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Questlove opined on the ongoing beef between Drake and Kendrick Lamar but some fans called his statements dramatic after the war of words largely concluded. The veteran drummer from The Roots band believed that the battle between the two titans took nasty turns, thus signaling a death knell for Hip-Hop.
Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, 53, took to social media to issue one of the loudest detracting statements yet to emerge against what is one of the biggest Hip-Hop beef battles in the history of the genre.
“Nobody won the war,” Questlove opened his statement with. “This wasn’t about skill. This was a wrestling match level mudslinging and takedown by any means necessary — women & children (& actual facts) be damned.”
The statement continued with “Same audience wanting blood will soon put up ‘rip’ posts like they weren’t part of the problem. Hip Hop truly is dead.”
The caption of the Instagram post with the statement read “Here We Are Now…Entertain us?,” which seems to be aimed at Drake and Kendrick Lamar.
As it stands, K-Dot doesn’t seem to want any manner of reconciliation with Drizzy and said as much on the track “euphoria” where the Compton lyricist rapped, “Whoever that’s f*ckin’ with him, f*ck you n*ggas, and f*ck the industry too” and once more on “Not Like Us” with the lines, “The industry can hate me, f*ck ’em all and they mama.”
As far as responses go, Drake’s last missive was “The Heart Part 6” and the two have left it at that. The Canadian superstar is contending with other issues after a security guard was shot outside his home in a drive-by shooting along with another incident in which a man was arrested for trying to break into the the massive mansion.
On X, formerly Twitter, the comments from Questlove garnered some sharp responses. However, we’ve got reactions from all sides below.
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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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Source: The Balvenie / The Balvenie
On Friday, November 3, the Balvenie Single Malt Scotch Whisky and Questlove continued their partnership by announcing the release of The Craft of Holiday Entertaining, a limited-edition advent calendar.
Source: The Balvenie / The Balvenie
The Craft of Holiday Entertaining is artfully curated by the six-time GRAMMY Award Winning and Academy Award-winning multihyphenate, and The Roots crew member, to heighten your at-home bar for the holiday season. Since it’s in collab with the Balvenie, whisky enthusiasts will be catered to at it features 12 premium items that include a limited-edition deck of Quest for Craft playing cards, Glencairn tasting glasses and holiday chocolates as well as a QR code to redeem a bottle of The Balvenie DoubleWood 12.
“At the heart of my partnership with The Balvenie is our shared passion for craftsmanship and the journeys that elevate something from great to exceptional,” said Questlove in a statement. “I love to host Food Salons, game nights, and dinner parties and create unforgettable experiences for my guests – especially during the holiday season.”
Quest and Balvenie recently dropped the latest episodes of their Webby Award-winning digital series, Quest for Craft, which is available on The Balvenie’s YouTube channel.
You’ll be able to purchase the Craft of Holiday Entertaining Advent Calendar at TheBalvenieHolidayShop.com beginning on Friday, November 3 and it will cost you $225.
Source: The Balvenie / The Balvenie
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Source: The Balvenie / The Balvenie
Questlove is a busy guy, but he still finds time for his passions. One of those is building with talented artists, and the Roots frontman’s collab with renowned Scotch brand the Balvenie, a digital interview series called Quest For Craft, recently launched its third season.
The series’ purpose is officially billed as a “journey to uncover the convergence of craft and creativity” and along the way it has picked up a Webbie Award. The third season, which features insightful interviews with Anderson.Paak, Lena Waithe and more, is available exclusively on The Balvenie’s YouTube channel, right now.
All the interviews were filmed on location at the famed Electric Lady Studios, and the Balvenie was flowing, making for some dope conversation. In all there are four new episodes—with Yo-Yo Ma and Fred Armisen in addition to the aforementioned.
Check out Questlove’s interview with Anderson.Paak below.
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Questlove hosted a star-studded game night this week, bringing together some huge celebrities for a good old game of UNO. “I’m always having Movie Night, Food Salons, Jam Sessions, Karaoke Madness anything communal with my peers et al,” The Roots member wrote on Instagram alongside a series of photos from the bash, in which Taylor […]
Questlove is a six-time Grammy winning producer and author, and as expected, he has great taste in music. That’s why he’s teaming up with livestream shopping platform Whatnot to auction off some of his personal records for a great cause.
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All proceeds from the auction will go to the Future of Food Entrepreneurship Program, a summer program that connects high school students with leading companies in the sustainable food space, and the Food Education Fund, a nonprofit supporting culinary-focused public high school students in New York City.
