Corinne Bailey Rae Backstage At The Roots Picnic

Questlove catches up with the one and only Corinne Bailey Rae backstage at the 2026 Roots Picnic in Philly for a quick, casual bonus beat episode. Corinne—who guested on Questlove Supreme in 2024—talks about going back to her debut album 20 years later. She explains why she's stretching those songs out on tour so every night goes somewhere new, and how emotional it was to bring Black Rainbows and the story of Harriet Jacobs to the stage. She also walks us through her new children's book, Put Your Records On, about a young girl who finds a song for every feeling in an elder's record collection. Plus she tells us about writing sessions with Amber and Paris of We Are King and the run-up to her first headline show at the Royal Albert Hall on October 26th, so put your records on, y'all, and enjoy. See omnystudio.com/listener https://omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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

• 0:00Questlove?

  This is an iHeart Podcast.

• 0:03Questlove?

  Guaranteed Human.

• 0:05Speaker 01

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• 1:35Speaker 02

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• 2:06Questlove?

  The Questlove Show is a production of iHeart Radio.

• 2:15Questlove?

  Hey, what's up, y'all? It's Questlove, and this is The Questlove Show. And back in 2024, Team Supreme and I had Kareem Bailey Ray on the show. I'm such a major fan of hers, so when she performed at this year's Roots Picnic in Philly, we caught up with her backstage for this mini-episode. It was quick and casual. We were both running around like crazy, but I wanted to encourage all of you to catch Kareem on tour and check out her new children's book, which is aptly titled Put Your Records On, which came out earlier this year. And I got a copy, and I don't even have kids, so, you know, it's that good. We talked about the book, the song, and the tour in this 20-minute bonus beat. All right, enjoy, y'all.

• 3:03Questlove?

  Hey, what's up, y'all? This is Questlove, and this is The Questlove Show. Doing another mini-episode, we are live at the Roots Picnic here in the beautiful Republic of Philadelphia, 2026. And we are here right now with a dear friend of mine. I've followed her career and been a massive fan of hers forever. I guess I could say decades.

• 3:27Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah.

• 3:28Questlove?

  And not...

• 3:31Questlove?

  I learned that I gotta take the word "old" out, so I was told to use the word "honored." So, yeah, but we're here right now with the one and only Kareem Bailey Rae.

• 3:40Speaker 03

  Thank you for having me.

• 3:41Questlove?

  Great to see you again.

• 3:43Speaker 03

  Good to see you.

• 3:43Questlove?

  All right, so, of course, you are here, finally, to celebrate your 20th?

• 3:51Speaker 03

  That's right, yeah. 20 years since my debut record, yeah.

• 3:54Questlove?

  And so, like, what does that mean for you to return to this? Because oftentimes, I know many an artist whose first album, they kind of cringe on because they really haven't gotten their footing yet on who they are as a person. But, like, talk to me about the process that leads up to your debut record and what you wanted to do creatively.

• 4:18Speaker 03

  I think the record for me was, it was a kind of culmination of all my musical threads at that point. Like, I'd grown up in classical violin, and I had worked in a jazz club, and I'd been in an indie band. And this was really my first time in the studio where I was singing, but I was, like, up close on a microphone and I had the headphones, and I was able to really hear my voice.

• 4:40Questlove?

  Right.

• 4:40Speaker 03

  And so, so much of it was really sort of intimate and confessional and conversational, because I wasn't, like, ha, you know, like, over loads of guitars. And so, it kind of took on that character. But it's been great to me to go back to these songs and see, like, the seed of a song that I feel like I've then written three songs that kind of turn into something else now. So I can see the seeds in "Season Change," where it already wigs out. I can see, like, some of the stuff I did on "Black Rainbows," or, you know, in "Enchantment." I can see songs I've done about spells and transcendency. And so, it was good to say, "Oh, it's still me," you know? Sort of go back and be like, "I recognize myself, and I found it easier to sing." As I'm glad I've done some work.

• 5:25Speaker 03

  And so, it was, it was good to revisit the songs.

• 5:29Questlove?

  What's the creative approach that you're doing with this record? Like, oftentimes, when I do anniversary projects, for instance, when Jay-Z was celebrating the 10th anniversary of "Reasonable Doubt," I told him, "Hey, let's do the album backwards." The same with, you know, we did, like, an anniversary show, whatever, and I figured out a creative way to do the record. For you, though, like, how are you? Is this more or less about the feeling of the beginning of your career? Or are you doing the album, start to finish, soup to nuts?

• 6:03Speaker 03

  I'm doing the album, start to finish, not in the order that I recorded it.

• 6:07Questlove?

  Okay.

