see no point. Because you go, you're at home and grandma's talking about the man and crackers and this and that and that. But then it's like, why are y'all speaking to them? Like being a child, not knowing. Understanding kind of like the socioeconomics of the fucking world.

• 26:30Speaker 02

  So it's like, I, I always felt like I was one of those people that was like, if you don't like something, like do something about it. Like complaining about it felt weird to me. Um, so like, that's just a silly example of like doing things that don't make sense, kind of put you on an island by yourself.

• 26:43Questlove?

  So you always felt like the black sheep or the outcast of whatever situation that you were in?

• 26:48Speaker 02

  Well, I wouldn't even say that because I don't think I was ever treated poorly for the most part. I think that, uh, I just had a different perspective on things. So like I, I didn't really try to find it for a long time, but I never felt, it's kind of hard to explain, but I've never felt like I was, uh, working towards something or against something. I was just kind of like existing, so to say. So when it came to music and, um, just even other things, but music is the first thing I've ever like done. I've never done anything before music, anything else. So I know you played sports and shit like that as a kid, but like you don't really care about that. You skateboard and things like that. When you're just doing child stuff and music is like the first thing I've ever like been like, I'm gonna do this. And I think I was like 14, 15, probably.

• 27:32Speaker 02

  And I still relatively young, like in retrospect, I'm 33 now. So I think like it just never seemed difficult to me. Cause if I'm counting like the amount of people and then I'm counting the, like it was microscopic, for lack of a better word. It's like, I don't know a lot about a lot of music, but I know, you know, a lot of blue albums and MERS and things of that nature that were kind of more local in, in the area. So I was like, oh, that's, that's kind of what, not success, but that's what practice, music and practice looked like to me. Um, so that's not hard to just go get up and do to me. Cause I'm like, okay, if I'm at school and four or five people know who this person is and this person is considered to be a success,

• 28:17Speaker 02

  then I just need four or five listeners, so to say.

• 28:21Speaker 02

  So I think there was never like a turning point. It was just like consistent. If I had to pick, it's just to be real, it's just like Corey doing shit. Cause I've never, um, done anything except for like try to get better at making music.

• 28:36Questlove?

  Are you saying that like Blue and Exile was sort of like a, I'm not alone moment? Or most people have their calling when they hear.

• 28:44Speaker 02

  It's a certain song.

• 28:45Questlove?

  An album where something like, oh my God, this is me. Like who did you feel was speaking to you? Or did you just listen to hip-hop as like a them thing? Like I, I listened to N.W.A. as a them thing. Like this is what they're talking about, even though like.

• 29:01Speaker 02

  But I think I was too late in the game. Cause you, cause like, I, I explained to Corey one time that, um, he was talking about 50 Cent and I was like, I remember get Richard D. Itron, like I was in the third grade. And that was, um.

• 29:12Questlove?

  Oh, God, I'm a.

• 29:14Speaker 02

  You get what I'm saying? So I can't say there's ever been a moment where hip hop wasn't like, I know, I know rebirth of slick. I know Houdini songs, I know.

• 29:24Questlove?

  You know mad references for the time period that you should not be knowing that shit. And I'm like, who's the older person in your life that's like?

• 29:31Speaker 02

  Well, I mean, my parents, oh, my parents didn't really listen to rap music at all, to be honest. But what I'm saying is like, I think just the access was different in the time in where I grew up. Because you have VH1, we didn't have cable. So you go to grandma's house or godmother's house and you're on TV all day. So you got MTV jams and VH1 and things like that. So these things were just playing all the time, you know what I mean?

• 29:53Questlove?

  Right, okay.

• 29:54Speaker 02

  Uh, so I think like whether it's Cyndi Lauper, like, or like Wham! and things like that. It's just, I know, I only know, I only know big music.

• 30:03Questlove?

  You took it in?

• 30:04Speaker 02

  Very small shit, yeah, because it was just there. So when I think about, I think Blue and Exile and those kinds of things, uh, I forgot the guy's name. But like, uh, it was a project named Ghetto Pop Life, um, Atmosphere. These are all things that my friends knew. Um, and that was the first time that something was brought to me in that kind of, um, transactional kind of situation, I think, in elementary school. And that's, um, Aaron Lydie and Jackson Deloche and the music that they listened to. And, um, Kai Burleson knew a lot more of the local LA kind of stuff. Cause we have similar backgrounds. Jackson and Aaron had different backgrounds than me and Kai had.

• 30:46Speaker 02

  But I went to a small school in Compton, behind the liquor store from fourth to eighth grade. Steve Lacy went there too. So there weren't that many people that I ran across. Cause I didn't really do that well in school early. I got in trouble early and later, but when I went to that school, it was fine. But, um, it was all black people. One Hispanic kid named Jose and one, uh, white kid named Tristan. Because Mother Thomas, who worked at the front desk, was his grandmother. And other than that, it was only black people from Long Beach, Compton, Gardena, surrounding areas type of thing. So hip hop being so ingrained in, in black culture at that time. I don't remember when it wasn't around.

• 31:28Speaker 02

  I think my earliest hip hop memories are probably with my father, which would probably be like outcasts. But he didn't like any other kind of rap music. And then like my sister's, uh, my sister's husband at the time had like Spice One and DJ Quick and stuff like that. Cause he from Cross Atlantic, so he had all the blood music.

• 31:47Questlove?

  Right.

• 31:48Speaker 02

  You know what I mean? So, and he had a bunch of CDs and he had other stuff too. But, um, so it, it really was more so the first thing that I guess signified my childhood. And that's something that was passed down. I think in California, at the time I was born and what hip hop music had became. It was something that was hereditary because culturally it aligned more so with gang culture. And gang culture is hereditary. So Snoop and Quick and A, um, these peoples, uh, Mossberg, Bangin' on Wax. These people, um, music gets passed down if you're into a certain kind of lifestyle.

• 32:33Speaker 02

  Um, and I don't think it's on purpose. I don't think it's like some mischievous thing that's happening within the black community. I just think it's.

• 32:39Questlove?

  Creative epigenetics.

• 32:41Speaker 02

  Yeah, it just is what it is. So I think when it came to Blue and Murz and things like that, it was escapism, so to say. Just because, and I don't want to make it seem like these people didn't grow up where we grew up. Cause Jackson lived in, um, Sunny Cove. He still live there to this day and Park in the Park villages in Compton. And his pops live around the corner from, uh, Stevenson Village in Carson. And Aaron lived in Gardena on like 134th or 5th. So these are still people that grew up in, in, in the same environments that we grew up in. But they just had a different outlook. And, um, yeah, I remember being handed that, but I'm not making the connection to Blue and Common. And I'm not making the connection to Snoop and Slick Rick.

• 33:22Speaker 02

  The same way a lot of people now don't make the connection to, uh, Draco, the ruler and Earl Sweatshirt, which goes into MF Doom and, um.

• 33:29Questlove?

  Right.

• 33:30Speaker 02

  So I just think it, it felt familiar enough, but it felt different enough. And I think that kind of opened up my eyes to the way that I viewed music. And, you know, like I said, that's elementary to middle school. And I started making music. I dropped out of high school in what 10th grade and I started making music in the 10th grade. So it wasn't that far away.

• 33:45Questlove?

  I'm glad you explained that to me because like, I came from a generation where the boomers who raised us were heavy with the, the kind of desk pounding, no listening to secular music. Like if you know the story, the, the Clark sisters, like they had to sneak to listen to Stevie Wonder. Like, in what life is Stevie Wonder like contraband and, you know? So most of my punishments were always music related. Like I was listening to Prince at 12 and that was like hell to pay if you're caught listening to that. You know, whatever, you know, I, I was jarred listening to, I'm, I, I have a theory about Give Richard Die Tryin'. I mean, that came out in 2003.

• 34:28Questlove?

  I was, I was 32 years old and there's a song on there called Heat. The song went to Dre.

• 34:35Speaker 02

  I'll kill you, I ain't playing, you know what I'm saying?

• 34:37Questlove?

  Right, so my manager made an observation. My manager, Richard Nichols, made an observation. He said, he played the trump card. And I was like, what do you mean? And he predicted, he says, gangster rap is officially over. And I was like, what are you talking about? Rich is one of those guys where like, his heroes are like Greg Take, Stanley Crouch. Like the, the first generation of, of black critical thinkers. Rich will call me at six in the morning. Like a lot of my personality is just the accumulated 20 year cycle of Rich calling me between 6:00 AM and 10:00 AM. Where we just, for four hours, just this.

• 35:19Questlove?

  But we're like, oh, and yo, man, like the state of jazz is fucked up right now. Da, da, da, da, da. So he'll go off on a tangent and you know, that, that, that wears off with you. But he had a theory and this is around the time in which, let's, let's cut like four or five years later. When, you know, there's a point when graduation is about to come out for Yay. And the, the third album from 50, Curtis? Yeah, Curtis.

• 35:44Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 35:44Questlove?

  And there was the whole thing, like who's gonna win, who's gonna win? So naturally everyone's like, had their money on 50. And we, and Rich is like, no, this is gonna be the Tortoise and the Hare story. And 50 sort of planted his ending without knowing it. And I was like, how do you figure? And he said that the trump card of the song Heat, the one trump card we never played, like the threat, the threat of gangsters.

• 36:11Speaker 02

  Yeah, I'll kill you, I ain't playing my heart, please, you nigger. I came with to get to you.

• 36:15Questlove?

  Right, and so he said, never on history have we just ever said, nigga, I'll kill you. And his thing was like, basically the, the Andre 2000, like, don't pull the thing out unless you prevent. Like if there's no killing that happens, then you're no longer scary. And it's almost after that moment where we stopped being scary, which as a result of now, where you see like, the blatant actions, like no one's scared of us anymore as they used to be. Because I feel like the threat of us was more.

