Questlove

Questlove Extras: Leftover Quotes and Anecdotes From This Week's Cover Story

This week's cover story is an in-depth look at one of music's most talented and intelligent, Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson of the Roots. It's a great longread, if we do say so ourselves. (Check it out). And it could've been much longer. As writer Jenna Sauers discovered, Quest is full of insight and an ... More >>

Questlove is the Hardest-Working Man in Showbiz, and He is Lonely Enough to Prove It

Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson is a man of many responsibilities. In the past six days, he's DJed five events, performed twice with his band, the Roots, taped four episodes of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, opened a restaurant that serves fried chicken he can't eat on his current diet, graded his studen ... More >>

The Best Jazz Shows in NYC This Month

These are the best jazz shows in NYC this month.

Elvis Costello, D'Angelo, Chris Rock Pay Tribute to Prince - Carnegie Hall - 3/7/13

Better Than: Sobbing silently while watching the club performance scene in Purple Rain on your couch for the 25th time this week... not that there's anything wrong with that. The stage was bigger, the venue more prestigious, and the atmosphere gave off a more purple hue. But then this was a Prince ... More >>

Billboard's New Chart is Smart Like a Velocirapotor (Watch out, Kids!)

Here's a round-up of music stories we're reading this week, clever girl.

"A New Life" and a New Sound for Jim James

When Jim James was booked for Late Night with Jimmy Fallon the day before the drop of his solo debut, he figured he'd be playing with The Roots--he just had no idea he'd be belting out his latest single with a 22-piece orchestra behind him. See also: Ten Things We Hope To See During My Morning Jack ... More >>

The Ten Best Concerts In New York This Week

These are the 10 best concerts in NYC this week.

What's Happening: Questlove at Pork Slope and Let's Brisket!

Ed Lefkowitz/BAM Monday, December 17 Beagle and Governor Dinner: East Village's the Beagle will team up with Governor, the Dumbo restaurant that was devastated by Hurricane Sandy, for a three-course sherry-paired dinner. Tickets are $85 or $125 depending on your drink selections. Half of the procee ... More >>

Live: Busta Rhymes Pauses Conversation With Bun B To Perform At Angie Martinez's BBQ

Angie Martinez's Backyard BBQ The Garden At Studio Square Saturday, August 18 Better than: Getting lost coming home from Queens. CBS sitcoms, Tom Wolfe and Republicans alike have all painted New York City as a noisy, grimy nightmare, a melting pot of sex and kvetching, guns and soupy hot dogs, wh ... More >>

SWEET TOOTH

Hot Sugar heats up spike hill

This Week in the Voice: Schools Need Education in Gay Bullying

This week in the Voice, out today, Jessica Lussenhop looks at schools' failure to address gay bullying but notes the paradigm shift in discipline: "Gay kids have long been a target of bullying. Until recently, incidents could be laughed off as 'pranks,' and no one suffered any consequences, save for ... More >>

Q&A: Booker T. Jones On His First Visit To New York, Scoring Films, And What Working With Kanye West Might Be Like

Booker T. Jones is in a cab from the airport heading into Brooklyn, where he'll perform a free show tonight under the Brooklyn Bridge as part of the Celebrate Brooklyn festival. In tandem with his band, Booker T. & The M.G.s, the multi-instrumentalist laid down the grooves behind some of the '60s mo ... More >>

Spring Guide 2012: Vijay Iyer Brings Accelerando to Birdland

Duke meets Jacko

Live: Robert Glasper Brings His Glow To The Highline Ballroom

Robert Glasper Experiment Highline Ballroom Tuesday, February 28 Better than: Sitting at home with the radio. "About what time does ?uestlove finish up at the Fallon show? It couldn't have been that long ago, right?" That query, overheard amid the big beats pumping from the Highline Ballroom's s ... More >>

The Roots' Walk-On Music For Michele Bachmann Was Ha-Ha Funny, But...

