Mo' Meta Blues: The World According to Questlove

The production was dense and menacing, louder and harsher than any record we had made, and so were the lyrics. The album took on prescription drug addiction, the way the media distorts the news, the risks of technology, and the financial crisis. And that’s just on the title track. There’s another song, “75 Bars (Black’s Reconstruction),” where Tari

You’re going to use your brain instead of your feelings. As you get older, feelings are hard to come by.

Paul Humphrey was a session drummer who worked with everyone from Jimmy Smith and Charles Mingus to Frank Zappa and Marvin Gaye. He was also the drummer for Lawrence Welk’s TV show in the late seventies, and his children would sometimes appear with him on the show. Sound familiar?

The rest was a mix of substance and style. I was questioning, I was on a quest, I was looking for approval, I was questioning my need for approval.

By the way, I’m also finding that there’s a Doppler effect in personal memory. The normal Doppler effect, the one we all learn about in high school, happens when an ambulance comes toward you on the street. Because the distance the sound needs to travel is shrinking as it approaches you, the frequency of the sound waves is compressed, so it sounds

With most of the records, we wanted the titles to work on three levels: as a reflection of our own career, as a reflection of the hip-hop scene, and as a reflection of the world at large.

“When you live your life through records, the records are a record of your life.”™

But that California trip was just a flash in the eye of that year.

The rest of the time, I hung in purgatory, playing talent shows and showcases here and there, living like a normal teenager in Philadelphia. Or maybe I should say living like a normal black teenager, which meant that aimlessness was accompanied by a certain unique set of risks. One night, I was out driving with a few friends of mine when the police

a pause that almost refreshes but doesn’t give you quite enough time to answer anything before the drum returns and the flood of questions with it. That’s sort of how life operates.