• 36:49Speaker 02

  Yeah, but that's more Eminem. That's no, I'm gonna undo a 50.

• 36:53Questlove?

  Explain.

• 36:54Speaker 02

  They do this thing, right? Where they give you something or they help you with something and then act like it's their ideation, right? So it's when Q did, I'mma let you have it and he dissed A, talking about how they stumped they homie out. And all kind of stuff for early Bangin' on Wax stuff. I can just say California, even kind of some more Texas type stuff or Bay stuff. There was actuality behind, um, things that were happening there. A lot of things that happened with, you know, the original No Limit kind of regime in the Bay area. Like there was a lot of ties to those things, but it only involved us.

• 37:33Speaker 02

  So it was kind of taboo, they weren't involved. I think that even if you think about the beat to Heat and a lot of the perception of kind of popular culture, why did America's connectivity with 50 was through their affinity for Eminem? And it was like, he's with us, not that 50 cares about that. And I don't think he would agree with that at all. But I feel like 50's, I wouldn't call it a drop off, but just the way that they kind of moved on to something else. Happens when it's not in our hands. Because when I was a child.

• 38:06Questlove?

  Oh, we're disposable.

• 38:08Speaker 02

  You know what I mean? So when I was a child and 50 Cent came out and Kanye came out, being a young black child, um, with two hands. It's like, we can carry both of these things. We're not ever the ones that sit us down. Like we didn't sit down Michael Jackson, we didn't sit down 50 Cent. We don't sit down any of our artists, like they sit our artists down. So I think that, um, a big part of that 50 thing was just, just white people being like, okay, what are we doing next? And, um, AL Technology is a thing.

• 38:42Speaker 02

  So, you know what I mean?

• 38:43Questlove?

  I was wondering if you were gonna have this eye opening moment? I was waiting for some shit I'd never thought about.

• 38:49Speaker 02

  Yeah, Justin Timberlake and like, it's like, it's like white people, like, sometimes they put us down and it's like we never happened. A lot of the times, especially when it comes to the artists and our artists that they have an affinity for, like, they feel like they choose when it's sulfur. But it's really, it's really interesting because um, it's such, it's, they have so much buying power and such a control over um, kind of the way that we think, just based on, you know, institutional racism over hundreds of years that if they put them down, then we'll put them down too.

• 39:18Questlove?

  Okay, so a person disposable if their market rate is?

• 39:22Speaker 02

  So that's why I gotta give fifty, uh, not give fifty, but because he doesn't need anything from me, but when it comes to some of our artists, it's like what I saw with that, and I was young, so maybe this is me being ignorant.

• 39:32Questlove?

  Did it make it an impression on you? Like, what, what, what did you think as a third grader?

• 39:36Speaker 02

  The white people picked Kanye up and they put fifty down. It's like a toy. It's like they wanna play with Kanye now, they don't wanna play with fifty anymore. This is our version of a Negro that we like. We don't like the gangster Negro anymore. It's just a little bit much for us. Let's get the, let's get the nigger in the backpack. It's kinda how I view the whole, even them, even like-

• 39:55Questlove?

  That's how you viewed it in the-

• 39:56Speaker 02

  Yeah, even like the fucking standoff, like they're fighting and, and stuff like that was very interesting. Yeah, very interesting, but I, I get it.

• 40:04Questlove?

  Do you ever think there's a point where, and I say this sort of theoretically, like, in your mind, is there ever a cosmic shift where like, we can have four people be at the top or these, these group of people?

• 40:20Speaker 02

  I think, when it comes to black people, we would prefer for us all to be at the top. We're just aware of the structure in which we have to kind of exist in. And um, I feel like a lot of the times when things happen, um, like, black Marxism is still Marxism, which means the white people did it first. And okay, maybe they won't kill us all for trying this now. So I think that there's a, uh, there's a self-awareness of the world that we exist in, in America, for a lot of black people. And I feel like, um, even, like, gangster rap is always gonna be around. I can play you ten songs from ten motherfuckers that I got killed for them. And, but if they don't touch it, then it's like, it's not real. You get what I'm saying?

• 40:59Speaker 02

  So, I think it's a very, um, I just have kinda compassion for the artists or just our people when it comes to certain things because it's like, I'm pretty sure if you walked around Queens at that time, um, or just New York or California, because before the game, the game fifty thing played more into how people perceived him, where I come from, than the Kanye thing. But I'm pretty sure no one was like, we wanna give up on fifty cent after the massacre came out. That's a pool of funding or a few with the label or the, those are those things. And like I said, those aren't, they aren't necessarily up to us. We just know one day we stop seeing as much of a person as we did before. But we're not really pulling those strings ever, you know?

• 41:44Speaker 02

  Because gangster rap is bigger than it's ever been, you know, because you can now, because now, now they like real criminals. So since they like real criminals and like fifty cent took his upbringing and became a musician from it, fifty cent is a person that knew Jam Master J. It's not like he just popped up out of thin air with a gun, but now you can pop out of thin air with the gun if the YouTube video has enough views. And then you get a mini doc.

• 42:17Speaker 03

  Hey, it's Nile Rodgers, host of Before the Moment, a Lincoln original series. I'm driving across the country, meeting some of today's most fascinating artists. We're exploring the stories before the moment that changed everything. This week, I'm joined by Miguel.

• 42:35Speaker 06

  My small experience with the discrepancy in the business of music made me angry in the best way. And I wanted to, I wanted to finish, so I started really like leaning into my therapy, trying to get down to like, what matters now? Somewhere Miguelito felt like he didn't have a place to say how he felt. And music was the place that I went to, to say how I felt.

• 42:58Speaker 03

  Experience Before the Moment, a Lincoln original series on the iHeartRadio app, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.

• 43:07Speaker 07

  This is Shirley Strawberry from the Steve Harvey Morning Show. Buy smart, drive for less, and trade for more. That's Toyota affordability. And it starts with a great deal on an all-wheel-drive Camry, Corolla Cross, or a Corolla sedan with the latest features and tech. Or test drive a spacious Grand Highlander or Adventure Ready RAV4. And with so many hybrid models available, you can enjoy longer trips without all the stops. While Toyota's legendary resale value means you could get more at trade-in, get a great deal today and a great value tomorrow. Shop toyota.com for deals and details. Toyota, let's go places.

• 43:48Questlove?

  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 three 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?

• 44:32Questlove?

  Behind every original, live in Levi's.

• 44:42Questlove?

  Are you, and this is a dark question to ask. Are you surprised you're still here?

• 44:51Speaker 02

  Oh, not at all.

• 44:53Questlove?

  So you're even past that?

• 44:54Speaker 02

  I'm from a racist place, though. Like, Long Beach is very racially segregated. Like, our, our gang dynamics are all racial. So, um, it doesn't, it wasn't like surprising to me, like, it's still like that. It's getting better, though, but uh-

• 45:10Questlove?

  So have you envisioned, have you dreamt, or do you think in terms of like, yeah, in 2040, I will, like, for me, back in ninety-three, like, two thousand and four, you crazy? Like, I couldn't imagine that.

• 45:27Speaker 02

  Well, that's the thing, if you're talking about like being alive, I don't, it just, it happens. Life, if somebody catches you, they catch you. And that can be, whether it's a car accident or cancer or a thing like that, like, anything can happen to anybody. I'm kinda more for that moment, like, I don't, I don't fear those days, but uh, it's very possible. But for me, when I was a kid, I knew, like, you sign your permission slip. You have this Los Angeles kind of perception, and then you get there and you're like, okay, most people out here that are black people aren't from gangs, don't commit crimes, don't get in trouble. So if you decide to be that small minority and something happens to you, I think everyone's kinda understanding that, what they did.

• 46:06Speaker 02

  Like, it's not, sometimes you can just wake up and it happens to you, but no, it's pretty thought out. And you know, you kind of, you're, you're indoctrinated by the lifestyle before you even do those things. You know, there's days of school and fights before you end up being from a clique. And then you end up being from a clique, and then before you end up being from a gang. And then you end up getting in ten fights before you shoot one gun. And you end up shooting ten guns before you shoot one person. And you shoot five people before you kill one person. So it's like, at any point, you can be like, ah, this is a little too much. Because I have a lot of homies from my neighborhood who like, have never shot a gun before, like, a lot. And no one thinks less of them, no one, because they are friends, you know what I mean?

• 46:50Speaker 02

  But I don't think the outside world knows that if um, if I start calling like my homies, like, from my neighborhood specifically, probably eight out of ten people are at work right now. And then if I start calling just my overall friends, the numbers are gonna increase, you know what I mean? Of people that are just living regular day-to-day lives, and if something happens, something happens.

• 47:10Questlove?

  Are you allowed to get out of it? I've never heard someone speak of-

• 47:15Speaker 02

  All the, uh, the, the shit from colors?

• 47:18Questlove?

  I hate, you know, this is when I hate this platform, when I get, one of my fears of, of ever talking to someone that has a proximity to this. This happened when Wallow uh, was on the show. And what he told me about what prison is actually like is not like how it sold to me on television. And the jaw-dropping reality, like, my dad put me through hell to avoid the Hollywoodization of what it was. And, you know, Wallow's borderline telling me like, prison is one of the most serene, calm, like,

• 47:57Questlove?

  and in my mind, I'm still thinking of like, you know, I was forced to watch, uh, Scared Straight first came on and I was six years old in nineteen seventy-seven.

• 48:07Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, I mean-

• 48:09Questlove?

  So, I grew up, you know, with the father that's pointing to-

• 48:15Speaker 02

  But he was supposed to do that, though, you know what I mean?

• 48:17Questlove?

  I don't-

• 48:18Speaker 02

  You don't think so?

• 48:19Questlove?

  You know what, um, that's what I'm wrestling right now in my life, like-

• 48:24Speaker 02

  This is my friend, he's on a, he's on a, he got twenty fights for attempted murder, he's on a Level 40180R, which is the highest-security prison you can be on. Look at his book and look at the message underneath it.