Monday night the Republican Presidential candidate and frequent source/target of Photoshop japery Michele Bachmann appeared on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon in an effort to promote both her autobiography and her appearance at last night's Presidential debate. As a rebuke to the Minnesota congresswoma ... More >>

Today in Steve Jobs Memorials: This Guy's Hair Possibly the Most Impressive Tribute Yet

Facebook​ This was spotted at the Fifth Avenue Apple Store on Friday morning during the hubbub prior to the iPhone 4S's release. That is a real hairstyle! It's possibly cooler than the tribute on Bond Street we wrote about last week.

Nivea Pulls Kerfuffle-Causing Racist Ad

​ The above ad is a part of Nivea's new "Look Like You Give a Damn" men's campaign. Is it racist? GOOD thinks so. So does Questlove, and BuzzFeed, and pretty much the whole Internet.

Strained Vibes, Excellent Scenario in Beats, Rhymes & Life

Michael Rapaport’s A Tribe Called Quest documentary eclipses the surrounding drama

BLUE NOTE BLISS

This festival means business

Week in Review: Arcade Fire Won A Grammy And All We Got Was This BMX Bicycle Helmet-Cam

Santiago Felipe​And so it came to pass that a sleepy 2011 all of a sudden woke up and went crazy, as Arcade Fire won a Grammy, spawning a thousand think pieces (or two, anyway). Then Odd Future played Santos Party House! And Fallon! Many people said the word "swag." But just as the internet t ... More >>

Here's Video Of Prince Kicking Kim Kardashian Offstage At Madison Square Garden

Via Kim's Twitter, of course.​Well, this is just stupendous. Prince played his final Madison Square Garden show Monday night, with Cee Lo as an opener and a predictably great set list ("Purple Rain" was the sixth song), but as an overall highlight it's tough to beat pulling Kim Kardashian onst ... More >>

Week In Review: Confirming Kanye's Inevitable Victory

​So we put out Pazz & Jop this week. We're pretty happy with it. As are Kanye West and Cee Lo Green, hopefully. Lots of essays and lists and numbers to absorb there, so spend some time if you haven't yet, and if you have, please enjoy our bonus post-mortem analysis: some context for Kanye's re ... More >>

Top 25 Headlines Not As Weird As "Dave Sitek Joins Jane's Addiction"

Good luck learning all the chord changes in "Jane Says," dude​So TV on the Radio's Dave Sitek has joined Jane's Addiction, in some unspecified bassist/songwriter/possibly-non-touring-member capacity, which is super bizarre when you first hear about it, but is, upon reflection, not the stranges ... More >>

Toots & the Maytals

Voodoo Funk, Derrick Carter, Questlove, And Horse Meat Disco Headline Your Weekend In Nightlife

​We're going to stay away from Friday the 13th. Nothing good can come of it. Instead, start your weekend off on Saturday afternoon at PS1's Warm Up. It's a weird group of acts, really. Fool's Gold's funky-disco-infused house guru Treasure Fingers and catchy dance producer Kingdom man the decks ... More >>

Week in Review: Female Guitar Players Are the New Black

The beach is in Bed-Stuy, suckers. Photo by Rebecca Smeyne.​In the week we asked a Georgia-certified divorce attorney whether The-Dream had left his wife while she was eight and a half months pregnant because he would have had to pay more child support had he waited the full nine (or was it ju ... More >>

OPEN THE GATE

Antibalas storm Castle Clinton

Week in Review: A Safe Atmosphere

Those flower pots aren't going to replace themselves. Photo by Rebecca Smeyne​In the week that 25,000 people converged on a South Street Seaport venue meant for only about 10,000, were denied a free Drake concert, and promptly began rioting, we dodged metal chairs, watched as Police Commission ... More >>

Questlove Makes a Mighty Fine Stencil

The Dude Company175 Varick Avenue, Bushwick, Brooklyn. French stencil artist The Dude Company rolled through New York in May for an Orchard Street Public Works Dpt. show and left behind some public works for the rest of us. He's been known to pay homage to unequivocally worthy subjects like the Dal ... More >>