• 6:07Speaker 03

  But I'm sort of doing it from here. So I think, okay, so if I am this person, this woman, who's in this moment of sort of creative freedom and wants to stretch out and wants to be responsive to an audience, not kind of like, "Oh, it's three and a half minutes, then it's on to something else." So really, so many of the songs are just, like, stretched out and kind of spread out. So hopefully, people will be happy. It's like, they know the song. It's not like a super-fast reggae version, or it's like being turned into a drum and bass or something.

• 6:36Questlove?

  Right.

• 6:36Speaker 03

  It's like, the groove is familiar, the song's familiar, but then it's gonna go somewhere else, and it'll be different every single night, and it, and then it's gonna sort of come back, so.

• 6:45Questlove?

  I was gonna ask, is there a attempt? Well, here's the weird thing. Like, I would always remix our songs.

• 6:51Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 6:52Questlove?

  But then, I guess, like, you know, Miss Lauryn Hill sort of took over the definition of, like, remixing a song. You know, I've heard at least five different configurations

• 7:04Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 7:04Questlove?

  of her music, of interpretations of the songs, which, you know, is interesting. But how tempting was it to not given to the urge to remix or update or, you know, basically to stick to the script as your fans first got to meet you? The way that, you know, how tempting was it to not want to just turn it upside down and try something new with the material?

• 7:34Speaker 03

  I think that it gets turned inside out at a certain point, the music. So I think with, in a song like "Season Change," it has this kind of, like, mantra-like, kind of repetitive, you know, choral thing that I feel like in any moment, we could break that down and be hymnal. Or we could, like, wig it out and give it an epic guitar solo and try and be celestial, you know? Just like, so I feel like in all the songs, I'm saying, "This is me," but also, like, I see how the riff for "I'd Like To" can also sit with the riff for "Use Me," or whatever. So we can sort of, like, we can be in there for a minute to sort of say, like,

• 8:15Speaker 03

  "Yeah, I made this record when I was in my twenties, but I, you know, grew up with this music. It's my dad's record collection. I worked in a jazz club." To sort of say in different contexts, like, I'm giving a nod to, you know, I've put in these vocals, I like, "I want us to be like Sly Stone." It has to be like, "I don't want to slow it down here, and then I want the drums to come back in time," as if we haven't, we haven't lost any time. And so I feel like I'm faithful to the songs, but I just want to, like, loosen their, you know, stays a little bit.

• 8:43Questlove?

  Got you.

• 8:44Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 8:44Questlove?

  Now, when we last spoke, you were at the end of your astounding "Black Rainbows" album. And, you know, I guess when I, the time before I last spoke to you, you were just at the, the beginning of unleashing that out into the world. So it was good, like, going on chats and social media to be like, "Wait a minute." Like, next to Jay-Z's Afro, I think hearing you sound sonically different was one of the most shocking pleasures I had of watching people respond to, "Wait a minute, what's this? Like, where did this come from?"

• 9:24Questlove?

  One, how cathartic was that entire experience of bringing that album to the stage? And I got to see it at least, eh, maybe three, three shows?

• 9:39Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 9:39Questlove?

  And, you know, it felt so spontaneous and, you know, like, how did it feel to, to get that out of your system and to bring to people? Like, what were the responses, like?

• 9:50Speaker 03

  It felt incredible to let that music through and let it out of myself. I felt, it felt like, it was a test, really. I thought, okay, the audience, they're either gonna hate this, or, you know, who's gonna still be here? Like, we definitely played a jazz festival where it's like,

• 10:09Speaker 03

  were more people here at the beginning than at the end of this set, you know? But it was so important to me, because the stories of the record was really important to me, you know? Being able to tell the story of Harriet Jacobs. And not just that, being able to tell her story in North Carolina, where I thought, you know, at the start, I'd say, "She's an enslaved woman, and she hid out in her grandmother's

• 10:29Questlove?

  Yeah.

• 10:29Speaker 03

  across the ice, and I'd say for seven years." And I expect the audience to say, "Yes, we know, we learned about this in school. You're not telling, you know, why are you sort of English explaining our history?" But instead, the audience would gasp, because they didn't know that story. And it had gone from being a bestseller to being discredited, and now people don't know her story. So I felt, it's a huge weight of, like, I felt like I was sort of honoring the people in the stories, and then I felt like I was getting to be all myself and my sort of ancestral selves, too, you know? Like, so it was really big for me. It was very emotional. I played with a great band. I worked with Melanie Charles, who's such a brilliant artist.

• 11:13Speaker 03

  And so, yeah, I just felt like it was just no hiding at all. It was really, really freeing and magical.

• 11:28Speaker 04

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• 12:01Speaker 05

  Hey, it's Niall Rogers, 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 breakout singer-songwriter Alex Warren.