• 48:34Questlove?

  Am I allowed to read this?

• 48:35Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah, you can.

• 48:36Questlove?

  All right, the green is you or the?

• 48:37Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, the, the green is me, but read the, read the gray.

• 48:41Questlove?

  Okay, so, green says, uh, what's his name? Or are you allowed to?

• 48:45Speaker 02

  His name is, let me see, let me see, let me see, let me see. I got you.

• 48:49Questlove?

  Yeah, you, you read your own narrative. Yeah, I'm like-

• 48:53Speaker 02

  Okay, yeah, read all the gray, and I'll tell you what he's reading later.

• 48:56Questlove?

  Okay, so there's a photo of a bunch of books, and he says-

• 49:01Speaker 02

  One book.

• 49:02Questlove?

  Oh, well, it's a big box, so I thought it was a few books. This shit's a great book. I gotta read more classics. I'm thirteen chapters in out of a hundred and seventeen.

• 49:12Speaker 02

  He's reading like The Odyssey or some shit. Now.

• 49:16Questlove?

  You send this to him?

• 49:17Speaker 02

  Nah, that's him. That's his life in prison on a one eighty yard. So that's Heisenwald Waldo was saying, I've never seen him with a book in my life. But one day you might read the Odyssey, one day somebody might get stabbed to death. But that's life. You know what I mean? That can happen at work or on the bus or what's the pharmaceutical dude that got poked up?

• 49:38Questlove?

  Yeah.

• 49:38Speaker 02

  It just happens, you know, so I mean, your dad's kinda right, but I do understand what you're saying. I just think that when it comes to the street shit. Uh, I think people, human beings have an issue with accountability. And through the game of telephone, it becomes, and I can only speak for our from, I don't know what happens in West Virginia or anywhere else, but it's not.

• 49:58Questlove?

  I received the worst version of that narrative, which then thus explains the rigid need for safety in my life because I've been told like, life was cool up until eleven. And then my dad's like, you're a threat, you're a threat, you're a threat. So suddenly like, I mean, he was, he was raised in the Emmett Till era, so.

• 50:18Speaker 02

  You get what I'm saying?

• 50:19Questlove?

  I can't walk behind white women. I gotta run over here, run, like I spent my whole life running and so to sort of hear.

• 50:29Speaker 02

  I mean, just everyone has their different methods, you know, my parents are old, my mom is seventy. My dad is around there a little bit younger, so and my sister's old enough to be my mother.

• 50:40Questlove?

  Mm-hmm.

• 50:40Speaker 02

  So.

• 50:41Questlove?

  You're the youngest?

• 50:42Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah. So I have a, it was just, don't let nothing happen to you, you know, come home. But that, that's after a long bout with the reality of your current situation. So I think I was brought up in a very realistic situation, like they knew the, they're coming from, my mom was born in Compton, you know, the nineteen fifties before a lot of black people start migrating, you know?

• 51:10Questlove?

  Mm-hmm.

• 51:11Speaker 02

  So and my family has been in California for a very long time. So I say that to say that they had a lot of time to sit with their reality and know the ins and outs and every nook and cranny of the community that they were in. And this is when the school hunters was out and they was lynching people and setting people on fire and stuff like that. So to see Compton in the fifties and then to see Compton in the nineties and then we moved to Long Beach. Like I think they were able to be very honest. Kinda with me, um, especially the things that kinda happened with my siblings earlier. I'll, I'll tell you off camera one day. But, um, they were just a realistic approach to how I went through life and that translated in music. So to this day, like, I don't really think about death or anything like that. I don't even think that my music or anything like that is that morbid. I just think it's realistic.

• 51:55Speaker 02

  But I don't think that a lot of people come from these environments with this sort of critical thought. Because my music is, I mean, there are things in my music that you'll find in Cypress Hill, that you'll find in King T, that you'll find in Ice T. Whether it's early Ice T or Body Count and that you'll find in, you know, um, a lot of things, you know?

• 52:17Questlove?

  I'm, yeah, I'm trying not to, cause I also hate that whole, I'm pretty sure it irks you too, like when people start the fetishization of like, wow, here's someone really eloquent that can, you know, that can be both sides of, and I know that's like.

• 52:36Speaker 02

  Well, I will see, I, I don't even get that mad at that because they don't know anyone. So if you don't know anybody from these areas that you've only heard these horror stories about, then you meet someone, then you think that it's either extreme, it's, it's either that they're really smart or they're really dumb instead of like, this is a community with a diverse range of people that come from it. Um, so I don't, I don't really blame them for that. I just think they, they haven't spent much time or any time in a lot of these areas, um, cause there are a lot.

• 53:06Questlove?

  Been taught to run away from it.

• 53:08Speaker 02

  You know what I mean? So I, I think that like, that, that's something that is very, very, I mean, Corey met a lot of my friends and he was like, yeah, I didn't know that. It was like this out here because I think a lot of people put it on because they were working at the end of the day. So if you think that you're selling this, um, within this industry, of course you're gonna display whatever you think the best product is based on the perception. I started young enough and I, I'd had enough diversity musically and kind of my friend group that I never, I still don't know what the industry or the music business or any of that shit is like about. I don't dabble, I don't do the parties, I don't, the other day I did, um, you think you'll like this.

• 53:51Speaker 02

  We did a Grammy museum thing, right? This guy that works, um, KCRW or something like that came and did our, he was our mediator, really, really nice guy and he was like, you haven't done any press, why? And that's must be something new for you. And I was like, yeah, I don't like to really do press and I really think I had anything to say that wasn't in the music. I think I did a good enough job with the music, so I just didn't think we needed to say anything. And then he was like, well, yada, yada, yada, certain people might misunderstand you. And my response was, well, I just think most people aren't familiar with my music and that's okay. And then he was like, that's impossible because we're here and there's two hundred people here and we, I went project by project of who's heard this, who's heard that? And most people in the crowd have only heard probably one or two albums of mine.

• 54:33Speaker 02

  And they stood in line for hours to watch us speak, you know what I mean? So I think that there's such a disconnect nowadays between like, the actual study of the music and just being able to just blatantly say, I like this, or just having like an underlying appreciation for it. And I think I, it's never really bothered me because I always came up in an era where it's been the internet, so more people dislike it than like it, but you see it, it's in your face, but you can survive off of it. So it's not that much pressure, if that makes sense.

• 55:05Questlove?

  Damn, man, you, you're dropping, I got a lot to think about now, I'm sorry. What is a fear that you've had since childhood that you find hard to let go?

• 55:17Speaker 02

  I just think being complacent, kinda just letting life happen to you is something I've kinda seen a lot of my family, as I was saying earlier.

• 55:23Questlove?

  Being complacent as in like satisfied?

• 55:26Speaker 02

  No, just like, like, it's the difference between like being, and I know they mean the same thing, but it's like my viewpoint of like being content and like being complacent, like, okay. Then you still have to strive for something to be content with it. All my family ever really gave anyone and like was like, you get like church and like Jesus and it's like, okay, pray and everything will be okay.

• 55:46Questlove?

  Mm-hmm.

• 55:47Speaker 02

  And I was always the dumbest shit in the world to me, like it makes no fucking sense to me. So I didn't wanna be one of those people, like, I just see, uh, I saw a lot of people just not try to do anything.

• 56:00Questlove?

  I think there's a lot of fear into that.

• 56:02Speaker 02

  Yeah, for sure, but I, but I also think that, I don't think people realize like the severity of like California redlining and like, like the segregation of how the city's built.

• 56:15Questlove?

  Mm-hmm.

• 56:16Speaker 02

  So like if, like I have so many homies that have never been to the airport or like never been to, unless you like in somebody else hood, like never been to the valley or never been to.

• 56:27Questlove?

  So going to North Hollywood is like an experience for them?

• 56:29Speaker 02

  Yeah, well, they, they'll never go. Like I had never really been to certain parts of LA until I started making music. And I don't think a lot of people come to Long Beach or like, it's like now it's a little bit different because the internet, but when I was growing up, you didn't really venture out that much into these other places. So I just think it's limited, like I have. So I was a grown ass man, like I didn't know where USC was, or UCLA was, or any of these kinda things. So I just think that people, a lot of people that grew up in like these kinda, in these ghettos, don't really know where else to go. Um, or know how to venture out, like, and maybe I could be speaking for myself from my limited worldview, but we weren't really intertwined or aware of like museums and live shows. I don't know one friend growing up that had ever like been like, I'm going to a concert.

• 57:14Speaker 02

  I've never heard that in my life. Like I've never heard of certain things until I started making music. And I think just being in this, being these bubbles kinda diminishes us. I know in my family that wasn't.

• 57:24Questlove?

  Were you an exception to that rule or you didn't start until you became an artist?

• 57:27Speaker 02

  I never did. Yeah, I never been to a concert before.

• 57:30Questlove?

  When's the first time that you were a patron to watch someone perform and not like, I'm coming to support and I'm standing backstage with three songs and then I'm out?

• 57:39Speaker 02

  Probably in my mid twenties.

• 57:40Questlove?

  Who, who's the first?

• 57:41Speaker 02

  Well, no, no, I mean, does it, no, see, I, does it count if like someone I know has a show and I happen to go or like, you mean like actually?

• 57:49Questlove?

  But even then, like, if it's Erica or somebody or Jill, I'm gonna watch from backstage because it's like, oh, my peer, I'm gonna stop by, yeah, I'll come through support. I hate that. I'm coming through the support. Correction, I actually sat in the audience and watched Jill as if like a real, and watched from soup to nuts, the entire show. But for you, like, is there someone that you were a fan of that you went to go see like them perform or that part just passed you by?