The Hip-Hop/Jazz Crossover Strategy Guide

Revive Da Live brings in both crowds . . . very, very carefully

Fela! Totally Hosed By The Tonys

​So the 2010 Tony Awards were dished out last night, and to the surprise/dismay of many -- and nobody more than the guy up there -- Fela! did not rule the night, ceding Best Musical (among others) to Memphis. Given our own bias, we, too, will have to check out Memphis soon, and like ?uestlove, ... More >>

Tonight! Neon Indian, Atlas Sound, and Sisters; Questlove; Cold Cave and Nite Jewel; and Japanther

Today is de facto back to school night: Neon Indian, Atlas Sound, and Sisters will be performing at NYU's Kimmel Center, the very building that Take Back NYU! took over a year ago this month. Fortunately, tonight's excitement will involve woozy chillwave, tingling euphoric pop, and lo-fi rocking, ... More >>

Week in Review: Bros4Life

Not even the 15th worst record this decade. Have a good weekend!​In the week our F2K crew quantitatively decided that though Nickleback and Gym Class Heroes are bad, William Hung and Hinder were a whole lot worse, we continued to count down the worst songs of the '00s. That Santana song keepin ... More >>

The Roots Reunited with the Dirty Projectors to Back Mos Def and Talib Kweli on Jimmy Fallon's Show Last Week

Well, two Dirty Projectors, anyway. The Roots and Jimmy Fallon conscripted Amber Coffman and Haley Dekle last Wednesday to back Mos Def and Talib Kweli on "History," from Mos' most recent album. Always happy to see this show try something different. (And to reunite such potent creative partners.) ... More >>

Week in Review: All I Have Left Are My Memories and This Copy of The Razor's Edge Signed by Asher Roth

Photo of Jim Jones taunting hipsters by Rebecca Smeyne​ In the week Jim Jones put ten thousand dollars on a three-on-three basketball tournament sponsored by Converse and barred to the media, we got up in there anyway, and brought you the hilarious play-by-play. Take that, shoe company. Gera ... More >>

An Apology, of Sorts, for Antagonizing Questlove With Regards to the Still-Not-Happening School Daze Sequel

​While browsing Twitter yesterday morning, we came across a Questlove dispatch that seemed to suggest he was taking time out of his busy schedule to do some acting and/or composing for the sequel to Spike Lee's 1988 film School Daze. Here is the Tweet in full:

Questlove on Vibe: "I Was Proud of It Actually"

The thoroughly disquieting news of Vibe's demise this afternoon has thoroughly disquieted a few folks who aren't rock critics -- Questlove, for one, who's venting/reminiscing via his voluminous Twitter, offering a long, thoughtful eulogy/lament via a program called Twitlonger ("Sometimes 140 charact ... More >>

Why Redman and Method Man Performed on Jimmy Fallon Without the Roots

On Monday night, Method Man and Redman took their Blackout! 2 promotional tour to Jimmy Fallon, an evening that promised to join the rapidly growing pantheon of incredible rap performances on Fallon's show--the Roots backing veterans that went as far back or farther in the game than they did, guy ... More >>

Booker T. Jones, Man at Work

The indomitable MG finally embraces his inner surly rock star

PUT MY ROOTS DOWN

Philly’s finest get the spotlight at the Apollo

Music

Major-label hip-hop records in burying-best-tracks shocker!

Pulling Dylan Out by the Roots

An otherwise sleepy tribute gets ambushed by "Machine Gun"

The Roots Reconsidered

Things I Learned Watching Dave Chappelle's Block Party

After the Snow

The mirror crack'd: Last year, a drug and its discontents seeped into books and hip-hop

Democracy Now

Annual collaborative fest puts the 'O' back in countronica

Vagina Monologues

Letters

Love Jones