Questlove Of The Roots
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If Black Thought thinks highly of your music consider yourself lucky. The Philly native says Mach Hommy and a handful of others are some of his favorite underrated rappers.
The legendary lyricist joined his Roots bandmate on the Questlove Supreme podcast to discuss his recently released memoir The Upcycled Self. While the duo discussed a variety of moments in the book they did find time to discuss his biggest influences. Tariq pointed to classic performers such as Kool Keith, Special Ed and Greg Nice but also spoke on some rappers who he feels do not get enough praise.
“Mach [Hommy], yeah, that’s my ace,” he explained. “I think his association with the whole Griselda family and that movement, but the way that he’s distinctly, ya know, different is huge too.” The “75 Bars” MC also pointed to Your Old Droog but revealed he wasn’t feeling his music at first because he sounded like Nas. “I met him on the road opening up for Royce and Premier when they were doing their PRhyme tour and we sort of hit it off,” he added. “I talk about mentorship and, ya know, just artists that we share demos with one another and I’m just able to just, y aknow, offer wisdom […] he’s been one of those artists.”
You can listen to Questlove and Black Thought chop it up below about rappers who he feels are unsung starting at the 1:29 mark.
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Questlove has expressed that he felt “hurt” by MC Hammer’s unwillingness to take part in the Grammy Awards’ recent tribute to Hip-Hop.
As A GRAMMY Salute to 50 Years of Hip-Hop aired on Sunday (December 10), Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson of The Roots fielded questions about the star-studded event on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. One fan asked the drummer if there were any artists that he wanted in the show that couldn’t make it. Questlove promptly responded: “Of all the “No’s”….Hammer hurt the most. We really wanted him to have his flowers.”
At the moment, MC Hammer hasn’t publicly responded to Questlove’s comment. The iconic artist has not been a fixture at any of the events celebrating Hip-Hop’s 50th anniversary this year. But he did speak on his absence in early November as he addressed the crowd at the street naming ceremony for the late Tupac Shakur in his hometown of Oakland, California.
“You ain’t hear me go to none of these Hip Hop 50 — and just for the record, I got invited to every one,” he began. “But I really don’t have the patience for the fakeness. I’m really 60 years old. I can’t get with the fakeness of it all. I could do it with a young cat, but I can’t go around old cats and still be pretending.”
Hammer even cracked a joke posing a scenario where he’d encounter one of these veterans: “What you want me to call you? Six Shooter? Come on, man. Ain’t none of your bodies turned up yet! I just can’t do it…but Pac got me out here today. My first Hip-Hop 50 event that I said yeah to, and the only one is to come and say how much I love Pac.”
It’s not the first time the “Can’t Touch This” rapper’s absence from many of the celebrations of Hip-Hop’s 50th anniversary has been publicly noted. Mistah F.A.B., another veteran rapper from Oakland, publicly said that he would’ve loved to see MC Hammer alongside so many of the culture’s greats at the HipHop50 Live concert event held at Yankee Stadium. Hammer would later issue a statement saying that he had been asked, but he refused.
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