• 58:17Speaker 02

  My mom wanted to go see a Mother's Day concert at the Hollywood Bowl. It was like Danny Ross or some shit. And I was like in my mid twenties and we went there. When I was on tour once with, uh, Earl, he, we were in Vegas and we went to see, he wanted to see some of Yeezus, so we were there for like five minutes. Um, cause then, then they wanna go do something else. Um, he just was like, wanted to stop in really quick. Cause we were staying at the hotel that they were, at the venue at. That might be it until like, I think we originally started watching shows, um, during like festivals and stuff, we watched Tame Impala and LCD Sound System.

• 59:00Speaker 02

  At Primavera, I think 2015, 16, and I had never heard Tame Impala before. So that was like a cool experience. I know a couple of L C D sales system songs, but I have, I've never really like been to any concerts like that. If it wasn't like for working, but no, I, like I say, gotta have good people around you. Corey gave me a bunch of CDs to listen to when I was a kid. Cause I had never, I hadn't heard a lot of stuff. So usually like, you know, that's the thing about hip hop is that people share. And like alchemists is like that too, like Tyler's like that too. They'll give you stuff to listen to or stuff to watch and things like that. So when, when it is like when someone tells me to listen to something or pay attention to something, I'll always go back and research. But I just, I just wasn't that aware.

• 59:44Speaker 02

  And I think that's kind of one thing that kind of helped me stay out of trouble was that I used to take the bus and the train to go to L A. To record took like an hour and a half, hour, 45 minutes. And just seeing certain stuff like being, I had never been to Hollywood before in my life. So going there and being older, when I was like 16, 17, when I started going a lot. It was like kind of escapism, even though it was close. It was just interesting, like it felt like a whole different world because I had never kind of seen those things or been in those areas before. I used to go on every single, uh, this guy had a studio on Selma that we used to go to. Our guy, I think was on my studio, we used to go to a lot, one of those play streets. And I've been in every single one of those buildings.

• 1:00:23Speaker 02

  I've done seen all them little bullshit ass museums and shops and things like that, just cause I had never experienced anything like that in my life.

• 1:00:30Questlove?

  Once you get immersed inside of the, the river of the industry, has there been a figure that you allowed yourself to be sort of all struck? Like, holy shit, I'm meeting blah, blah, blah.

• 1:00:41Speaker 02

  I haven't really met that many people because I, I, I kind of just work and go home. Like I've never really been like the hangout type of person, so.

• 1:00:49Questlove?

  Do you have a hero, like sports?

• 1:00:52Speaker 02

  No, but I, nah, but I appreciate like kind of what people contribute to the world. But like I, I just don't think that's kind of my personality, but like I, I don't think it's because, um, I think that I'm above it. I just think I kind of just appreciate people, who they are and what they do, because that's very like baseline respect is like extremely important. Where I come from, because it's like, it can get you in a pickle. So I think, um, I just, if you tell me that you're a scientist for sure, until you, until I see that you, until I see that you're not a scientist.

• 1:01:24Questlove?

  Until you.

• 1:01:25Speaker 02

  That's Questing and cause of science, that's the homie that do science.

• 1:01:29Questlove?

  So a person gets one chance to, to get your respect.

• 1:01:32Speaker 02

  Cause you don't really get to lie, you don't get to lie like that. Cause like, look at basic interaction, right? So it's like, say, say, it's gonna sound stupid, but just follow me. So you meet somebody one day and it's like, um, my name is Whoop de Whoop and I'm from here. If I'm, oh, my name is Quest and I'm from the podcast. And it's like, oh, that's Quest, that's the homie from the podcast. And we just start hanging out and then like, then one day you meet Corey and say, oh, what's up? Oh, Corey, you from the podcast? Quest from the podcast too. And then Corey go, I don't know that nigga.

• 1:02:01Questlove?

  Does this happen a lot?

• 1:02:02Speaker 02

  A lot. Then it's like, oh, I, you not really from the podcast. We, you've been, you've been hanging out with us this whole time.

• 1:02:09Questlove?

  Is this a California thing? Like the idea of pulling someone's card? Like, these are subjects that I only hear in California based things.

• 1:02:15Speaker 02

  Well, yeah, but that's because like, it's just, I just think people, but like, people just believe you. You feel me? It's like, if you over here, and cause it's not, we don't, it's not the best circumstances. A lot of these times, these kind of red line, under, under service community. So it's like, you're just not lying about, oh, what's up? I'm Whoop de Whoop and I'm going down the wrong path in life. Nice to meet you. It's like, that's not a thing. So what I'm saying is if you tell me you're from X, Y, Z and your name is X, Y, Z, I'mma believe you until proven otherwise. So taking that same logic to music, cause oh, I'm, I'm so and so, I'm a producer. I'm so and so, I'm an artist. I'm so, so I'm a rapper. I'm so, I never was like, prove it. I like your music or I don't like your music. I don't listen to people music if I meet them.

• 1:02:59Speaker 02

  It's like, and then I, if, if I meet you, like, you know, I'm saying if you meet an artist and they say, tell you artist and I'll keep playing my song or can you do this? I'mma do it, but I'm not gonna go back and research and be like, do I think this nigga trash or not? Like, that's just not in my head, you know? I was raised in an environment where like, you kind of had to live in your truth. Cause you didn't want, the alternative could be much worse. So I took that.

• 1:03:22Questlove?

  What's the price of getting found out?

• 1:03:24Speaker 02

  Well, I mean, it's something as simple as like, if you say you're from somewhere, you know, from there, you might get fucked up. If you say you're not from somewhere, you know, and you are from there, you might get fucked up. Somebody might kill you. So it's like, at least like, it's, it's, it's stupid stuff that used to, cause pride used to be important, right? So I talked to a lot of my homies and they'll be like telling these kids like, hey, man. If somebody run up on you and ask you where you from and they got a gun, say nowhere. But when I was a kid, it's like, nigga, you supposed to die. Yeah, but when I was a kid, like you're supposed to bang the hood and die and blah, blah, blah. Because your pride is all you have. And I think that now we just have more options. So what I'm saying is I took the, I was trusting in people's stances of who they were when it came to music.

• 1:04:08Speaker 02

  And I think that allowed me to meet or like work with some good people. For example, my first song that kind of was of some notoriety was a song called Blue Suede. We were in Toronto and we were supposed to do a session with the producer. And they were like, uh, the guy canceled. And they were like, well, this is other guy named Hagler you can meet with. He's not quite whatever they thought the other guy was. He like, but he said he got some stuff. I believe that he has something because he said it. And then we got that one beat, but I learned that from just life. That's not something I picked up in music where you second guess everything and you think everyone's lying. And that's what I mean by the industry shit.

• 1:04:46Speaker 02

  It's like all smoke and mirrors, but if, if anyone ever said they wanted to work, uh, we've, I've never said no. It just haven't been that many people that wanted to work, which is fine. But what I'm saying is like, my life experiences of like, coming from where I come from, like you kind of have to stand on what you believe in. And there are a lot of liars and things happen, but that teaches you to kind of double down on your reality and kind of who you are. I think it's served me well. And I think a lot of the times when people think about California or Los Angeles, they confuse a business economy with like an actual community of people. And I don't think that they intersect that often.

• 1:05:25Speaker 02

  Like, I don't think that there are that many California local, especially black people like hanging out at the Soho House. Or at the Capitol building, or you know, these other places where people might run into those kind of instances. I think it's very, very separated. Yeah, music has been something that's like, I always looked at it like it was just my job. Like it's never like been the end all be all for me personally.

• 1:05:51Questlove?

  Not a passion?

• 1:05:52Speaker 02

  Oh, nah. But I appreciate it.

• 1:05:55Questlove?

  Do you have a hobby? Fishing?

• 1:05:57Speaker 02

  Nah, man.

• 1:05:57Questlove?

  Video games?

• 1:05:59Speaker 02

  Nah, I just, you know, I do music and then I live life. I think I didn't have the ability to kind of create a routine or habits or thing like that when I was a kid. So I think that's kind of my, my hobby now, so to say.

• 1:06:17Speaker 03

  Hey, I'm Nile Rodgers, producer, songwriter, guitarist and co-founder of the group Chic. A great song has a way of defining a moment, a moment of joy, heartbreak, or anything in between.

• 1:06:33Speaker 03

  This fall, I'll be driving across the country, dropping in on some of the coolest, most fascinating artists working today. We'll go deep into their lives and careers and hear what it was like before the moment that made them. From hit makers like Miguel.

• 1:06:50Speaker 06

  That last year, finishing that record was the hardest experience of my life. Regardless of how everyone else buys into this, I believe in this and I'm gonna push.

• 1:07:02Speaker 03

  To rising stars like Alex Warren.

• 1:07:05Speaker 06

  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, I'm being vulnerable to them. And it's almost like a cinematic piece in a way where each song tells that beautiful story.

• 1:07:23Speaker 03

  It's gonna be one hell of a trip. Experience before the moment. A Lincoln original series on the iHeart radio app, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.

• 1:07:35Speaker 07

  This is Shirley Strawberry from the Steve Harvey Morning Show. Buy smart, drive for less and trade for more. That's Toyota affordability. And it starts with a great deal on an all wheel drive Camry, Corolla Cross, or a Corolla sedan with the latest features and tech. Or test drive a spacious Grand Highlander or adventure ready RAB four. And with so many hybrid models available, you can enjoy longer trips without all the stops. While Toyota's legendary resale value means you could get more at trade in, get a great deal today and a great value tomorrow. Shop toyota.com for deals and details. Toyota, let's go places. Behind every chart topping hit, you know by heart, there's an original.

• 1:08:20Speaker 07

  Writing it someplace where nobody was listening. Some basement, some bedroom, somebody with headphones on at three.

• 1:08:27Questlove?

  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? Behind every original. Live in Levi's.

• 1:09:11Questlove?