• 12:21Speaker 06

  I had this dream of being a musician. And everyone I had known was kind of like, you're not good at music, you know, you should probably have other things a backup plan, whatever. Felt like I didn't have anyone close to me. And my wife had flown out to visit and she found out I was sleeping in a car. She didn't know. And she was like, let's do it. And she slept in a car with me. And for the first time in my life, I realized that in a life full of what I thought was things happening to me, something was finally happening for me.

• 12:48Questlove?

  Dude, that's like the most romantic shit I've ever heard.

• 12:51Speaker 06

  It's the coolest thing ever.

• 12:52Speaker 05

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

• 13:01Speaker 04

  This is Jonas Knox from Two Pros and a Cup of Joe. Buy smart, drive for less, and trade for more. That's Toyota affordability. And it starts with a great deal on an 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.

• 13:43Questlove?

  So was there ever a time period where, okay, if you happen to be in a marketplace and would you know what they're expecting, but they don't know what you're about to give them? Did you ever have it in like an emergency queue where it's like, all right, put your records on in three or she's insane, two, three, like, or did you stick to your guns?

• 14:08Speaker 03

  We had a disclaimer kind of thing, you know, when we saw the tickets, it was like, we're doing, it will be Black Rainbows, like, the whole album. We tried to spell it out to people. It's like, if you want to hear, put your records on, like, you're going to be disappointed. I definitely did a show where there was a man on the front row saying, put your records on. You know, he really wanted to hear that song.

• 14:29Questlove?

  Oh, God.

• 14:30Speaker 03

  And now I'm doing this tour. It's like, here's all those records, here's all those songs. But yeah, we kind of spelt it out on people's tickets. It's like, this is a different adventure. It's smaller venues, it's more intimate. And I feel it in the way the right people came, people who wanted to hear it.

• 14:45Questlove?

  So one of the coolest things about your creativity is you're pivoting outside of music and you wrote a children's book.

• 14:55Speaker 03

  That's right, I did.

• 14:56Questlove?

  Of which, I would like to think, like, as a person who's wrote, I mean, I think I'm on book 10 now.

• 15:05Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 15:05Questlove?

  Writing a children's book is one of the hardest things on earth because you have to be very specific with the language.

• 15:12Speaker 03

  Yes, and concise, right?

• 15:13Questlove?

  Oh, it's one of the hardest things. Like, I can write something the size of the Quran in my sleep, but writing a children's book is hard. Tell me about the creative process of you writing. One, why write a children's book now? And tell me about the process of it.

• 15:31Speaker 03

  I think it was important for me to do now, you know, I have young children, I tell them stories all the time. They travel with me. And so many times, we're in the back of a van for two hours, or we're sitting in a queue to get on a plane. So there was like, mommy, tell me a story. And I think, I always have to just kind of think of something in the moment. And I love the idea of a young person learning from an elder in their family, being invited to their record collection, you know, come up these stairs to this loft you've never seen before, and it's full of records. And this woman's been collecting them since she was a kid. And the idea that there's a song for every feeling you've ever experienced, right? Like, every child that can lock into the sort of specificity of whatever they're going through, and someone can say like, you need to hear this.

• 16:15Questlove?

  Yeah.

• 16:15Speaker 03

  Or you've got to hear this. And when you hear it, you're amazed. You know, I remember hearing Juliana Hatfield sing that song about, I hate my sister, she's such a bitch. And I remember being like, she's talking about jealousy? She's talking about sibling rivalry? I didn't know anyone had made a track like that. So, so I thought like, I wanted to make this song where this girl's almost in this kind of like, wonderland of songs. And I really wanted the challenge of writing about songs, you know, how do you, how do you explain? How do you give texture so that it's going to make someone want to go to jump in the line, Harry Belafonte? And then like, how do you, how do you tell that story? And again, how do you make it concise for kids? So I love doing it. I love the illustrator, Gillian. And it was a great challenge for me. I'm happy that it turned out.

• 17:00Questlove?

  Um, is there any other creative pivots that you're curious to place your feet in, in terms of?

• 17:08Speaker 03

  Always. Oh, I mean, that's a challenge for me where I feel like, that like, I'm doing a project now where I think, oh, it's not really my main album, it's just like a different thing. And it's really geographically specific. And I kind of imagined a place, I kind of imagined the place I wanted to do it. So it's all been informed by sort of thinking about being in this particular space. And I'm writing a short story, and the short story is going to kind of tell the album. It's hard to explain, but I like challenge, just things that keep you, the last thing you think of at night, right? Or the first thing, or you're living through life and you think, oh, I could put this thing in it, you know, and things that wouldn't necessarily link up. Like, yeah, I love to thread together things and pull them into something.

• 17:53Questlove?

  I don't know how it came to be, but it's like, you know, the insane amount of times I listen to Black Rainbows, wondering what your next move is going to be. Um, but I'm also under the impression that Black Rainbows was very of the present moment, and it was more of a cathartic exercise for you. Where are you right now in terms of what you're going to musically offer us next?