Some of Questlove’s 50-year-old jazz albums up for auction are The Awakening’s Hear Sense Feel (1972), The Soul Searchers’ Salt of the Earth (1974), The 24 Carat Black’s Ghetto Misfortune’s Wealth (1973), James Brown’s Hot Pants (1971) and more.
In addition, as part of the livestream, one lucky fan will be selected to accompany Questlove to NYC’s A-1 Record Shop in celebration of National Record Store Day. The trip will be livestreamed on Whatnot on April 21 at 11 a.m. ET for fans follow along, purchase records and learn more about Questlove’s passion for record collecting.
“Questlove is an undisputed talent as a legendary musician and producer, and is widely recognized for his encyclopedic knowledge and contributions to American music,” said John Walters, head of special projects at Whatnot, in a press statement. “His dedication to music and its history makes him a perfect addition to the community of passionate collectors on Whatnot, we’re excited to see what he’ll be sharing with our growing vinyl community.”
Questlove added, “As a collector myself, I am excited to auction off some of my favorite records from my collection to the Whatnot audience, all for a good cause.”
The Roots co-founder’s record auction livestream will broadcast on Whatnot starting Friday (April 7) at 3:15 p.m. ET, hosted by Questlove himself.
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The Grammy Awards gave a proper tribute to Hip-Hop during the broadcast, but some noted that one of the genre’s first superstars was noticeably absent. Will Smith didn’t show up for the tribute despite his partner DJ Jazzy Jeff being present, and Questlove explained the situation during an interview.
The culture was on full display for Hip-Hop’s 50th anniversary and the star-studded tribute directed by Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson was largely a crowd-pleasing moment for fans in attendance and at home. As we noted above, Jazzy Jeff was there on the 1s and 2s but there was no sighting of the former Fresh Prince. Questlove shared exclusively with Variety why Will Smith didn’t make it to the tribute.
“I’ll give the spoiler alert away. Will Smith was [a part] of the festivities tonight, but they started shooting ‘Bad Boys 4’ this week,” Questlove told the outlet on the red carpet. “There were a lot of preliminary shots that he had to do, so we had to lose Will.”
Along with Will Smith, Questlove teased that the original tribute runtime was cut down from 23 minutes to 14 minutes due to scheduling conflicts and the like.
Check out the quip from Questlove regarding Will Smith and the tribute overall below.
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Photo: Getty
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For the upcoming 65th annual Grammy Awards, the Recording Academy is looking to give Hip-Hop a proper tribute (finally) for 50 years of excellence. And to ensure its segment is properly curated they’ve assigned the legendary drummer known as Questlove to oversee the production. We couldn’t be happier with choice.
Taking to their website to announce the exciting news, the Recording Academy plans on showcasing the culture that’s dominated the music scene for decades now. Feature performances from rap stars, legends and icons include: Rakim, Busta Rhymes (and Spliff Star), Method Man, Big Boi, Missy Elliott, De La Soul, DJ Drama, DJ Jazzy Jeff, Future, GloRilla, Grandmaster Flash, Grandmaster Mele Mel & Scorpio/Ethiopian King, Ice-T, Lil Baby, Lil Wayne, The Lox, Nelly, Public Enemy, Queen Latifah, Rahiem, RUN-DMC, Salt-N-Pepa and Spinderella, Scarface, Swizz Beatz and Too $hort.
That’s a helluva lineup. We can’t wait to see exactly how this tribute with all these artists plays out.
LL Cool J is set to introduce the segment. Questlove will produce and direct the segment which will be narrated by another Hip-Hop legend, Black Thought. Sounds like it’s going to be quite the show, and it only took five decades for us to get here.
This GRAMMYs segment is produced by Questlove, Jesse Collins, Patrick Menton of Fulwell 73, Creative Producer Fatima Robinson, and Questlove’s manager and President of LNU, Shawn Gee.
“For five decades, hip-hop has not only been a defining force in music, but a major influence on our culture,” said Harvey Mason jr., CEO of the Recording Academy. “Its contributions to art, fashion, sport, politics, and society cannot be overstated. I’m so proud that we are honoring it in such a spectacular way on the GRAMMY stage. It is just the beginning of our year-long celebration of this essential genre of music.”
Essential genre of music indeed, sir.
The 65th annual Grammy Awards is set to air Sunday (Feb. 5) on CBS at 8 p.m. ET and will be hosted by Trevor Noah. Will you be tuning in? Let us know in the comments section below.
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