  I definitely want to talk about the series, which is still in my mind, a possibility. Like, I refuse to accept, you know, endings. And I'm talking about the Vince Staples Show on Netflix, which the hammer came down at the end of season two. I would like to know, okay, so you play like a fictionalized version of yourself on this show that, you know, is to me like surrealist comedy. Where does the character on that show end? And where does the real Vince Staples begin? Like, when it's cut, do you just go home and it's like, I'm Vince Staples or like?

• 1:09:53Speaker 02

  I mean, I don't think I learned that yet. Like, when it came to the show, I kind of was learning how to do everything on the fly. And I think I had so many different things to do. It was never like just doing one thing. So from learning how to write, to learning how to act, to learning how to produce, I had to like kind of learn how to do everything at once. So I didn't really have, I never like mentally prepared to do the show.

• 1:10:17Questlove?

  Was it always the intention of the story arc of the show? Like, I will say that season one was very much surrealist. Where season two had this arc of the funeral and the road trip of it all.

• 1:10:30Speaker 02

  Benjibility? Yeah, that's a network note.

• 1:10:34Questlove?

  Oh, so their note was instead of?

• 1:10:36Speaker 02

  Ask Cory.

• 1:10:37Questlove?

  Present?

• 1:10:38Speaker 02

  He right there.

• 1:10:39Questlove?

  So that, that was a network note?

• 1:10:41Speaker 02

  The whole season is network notes. The show, they told me I couldn't make the show I wanted to make.

• 1:10:46Questlove?

  By the way, you, when we, shockers, you came to game night. That was, that was the most shocking. And this is a night where like, I'm meeting Monica Lewinsky for the first time and like other people like, holy shit, like Weird Al's playing with Megan Thee Stallion. But when you showed up, we all looked at each other like, shit. Like, you always struck me as a person that would like, I ain't doing that corny shit.

• 1:11:08Speaker 02

  Yeah, Quint asked me to go.

• 1:11:09Questlove?

  There you go.

• 1:11:10Speaker 02

  That's my guy.

• 1:11:12Questlove?

  Thank you, Quint. So otherwise, you would have said?

• 1:11:15Speaker 02

  Not at all.

• 1:11:16Questlove?

  Thank you, bro.

• 1:11:17Speaker 02

  If you asked me, I would have went too, but she's, she's one of those, she asked me to go. She would have just sent it to me and not like had a conversation, I wouldn't have showed up.

• 1:11:25Questlove?

  Was it cool?

• 1:11:25Speaker 02

  Yeah, it was cool, man.

• 1:11:26Questlove?

  I was real nervous. I was like, oh, man, I hope you don't think I'm corny.

• 1:11:29Speaker 02

  Nah, I got some ice cream, man. It's all good.

• 1:11:31Questlove?

  Okay, but you told me at game night that there was a hidden episode or a lost episode from season one that never made it to the?

• 1:11:40Speaker 02

  Yeah, but see, season one is like, it was just, I think, I look at this show like it was a cool experience to kind of learn how to do something, but it was never like as intended. The whole thing is just me trying to figure it out.

• 1:11:52Questlove?

  Were you satisfied with the results?

• 1:11:54Speaker 02

  No, not at all.

• 1:11:56Questlove?

  Oh, really?

• 1:11:57Speaker 02

  It wasn't that good.

• 1:11:58Questlove?

  Oh, damn.

• 1:11:59Speaker 02

  It's okay.

• 1:12:00Questlove?

  Do you think of me less because I love the show?

• 1:12:02Speaker 02

  No, not at all. I don't know.

• 1:12:04Questlove?

  So you had a more extreme version of that show?

• 1:12:06Speaker 02

  My statement was, correct me if I'm wrong, look at Cory. The ideas that I had were too esoteric for the audience. And this would be a great show if it was on HBO, but we can't make this at Netflix.

• 1:12:28Speaker 02

  Am I right?

• 1:12:28Questlove?

  They have trillions.

• 1:12:30Speaker 02

  That's my point. But it's okay, you just add some fried chicken and like some, like a mom and a family reunion and like some gun violence.

• 1:12:37Questlove?

  So seriously, like all the, oh, I love the extreme of it. I love the fact that it's?

• 1:12:44Speaker 02

  And it like, it's perfectly fine too. It's like, I don't, I don't feel no way about it, but it's like, yeah, it was, it was just, I look at it like a learning experience, you know what I mean? But I think you have to know how to work within the confines of what would need to be created. And I think coming from music television is so much more specific, especially like streamer television, because it's based on certain things. So you just have to find your way to work within the algorithm. And I think that was a very, very important lesson to learn. The original idea was way more vignette than what it ended up being. And then we had to kind of find a way to serialize a little bit more, because I was a request. And then trying to make something a little bit more creative, not creative, but just a little bit more

• 1:13:27Speaker 02

  deep rooted as far as like a camera selection or kind of our literary sources and kind of

• 1:13:36Speaker 02

  alluding to certain things and kind of paying tribute to certain films and books and things like that. And, you know, along the line, we just lost audience. And moving to Canada and things like that, it was a lot that had to happen. It was, it kind of just fell apart.

• 1:13:51Questlove?

  Damn, I'm disappointed to hear that version of it. Because for me, I thought it was such a, a step in the right direction. Because I think that we've been told like our story has to be just base level reality and point A to point B, point C, like basically the rules of an old model. And the reason why I loved the surrealist nature of the show.

• 1:14:17Questlove?

  Because, and I'm into this experimental phase where, you know, we've been taught to survive and hustle so much that we don't allow ourselves to do the opposite of that, which is like dream. And sometimes if you tell a story that, even if it's jarring enough to be like, what the hell is going on here? Like, that's us thinking and that puts us in a dream space more than just like?

• 1:14:44Speaker 02

  Yeah, and I think it worked a lot, just having to write so many episodes, like getting so many knows. Not really being able to produce, like, we shot the first season with no playback. Like, we had iPhones recording the screen to see what was going on, so we can make our adjustments and things like that. Well, you know, it's just different budgets. But, and I think we had a decent budget, like you got to figure out how to allocate and then move into a place with basically with virtually no black people and then only getting two Americans per episode, like to go up to Canada. You had to learn how to budget correctly and how to kind of just work with what happens. So it was a really, really good learning experience for me, at least. And I learned a lot about overarching thing, but the truth of the matter is like, you know, on one hand, you want to be able to try to

• 1:15:27Speaker 02

  explore these things, but on two, you know, they know what works and what doesn't work, because, you know, 10, 10 times more people watch Nemesis or something like that than my show. So you got to know what works, especially for them.

• 1:15:38Questlove?

  Discouraged you from ever wanting to attempt something of this level again?

• 1:15:45Speaker 02

  I mean, who knows? But as of right now, I'm not, I'm not doing that right now. But it was, like I said, it was a really good experience. We met a lot of good people, like especially season two, we met a lot of good people. Season one as well, but it was just, it was very, very, very interesting.

• 1:16:02Questlove?

  What secret talent do you have that you're still trying to hone that we don't know about?

• 1:16:08Speaker 02

  I don't know how to do anything, bro.

• 1:16:11Questlove?

  Cook?

• 1:16:12Speaker 02

  I can cook. That's a life skill. I'll learn that over time. You got to feed yourself.

• 1:16:16Questlove?

  There's got to be a secret talent, man, like?

• 1:16:19Speaker 02

  Do I got a secret talent?

• 1:16:20Questlove?

  Cory?

• 1:16:25Speaker 02

  That's just slavery, though.

• 1:16:30Questlove?

  All right, man, I'm gonna let you have.

• 1:16:32Speaker 02

  Nah, I'm just saying slavery, you know, that's just they got us for a reason. But, yeah, nah, I'm pretty surface level, bro. As surprising as it might seem. Yeah, but I don't, I don't narcotic their alcohol, so like I got to do, my memory is getting a little bit worse, but I'm working on it. I'm trying to get my shit back.

• 1:16:48Questlove?

  Yeah, you definitely strike me as a person who never lets the smallest shit slide, like you.

• 1:16:53Speaker 02

  I let some, bro, I let so much slide, bro. I don't hold anything against anybody, but I remembered like random things.

• 1:17:02Speaker 02

  If, I'll be like, oh, that was actually Tuesday. I'll remember like insignificant shit, but I'm not like, I'm not like a grudgy person.

• 1:17:09Questlove?

  Is there an album that you have listened to like more than five times in a 24 hour period? Like?

• 1:17:20Speaker 02

  Well, probably, yes, when we're working on music, that's all I listen to. I listened to a couple.

• 1:17:25Questlove?

  So you don't allow other music in while, when you're working on a project?

• 1:17:28Speaker 02

  I listened to the same couple of songs, bro, for my entire life. It was surprising. I do listen to new music too, but like, but if I'm like working on a project and I like listen to it like kind of all day, every day, because I got to figure out how to make it, you know what I mean?

• 1:17:40Questlove?

  Okay.

• 1:17:40Speaker 02

  But I listened to, oh shit, I'm trying to think what I listened to a lot.

• 1:17:47Questlove?

  Like, okay, you're in the car and your phone's on Bluetooth. What is?

• 1:17:52Speaker 02

  I don't listen, I don't listen to music in the car. Probably like a book, if anything, but usually just quiet.

• 1:17:57Questlove?

  How many audio books do you read?

• 1:17:59Speaker 02

  A couple. Not, I read the same things over and over again.

• 1:18:03Questlove?

  What books do you read?

• 1:18:04Speaker 02

  Save the Cat was important.

• 1:18:07Questlove?

  Who wrote that?

• 1:18:08Speaker 02

  Shit, I don't fucking know. It's a screenwriting book.

• 1:18:11Questlove?

  Okay.

• 1:18:11Speaker 02

  Then I have, I'll tell you right now, hold on. I read this, I was reading like a lot of film stuff.

• 1:18:20Questlove?

  Okay.

• 1:18:21Speaker 02

  Just how to learn how to make the show.

• 1:18:24Questlove?