• 18:19Speaker 03

  I think musically, so much of the writing is coming out of sort of spontaneous delivery. Or so, you know, I really love Amber and Paris from the band, We Are King. They're incredible. So when we get together, I feel like we get through a door. Like, sometimes when you do co-writing with someone, I mean, I find co-writing so painful because of my self-consciousness just like rears up. But with them.

• 18:45Questlove?

  Wait, you're saying, are you a good collaborator?

• 18:47Speaker 03

  I feel like I'm a terrible. Yeah, I'm a terrible collaborator. Yeah. I'm sort of like doing this, you know, when I should be doing like, but with them, because I feel like we're family, we just kind of like make a thing. And it's like, we don't notice that two hours has gone by.

• 19:04Questlove?

  Right.

• 19:04Speaker 03

  But the tape's been rolling and then something will be in my mind. So I'm enjoying writing in that kind of a way.

• 19:10Questlove?

  Okay, and how far are you to the process?

• 19:13Speaker 03

  Um, I have quite a lot of songs I haven't started recording, but yeah, good, I'd say like, I'm working two separate things. This is like this weird thing, and then a record.

• 19:23Questlove?

  Okay.

• 19:23Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 19:24Questlove?

  And how, how long is the tour happening right now that you're, you're doing for that?

• 19:29Speaker 03

  I just did that, well, this is the third day of the tour.

• 19:31Questlove?

  Okay.

• 19:31Speaker 03

  And it goes right through, we finish at the Royal Albert Hall in October, which I'm, you know.

• 19:36Questlove?

  Have you, you've played there before?

• 19:38Speaker 03

  I've played, you know, like, three songs here, two songs there, but not like, this is my show.

• 19:42Questlove?

  So is the Royal Albert Hall kind of like your Carnegie Hall, your, your?

• 19:46Speaker 03

  Absolutely.

• 19:47Questlove?

  Okay.

• 19:47Speaker 03

  Absolutely. Yeah. So when they said I was doing it, I was like, oh, do you think people will come? And it's like, yeah, it's like, it's nearly sold out. And yeah, I'm very, very happy.

• 19:57Questlove?

  What date is the Royal Albert Hall date?

• 19:58Speaker 03

  It's the 26th of October.

• 20:02Questlove?

  Is it different doing shows in your, your homeland than it is?

• 20:07Speaker 03

  I think.

• 20:07Questlove?

  What do you, what do you feel when you do a show?

• 20:10Speaker 03

  Well, I wonder what you feel doing shows here? You know, I feel like when I'm in Leeds especially, that I have no sort of like mystery or artifice. I feel like people are like, oh, I went to school with her. Oh, she served me.

• 20:21Questlove?

  And they're judging you?

• 20:22Speaker 03

  Yeah, they're like, so you really have to just be like, okay, I know you know me because I used to work in this bar, but now I'm here. So you have to be really open and raw. But London, I always feel like, I feel like an outsider to London still, but I, I feel a lot of love from people in London. So I know once I'm there in that space, I'll be like, I've waited a long time to get this building, 20 years with this record, everybody just wants to see me do those songs. And I think that's again, like a massive amount of freedom then.

• 20:51Questlove?

  Well, you know, here's to another 20 years and another 20 years. And, you know, I couldn't be more happier to see your evolution as an artist and as a creative. And you're one of my favorite artists. And I'm so glad we finally got you to the Roots picnic.

• 21:07Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 21:07Questlove?

  Thank you very much.

• 21:08Speaker 03

  Thank you for having me. I had an amazing time.

• 21:09Questlove?

  Thank you, Corinne Belli Ray. It's Corinne Belli Ray. And, uh, you know, we will see you on the next Go Round the Questlove show. All right, peace.

• 21:34Speaker 05

  Questlove Show is a production of iHeart Radio.

• 21:45Speaker 04

  Come on and get happy with Happy GLP. At just $99 a month, Happy GLP gives you one set price every month. No tears, no tricks. Getting started with Happy GLP is fast, convenient, and happens virtually with a licensed provider. Check it out for yourself at happyglp.com. That's happyglp.com. A happy price for a happier you. Compounded medications are not FDA approved. Eligibility required and determined by a licensed provider. Individual results may vary. See website for details. This is Jonas Knox from Two Pros and a Cup of Joe. Buy smart, drive for less, and trade for more. That's Toyota affordability. And it starts with a great deal on an off-road-ready Tacoma

• 22:27Speaker 04

  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.

• 22:53Speaker 05

  If you love music and great artist interviews, check out Before the Moment, hosted by Niall Rogers. This new series follows Niall 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, Niall 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.

• 23:31Questlove?

  This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human.