Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson

Ben Greenman

The drummer for the Grammy Award-winning group "The Roots" discusses his life as well as hip hop, music criticism, and celebrities.

The World According to Questlove

Mo' Meta Blues

Nat Welch

Solid history of hip-hop, the roots and music. Really enjoyed reading and following Quest on his creative process.

Sameer Vasta

Who do you surround yourself with? What great things are those people doing, and how does that inspire you to strive for greatness?

The enduring vision that lingers after reading Hemingway's A Moveable Feast is that of great artists, spending their lives together in salons and cafes, inspiring each other to create masterpieces. Hemingway spent his days with Fitzgerald, Stein, Picasso, Pound, and Matisse; some of the greatest works of art came from this collision of genius in Stein's salon in the 6th arrondissement of Paris.

It is heartening to see so many of my friends and acquaintances doing such amazing things, now. I often wonder, as I work my way through the day, which one of the people I know will be the next to change the world—in both small and large ways—and leave an indelible mark on life as we know it.

This importance of assembly was what struck me most in 
  Mo' Meta Blues
. Questlove is not just himself a musical genius—I've had the chance to see him DJ three times and have seen The Roots perform live twice, so I can speak to his prodigiousness—but also has an incredible talent for surrounding himself with the best of the best. Some of this is serendipity, and some of it is conscious choice, but in the end, it leads to the same result: brilliance breeds brilliance, and we are shaped and made by the people who surround us.

So today, and every day, I ask myself: who do I surround myself with? How do they inspire me to be the best version of myself I can be?

Right now, I am so thankful for everyone in my life, for they are the inspiration I crave and need.

(originally published on inthemargins.ca)

Angelyn Francis

Mat Connor

Mark

Michael Springer

"You have to bear in mind that [Questlove] is one of the smartest motherf*****s on the planet. His musical knowledge, for all practical purposes, is limitless." --Robert Christgau A punch-drunk memoir in which Everyone's Favorite Questlove tells his own story while tackling some of the lates, the greats, the fakes, the philosophers, the heavyweights, and the true originals of the music world. He digs deep into the album cuts of his life and unearths some pivotal moments in black art, hip hop, and pop culture. Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson is many things: virtuoso drummer, producer, arranger, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon bandleader, DJ, composer, and tireless Tweeter. He is one of our most ubiquitous cultural tastemakers, and in this, his first book, he reveals his own formative experiences--from growing up in 1970s West Philly as the son of a 1950s doo-wop singer, to finding his own way through the music world and ultimately co-founding and rising up with the Roots, a.k.a., the last hip hop band on Earth. Mo' Meta Blues also has some (many) random (or not) musings about the state of hip hop, the state of music criticism, the state of statements, as well as a plethora of run-ins with celebrities, idols, and fellow artists, from Stevie Wonder to KISS to D'Angelo to Jay-Z to Dave Chappelle to...you ever seen Prince roller-skate?!? But Mo' Meta Blues isn't just a memoir. It's a dialogue about the nature of memory and the idea of a post-modern black man saddled with some post-modern blues. It's a book that questions what a book like Mo' Meta Bluesreally is. It's the side wind of a one-of-a-kind mind. It's a rare gift that gives as well as takes. It's a record that keeps going around and around.

Mo' Meta Blues The World According to Questlove

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