  Yeah, there's a book that Pee Wee Herman recommended that he read.

• 1:18:28Speaker 02

  That's hilarious.

• 1:18:29Questlove?

  Well, yeah.

• 1:18:30Speaker 02

  That's funny as hell.

• 1:18:32Questlove?

  No, there's a book that he followed to make Pee Wee's Big Adventure that is pretty much the bible for screenwriters right now.

• 1:18:40Speaker 02

  Blake Snyder wrote Save the Cat, then I listened to The Method by Isaac Butler, trying to learn some acting shit, but I never finished it. The other day Kenny told me to listen to the Miles Davis unabridged autobiography. I haven't got to that. I got a little bit of John Steinbeck here and there.

• 1:18:58Questlove?

  Okay.

• 1:18:59Speaker 02

  And Razor's Edge, but I kinda, those are the only audiobooks I listened to.

• 1:19:04Questlove?

  The direction of Cry Baby is, hats off to it.

• 1:19:08Speaker 02

  Thank you, brother.

• 1:19:09Questlove?

  It's structured like a Funkadelic album where George Clinton in one song will have like microcourses, a different bridge, and it's almost like it's seven courses inside of one song. And so, like, can you just talk about the creative process of what led you to want to do this album in this way? And how it came off so authentic sounding?

• 1:19:33Speaker 02

  I think, I mean, just from, I guess, life experiences are kinda where I grew up. That music is accessible, I would probably say. Like, I got songs like this on my, on every project. It's just few and far between because no one can play instruments. And that was the issue that we had with this album, no one knows how to play any instruments. So I had to kinda find things that kinda fit. Yeah, I got something like Fire, a lot of Summertime 06 is pretty drum and bass heavy. Couple synthesizers here and there, you know, it's a Joy Division flip for the album cover. FM is a dookie flip for the album cover. Hell Can Wait is a Robin in the Hood Sublime flip for the album cover.

• 1:20:17Speaker 02

  So it's like, I think it's just having enough access and time and kinda cachet for people to make what you asked them to make, to be 100% honest, like, committed.

• 1:20:29Questlove?

  Was it harder to execute this record than the other projects that came before?

• 1:20:33Speaker 02

  Way easier. I mean, I did it by myself. I always make music by myself, but it's harder when it's like, work with other people and their schedules and things like that. And I think technology's just passed, so it's like, hey, send me 90 beats, and then I'll send like, one song that I find that's close enough to what I'm trying to do, but like, I think, I think the familiarity's there just because of how I grew up, you know what I mean? And then timing where I grew up, because when I was in school, I think my first year in high school was 2007. So that's, Gym Class Heroes was big, N.E.R.D. was big, Pharaohs was always big, Limp Bizkit was always big, and that's like a rap group to me.

• 1:21:15Speaker 02

  Long as you got enough white people to where it's like, you run across certain things, and also Hispanic community is big into different kinds of music, so I just think it was around. But to make this, I just think it was, I never have a reason for anything that I make. I know it's gonna sound crazy, but it's just like, something just pop up in my head and I'm like, I wanna make, this is what, this is what all the songs are, and this is what it needs to sound like, and I kinda have everything done in my head before I start, so.

• 1:21:42Questlove?

  I don't, I don't think that's crazy at all. If anything, I think this is what leads to the authenticity of it, because, I mean, Nothing About You comes off pretentious or calculating. I mean, I'll be the first to admit with music, I'm so calculating. I will write fake record reviews of what I want my Pitchfork rating to be. I will, like, because, you know, again, I was kinda raised in a people pleasing environment, so of course, I'm like, ah, I gotta make a critically acclaimed record, and, you know, true artistry is actually just like, you know, how do I feel today, random day, whatever,

• 1:22:24Questlove?

  September 9th, 2028, like, how do I feel today? And, I mean, you can clearly feel that when you, when you listen to this. Even before I heard, Do You Even Know the Devil? One of the questions I wanted to ask you, initially, I was gonna ask you, were you atheist? But I am not an atheist, however, I do not believe in the concept of a devil. I believe like, a devil was a spooky figure that was created to keep us-

• 1:22:55Speaker 02

  Before people brushed their teeth and shit. Yeah, they didn't know what they were talking about.

• 1:22:58Questlove?

  To keep, right, to keep us in line. What is your spiritual practice like? Do you, are you an atheist? Are you?

• 1:23:05Speaker 02

  Nah, I mean, I don't really practice. I went to Catholic school though, and I went to Christian school as a kid for a long time, to Saint Albert the Great, you know, in Compton, I went to Our Lady of Victory in Compton, and I went to Optimal Christian Academy in Compton, fourth through eighth. So I know all the Jesus shit, and my whole family's into that shit, it's just never, I mean, I look at it like this, like, if God is real, I'm going to hell anyway, and if God not real, then it's like, cool. Either way, either way is like, I don't really have a dog in a fight, but I do, I do appreciate the buildings, the buildings are nice, I think structurally, certain things are very

• 1:23:45Speaker 02

  important to get people through their days, and life is hard, so, but, I feel like it's like, say you don't care about God, right? And then you go around trying to like, aha, and like, disprove that shit, like, that's some loser shit. Like, if you don't let Granny pray and do her shit, she finna die. Like, let Granny pray, is how I look at it, so.

• 1:24:05Questlove?

  Is your nihilistic approach to this, do you acknowledge that it's a protective measure, a self-reservation measure for you?

• 1:24:15Speaker 02

  Well, see, I don't really-

• 1:24:16Questlove?

  Like, do you believe in anything?

• 1:24:17Speaker 02

  No, but I don't think I need to be preserved. Like, who the fuck am I? I'm not special. I think, you see, you see enough shit, it's like, you see somebody, you see somebody check out, right? It's like, I don't know where bro went, but I know he not here no more. And most people see people die, like, in the hospital, or grandma at the house, and everybody holding hands and crying. Nobody sees anybody die, like, behind the Target in the Fat Burger, like. So it's like, it's a different thing when you see, I think, life and death in certain regards, and I think I just have had enough life experiences to where I'm like, we don't really know what's happening right now, and I think that's okay with me, but I also don't

• 1:24:58Speaker 02

  feel like I'm like this special divine creature, I think we all the same.

• 1:25:03Questlove?

  All right, I've been purposely trying to avoid anything that leans towards, like, again, fetishization, tell me what it was like in, in your neighborhood stories. Have you seen someone die before?

• 1:25:15Speaker 02

  All right, I've seen, I've seen a lot of things in this life.

• 1:25:17Questlove?

  How old were you when you first?

• 1:25:19Speaker 02

  Oh shit, I don't remember, it was a long time ago. It's just like, people die, you know what I mean, is the way I look at it, and I look at it as if it's like a part of life. But all I'm saying is like, if, the reason I bring that up is because if someone's in their, in their final moments, and it's up, and it's all that they have to be like, I'm holding on to this thing, because if I pass away right now, I'm gonna go to heaven and I'm gonna see God, and my grandma, and my uncle, and my best friend. You know how foul of a motherfucker you gotta be to be like, that's not true? It's like, what the fuck are we doing? You know what I mean? Like, when everybody die, and it's like, I've seen a lot of niggas, you know, try to wish their way out of it, and everybody say, God, or Jesus, or this, or everybody do it, so

• 1:26:04Speaker 02

  I'm like-

• 1:26:05Questlove?

  So do you believe that what people believe will wind up being the structure for which their life will go? Like, if your grandma believes in heaven and hell, so go to heaven. I don't believe in that, I believe that we just go to the next world.

• 1:26:20Speaker 02

  I would say I hope that they get whatever they strive for, no matter what that is. I hope if you wanna go to heaven, you go to heaven, I hope if you wanna go to Temecula, you can go to Temecula. I don't know what's what, I just, I just hope everybody gets what they, what they aspire for, you know?

• 1:26:40Questlove?

  Who's the funniest person that you know?

• 1:26:42Speaker 02

  I don't know, Dave or D-Boy. Yeah, either Dave or D-Boy.

• 1:26:47Questlove?

  You're speaking of Chappelle?

• 1:26:48Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, for sure, Dave Chappelle or D-Boy, the homie, or Black T, pretty funny.

• 1:26:53Questlove?

  Okay.

• 1:26:54Speaker 02

  It's them three.

• 1:26:55Questlove?

  What's the fastest way to lose your trust in someone?

• 1:26:59Speaker 02

  I don't, I don't ever get to that point.

• 1:27:02Questlove?

  So you kinda walk in this situation knowing that you're probably gonna disappoint me, so let me just lower my expectations and-

• 1:27:09Speaker 02

  Not even that, it's like, your life's not about me, right? So it's like, as, as crazy as it might sound, say, somebody does something that I don't necessarily agree with, I try to take into consideration their life, or their circumstances, or whatever their person's going through at that moment, and it's not about me, and I know I can figure out whatever I have to figure out, so I don't really take, I don't really take anything that personal, except for like, like, if you care too much about the situation, that's gonna irritate me. It's like, if somebody do some fashion, they like, keep saying sorry, it's like, leave me alone. All right, I'm gonna take that personal, but other than that, but only because like, you irritated me, but other than that, I don't, I don't take nothing serious, there's no skin off my back.

• 1:27:58Speaker 03

  Hey, I'm Nile Rodgers, producer, songwriter, guitarist, and co-founder of the group Sheik. A great song has a way of defining a moment, a moment of joy, heartbreak, or anything in between. This fall, I'll be driving across the country, dropping in on some of the coolest, most fascinating artists working today. We'll go deep into their lives and careers and hear what it was like before the moment that made them. From hitmakers like Miguel-

• 1:28:31Speaker 06

  That last year, finishing that record was the hardest experience of my life, regardless of how everyone else buys into this. I believe in this, and I'm gonna push.

• 1:28:43Speaker 03

  To rising stars like Alex Warren. 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. It's gonna be one hell of a trip. Experience Before the Moment, a Lincoln Original Series on the iHeartRadio app, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.

• 1:29:16Speaker 06

  Hey, this is Mario Lopez from all Mario Lopez Daily Podcast. Buy smart, drive for less, and trade for more. That Toyota affordability. And it starts with a great deal on an all-wheel drive Camry, Corolla Cross, or a Corolla sedan with the latest features in tech. Or test drive a spacious Grand Highlander or adventure-ready RAV4. And with so many hybrid models available, you can enjoy longer trips without all the stops. While Toyota's legendary resale value means you could get more at trade-in. So get a great deal today and great value tomorrow. Shop Toyota.com for deals and details. Toyota, let's go places.

• 1:29:53Questlove?

  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 three 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

• 1:30:34Questlove?

  telling. What's yours? Behind every original, live in Levi's.

• 1:30:46Questlove?

  There's a thing that often happens in your music, which is kind of the, it's not often, but it's, it happens enough that I want to ask about it. It's the idea of like the abrupt cutoff. You've had a few songs in which literally-

• 1:31:01Speaker 02

  That is dumb?

• 1:31:02Questlove?

  Even your Sprite commercial is cut off at the help. Is that a-

• 1:31:08Speaker 02

  Well, I didn't know how to loop beats for a long time.

• 1:31:13Speaker 02

  So-

• 1:31:13Questlove?

  So this is just you, like, your songs over?

• 1:31:16Speaker 02

  Yeah, the song just ended when they ended, trying to do as much as possible. And I think that's just something that people seen as something that I did.

• 1:31:23Questlove?

  So I just wasted 20 minutes of like trying to analyze like every word you said that just literally abruptly cuts a song off?

• 1:31:29Speaker 02

  I mean, at a certain point in time, you start doing it for a feel, but yeah, I just didn't have, my songs are like 45 seconds, but that's, that didn't feel weird to me because that's like some old like punk rock CD they hand out at the liquor store type shit when I was a kid, like Zeds and stuff like that. But, uh, yeah, I think it just kind of tied into something that we, a lot of the things that end up happening in my music is because of lack of access. Then they become stylistic, if that makes sense.

• 1:31:54Questlove?

  It does. What is the pressure of being the chosen one? Or the family breadwinner? Like, how do you establish boundaries? How comfortable are you with the word no?

• 1:32:10Speaker 02

  It's not that bad because my family like on some like some, some urban diaspora shit, like don't nobody ask for nothing. You might have to pay for a funeral every once in a while, but I don't aspire to live like a white person. So like, I'm good. You know, we, I don't have any family members that are like, no one's ever came and be like, hey, can you help me pay for college? Like that, because my family not trying to go to college. Like, this is be real. Like, if we get real, ain't nobody in my family like, like, that's just not-

• 1:32:41Questlove?

  Wait, man, in the last five seconds, I went from, wait a minute, how, how did you escape that bullet? Because-

• 1:32:50Speaker 02

  I don't know.

• 1:32:51Questlove?

  The amount of motherfuckers that I have put in college is-

• 1:32:55Speaker 02

  Don't nobody want to go to college, man?

• 1:32:58Speaker 02

  Yeah, that's not, that ain't, that's not our thing. Like, hey, I need a honey real quick. I pay you back on Thursday. Or I need a lawyer. That's like as far as it go. And then the most money I spend on shit is like a funeral, like 15,000. And that's every couple of years. Like, maybe somebody die every, what, what, Corey, four or five years? Yeah, it's not like, it's not a lot.

• 1:33:24Questlove?

  So there's, there's no burden of being you and your family structure? Because-

• 1:33:29Speaker 02

  Nah, not at all. Mm-mm. They leave me alone.

• 1:33:33Questlove?

  And are you essentially treated the same?

• 1:33:36Speaker 02

  Yeah, I mean, I ain't never been like to fit in. You know what I mean? So I don't think, uh-

• 1:33:42Questlove?

  But is that you sort of, I'm trying to figure out if you naturally came this way, or like people that have this outlook, to me, are in constant, it's, it's a level of fight or flight that's rarely talked about, where, you know, said manager who weird enough, one of my last conversations with him was actually about you. If you remember the String of Chappelle shows that he did at Radio City? My manager, Rich, who's really like the, the fifth Beatle in the, in the root circle, you know, he lived the last two years of his life with leukemia, and I would give him an update. So the night that we played with you was the last night that I had a fluid

• 1:34:23Questlove?

  conversation with him before just everything stopped working. And actually, no, the night before. Listeners, Chappelle did, I think, maybe a string of 14 or 15 shows at Radio City. And we sort of had a role in playing behind certain people. So Vince was our next night. And so Rich asked me like, well, who you backing up? I said, uh, you know, da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da, and Vince Staples. And he was like, oh, that's what's up. Like, so he was like-

• 1:34:53Speaker 02

  That's cool. That's super cool.

• 1:34:54Questlove?

  Like, literally, like, the last three minutes of our conversation was like, like, for him to like something, he's very much like you. He hates everything. No, I'm not saying you hate everything.

• 1:35:04Speaker 02

  I know exactly what you're saying. I know exactly what you're saying.

• 1:35:06Questlove?

  But when he said-

• 1:35:08Speaker 02

  He's not excited.

• 1:35:08Questlove?

  No, no, I fuck, I fuck with him. And that's when I was like, okay, I'm gonna-

• 1:35:13Speaker 02

  That's tight.

• 1:35:14Questlove?

  That's how I, I like got into your, the curiosity of what your world is. What is your most treasured possession?

• 1:35:22Speaker 02

  Like-

• 1:35:23Questlove?

  I'm not gonna leave here until I find out you're passionate about something.

• 1:35:26Speaker 02

  You mean like a, like a item? Or like something like from like life or, you know, I mean, like physically?

• 1:35:30Questlove?

  Okay, an item.

• 1:35:31Speaker 02

  Yeah, uh, shit, that make it harder.

• 1:35:34Questlove?

  Okay, life then.

• 1:35:35Speaker 02

  I mean, I, I value my family, like my friends, because that's like few and far between. You know, it's kind of a lifestyle choice. A lot of people end up dead. So you make it this long. It's like, it's pretty cool. That's pretty much it though, bro. And it's my ability to like, just live comfortably. Like, wake up every day and live comfortably. That's like really all I ask for. Yeah, but definitely, I'll say like my family, my friends. I'm pretty, not insulated, but I, like I said, I'm still where I grew up at. So I'm, I have the same routine and same friends and shit like that since I was in elementary school. So I value that. Uh-

• 1:36:08Questlove?

  What's the most difficult part of your life or profession that none of us get to see or none of your circle gets to experience?

• 1:36:18Speaker 02

  Um, to be honest, bro, the wildest thing, just hearing people say stupid shit. Because none of the things that we, I don't want to say none of, but a lot of the things that we make ourselves become victims to are necessary. And like, I think a lot of it, I'm not to keep doing the same thing, but a lot of it falls on like Corey. Because I've never, like, I've never had these worries. And of course, we always told the truth. Hey, they gonna sign you, but they don't really want to sign you. So you gotta figure this out. Cool. Hey, ain't none of these songs gonna work, so we need to go tour. Cool. It's never been like a, I never aspire for nothing but comfort. And like I said, I'm still where I grew up

• 1:37:01Speaker 02

  at. I'm still living a regular life. Um, and that's enough for me because I grew up with like my mom cashing checks at the liquor store down the street. Like, and when I figured out, like, we had a, sorry, mom, I love you. We was moving to, my, my sister moved to Atlanta. She moved my nephew and my niece, my whole family out there. So I was like, I'm gonna take my mom out there. And we had a call with my mom. And we was like, how much money did you make a year? Trying, trying to, we made some like some tax, we trying to figure out how much we need to make. And it was so small. And I had a really good quality of life as a kid. But the amount of money she made, of course, my dad did what he did when he was around, but my mom, by around, I mean incarcerated, not like absentee

• 1:37:42Speaker 02

  father thing. But, um, she made so little money and we had everything that we needed, that complaining just seems ridiculous to me. Like, it's, it's, to me, it's really not that serious. And I think there's a certain level of reality that comes into knowing who you are, because if you don't know who you are, you're gonna die. Like, and where I come from is how I always looked at it when my parents told me literally growing up. So I'm, we're like, I was, I was seeing, I was seeing my pops not too long ago. And, um, we talked about, it was my cousin's birthday and then he made us, he, he had me go over there with him. And my sister got picked up from school. We used to have to walk. So we would see our, my pops pick up my sister and we'd walk to school. And then one of my cousins was like, yeah, you already made us walk home. And we used to see you drive

• 1:38:26Speaker 02

  by and they'd be hiding shit. And my dad was like, well, you had to know the people in your neighborhood and around you, because you need these people one day. And-

• 1:38:35Questlove?

  So that's by design?

• 1:38:36Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:38:37Questlove?

  Did you buy that?

• 1:38:38Speaker 02

  He's right. Because when Long Beach has this racial conflicts and it's like, I know all the Mexican people that live on 7th Street, they're probably not gonna shoot me. You get what I'm saying? Or I know certain people that live here, certain people that live here. And I, I used to take the bus places and I used to, I've caught the train places. But I've always knew who I was. So if we reverse that into music, right? I'm not the most knowledgeable musically. I'm not the best salesman. I'm not the greatest performer. I'm not the most eccentric personality. I know how to write things. I'm like a decent writer. So I know what I am. And then I just try to figure out how to amplify that thing that I'm good at. But by knowing what I'm good at and knowing what viewpoint I have with the world, I also have a realistic understanding of if that's what the world

• 1:39:23Speaker 02

  actually wants. So based on me never kind of being like, nothing about me says I'm gonna be this huge musician that's, you know, touring globally in arenas and stuff like that. I never saw that for myself personally. Not saying it can't happen, not saying it won't happen, but just that's not something I aspired for. So it's nothing difficult about it because like I'm able to provide-

• 1:39:47Speaker 02

  For my family, writing about my perceived reality of a small niche subculture within California, within the black community, that's only thirteen percent of the US population. So being able to buy a house or have a car and doing that, in my opinion, just seems fucking ridiculous. So there's no stress. You know what I'm saying? And then people treat you differently when you start acting differently.

• 1:40:14Questlove?

  But do you not believe in growth or?

• 1:40:17Speaker 02

  Yeah, I do believe in growth, but like, what it, you have to define growth, like, per circumstance. Like, you can grow past certain people and past certain things, but are you communicating that properly? Cause if somebody called me like politic, and I'm be like, I'm not fucking around with that right now. And they're gonna say, okay. No one's gonna be like, oh, man, fuck this nigga, yada, yada, yada. But I've spent enough time where I've grown up at and I know enough people there. Like, I think a lot of the times, the unspoken thing is that people are lying. So when it's like, when you lie about who you are, and you lie about what you've done, and you lie about certain shit in the streets, and you lie about all these other things, then people come back and pull your card. But you gotta think of, just to be real, I'm, I've never had a security guard. I've never gotten assaulted.

• 1:41:02Speaker 02

  I've never gotten robbed. No one's ever came out and said, Vincent Staples is not a real gang member. No one's ever came out to Seven Staples or anything like this or that. But it's not because I'm some super tough person, because I've always been nice to people. And I've always been an understanding of people and I treat people with respect. So maybe one day, one of the few things I've done, because I ain't done a bunch of shit to a bunch of people. I just think that would be kind of like self hate, like coon shit. But if something happens because of something I've done in my past, I gotta eat that. And it's up for me to put in my work and tell the children, tell our children, tell, leave something for my grandchildren to be like, okay, I'm acknowledging my reality of my circumstance. Cause when, cause when my pops got high and listened to Last Pulse on the couch and was like, I hate crackers. He meant that shit.

• 1:41:47Speaker 02

  So it's, so, so I don't, I don't, I don't come from an environment where people lie. You get what I'm saying? I don't come from, and like, maybe Corey can even more off camera context to that. But I think that you, you in the streets and you, not to, not just to round it out, you in the streets and they give you another name. And then you do all this other stuff. And then it's, and then one day you turn twenty-five or twenty-six and it's like, you're just yourself again. Because you've lived long enough through the childhood angst to just be exactly who you are. And I think I made music at the exact same time that I was getting in trouble. And I made music at the exact same time I dropped out of high school, and the exact same time I started getting in the streets. And the exact same time I grew up.

• 1:42:27Speaker 02

  I made music through my kind of prepubescent years into like becoming a mature adult. So music has always been something that I've done. And I've never done music for other people. So the people who, my friends who look at me have never looked at me like, that's Vincent and he's going to be a rapper now. He's going to do, it's never changed. I've just done the same thing my entire life, you know?

• 1:42:49Questlove?

  How, how do your friends adjust to what I will call your integrity code? Like, you strike me as a person that integrity is step one with you. Do they adjust to you or do they try to pull you out of that?

• 1:43:06Speaker 02

  I think that's just where I come from. I think, I think.

• 1:43:09Questlove?

  Are all of them this principle?

• 1:43:10Speaker 02

  I think there's a level of intelligence that's not spoken about now. It has to do with public school systems and rail lining and things like that. So you have some people that are smarter than others. I'm not gonna pretend that that's not a thing. But what I'm saying is if you meet a lot of institutionalized older black men, a lot of people that came from the streets, or the people that kind of raised us in these communities, a lot of them are well read. A lot of them have principles, a lot of them know the laws, a lot of them know a lot of these things. We just don't highlight those people as much. But I think that you have to kind of have these principles if you're drawing your own rules and your boundaries in a police state that is anti-black and that is hyper capitalist.

• 1:43:43Questlove?

  Okay, so if not Long Beach, where you're very familiar with your environment and whatnot, where is the most ideal place? Assuming that you've least world traveled a few times in your life, where would be the ideal destination of where you would like to die?

• 1:44:05Speaker 02

  If not Long Beach?

• 1:44:06Questlove?

  Long Beach is not the option.

• 1:44:08Speaker 02

  Uh, probably like Compton, Seal Beach.

• 1:44:11Questlove?

  Motherfucker, I mean, like, like outside of California.

• 1:44:15Speaker 02

  Am I lying?

• 1:44:16Questlove?

  Corey, where, where would you like him to wind up?

• 1:44:20Speaker 05

  In the world?

• 1:44:21Questlove?

  In the world.

• 1:44:22Speaker 02

  Corey loved Long Beach now, so you, you, you lost with that one.

• 1:44:25Speaker 05

  I, I think there's places in the world that he does love. Like, I think he's found love in, in Tokyo.

• 1:44:29Speaker 02

  Yeah, I like, I like, I like everywhere I've been except for like Austria.

• 1:44:33Speaker 05

  Australia, we, we have a really good time in Australia as he's coming up.

• 1:44:36Speaker 02

  Yeah, Austria was too hot. And the south of France, um, it flies everywhere.

• 1:44:41Questlove?

  Dog, yeah.

• 1:44:42Speaker 02

  And the food is disgusting. We opened up a Thai dollar sign in the south of France.

• 1:44:47Questlove?

  And it was not ideal?

• 1:44:49Speaker 02

  They went on a boat tour and then he made them, the guy that drove the boat made them dinner.

• 1:44:54Questlove?

  Okay.

• 1:44:55Speaker 02

  So that was cool, but I'm, I wasn't fucking around.

• 1:44:58Questlove?

  Wait till you're forty. No, I'm playing with you.

• 1:45:00Speaker 02

  I don't like getting on boats with people from Europe.

• 1:45:06Questlove?

  That's borderline the end of the episode. What do you consider your greatest achievement?

• 1:45:15Speaker 02

  Staying grounded is extremely kind of hard. I see it being a very difficult thing in this business. So just kind of remaining yourself is something that, while still growing, I guess, is interesting to me. Now that I'm older and I can kind of see it. So I think that that's something that I probably had to work very hard at in retrospect. I just haven't got there yet, but I'm pretty sure that's it.

• 1:45:37Questlove?

  Well, because this was such an enlightening conversation, I feel like I knew I wanted a powerful opening one. And now that I'm on my last question, which is number fifty-one, I feel weird asking it. But only because the character of death is so prevalent. And I, I don't think it's by design, but it's just the way that you refer to death or the possibility of it happening is so casual. How would you prefer your exodus from this life to be?

• 1:46:16Speaker 02

  I mean, look, whatever card is pulled is fine with me, you know? I think, um, that's literally the point of life, you know? That's the jackpot. You die and then now you've lived. So we can assess it from point A to point B. And, um, yeah, it's just something that happens to everybody. So I think that that's literally why we're alive is to, because we're really not here that long, if you really think about it.

• 1:46:45Questlove?

  Yeah.

• 1:46:45Speaker 02

  So, yeah, I think the story always rounds itself out.

• 1:46:48Questlove?

  So now to end on a total downer, I will end with, what is the greatest love of your life?

• 1:46:55Speaker 02

  I would say something simple is like family, but I think it's just, to be honest, it's just the ability to have creativity. Because without that, my perspective on the other things don't matter as much. Cause I view life through a creative lens. And if I wasn't able to do that, then it would be miserable for everybody else around me. So that's very important to the people around me and myself. Without that, I don't know what we have going on.

• 1:47:25Questlove?

  Corey, I highly regret ducking and dodging the responsibility of working with this human.

• 1:47:35Speaker 02

  That's funny.

• 1:47:37Questlove?

  Not since the days of D'Angelo and passing up on brown sugar have I regretted not being a part of the creative story. So we can hopefully fix that. Dude, I really appreciate you giving me a stellar conversation. And, um, I am.

• 1:47:55Speaker 02

  Man, I appreciate you having me.

• 1:47:57Questlove?

  Really a fan of your creativity and I, I can't wait to see what's next. And thank you for inspiring me.

• 1:48:03Speaker 02

  Thank you, man. Appreciate you.

• 1:48:06Questlove?

  Vince Staples, ladies and gentlemen, and, uh, we will see you on the next go around of The Questlove Show. Thank you.

• 1:48:17Questlove?

  The 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 Conroy. iHeart video support by Mark Canton. Logos, graphics, and animation by Nick Aloney. Additional support by Lance Coleman. 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.

• 1:49:01Questlove?

  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.

• 1:49:30Speaker 07

  This is Shirley Strawberry from the Steve Harvey Morning Show. Buy smart, drive for less, and trade for more. That's Toyota affordability. And it starts with a great deal on an all-wheel drive Camry, Corolla Cross, or a Corolla sedan with the latest features and tech. Or test drive a spacious Grand Highlander or adventure-ready RAV4. And with so many hybrid models available, you can enjoy longer trips without all the stops. While Toyota's legendary resale value means you could get more at trade-in, get a great deal today and a great value tomorrow. Shop toyota.com for deals and details. Toyota, let's go places.

• 1:50:11Questlove?

  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.

• 1:50:46Speaker 06

  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 ninety-nine percent 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.

• 1:51:16Speaker 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.

• 1:51:55Speaker 01

  What's that?

• 1:51:56Speaker 06

  My fresh detector.

• 1:51:57Speaker 01

  Uh, your what?

• 1:51:58Speaker 06

  There it is.

• 1:51:59Speaker 01

  What is it detecting?

• 1:52:01Speaker 06

  Fresh produce, fresh meat.

• 1:52:04Speaker 01

  Okay, what happens if it detects something really fresh?

• 1:52:09Speaker 06

  Apparently we celebrate.

• 1:52:11Speaker 01

  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.

• 1:52:22Questlove?

  This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human.