Once upon a time ago, older generations would frown upon hip-hop. Nowadays, it’s hard to imagine much of anybody not having at least a passing relationship with rap music. But back in the day, there were people staunchly against the genre and culture because of its language and song topics. The Roots drummer Questlove had to deal with this personally, to the point where he had to hide the fact he was in the iconic rap band entirely.
During a conversation with Red Bull Music Academy back in 2013, he explained that his father wanted him to be a session drummer growing up. Questlove’s dad loved Bernard Purdie, who worked with everyone from Aretha Franklin to James Brown back in the 60s and 70s. But the Philadelphia legend didn’t quite share the same dreams.
Consequently, Questlove ended up quietly keeping his work with The Roots a secret for their first album Organix. However, once a proper record deal got involved, he couldn’t quite hide it anymore. “I was halfway done through our second album, ‘Do You Want More?!!!??!’, before I had to tell him, ‘I kinda have a record deal,’” he recalled to the interviewer. “‘Record deal doing what?’ ‘You know, I got a band.’ ‘With who? That hoodlum Tariq?’ You know, he thought… [Black Thought] was a hoodlum. ‘That hoodlum boy you hang with.’”
Questlove Says His Father Disapproved of The Roots at First
Naturally, given the generational divide, Questlove’s father just didn’t get it. He had a preconception about hip-hop where any and all rapping was a bad thing. “You know, cause he just thought that hip-hop was just, ‘Bppt bppt, b*tch, suck my d*ck and bppt my d*ck and dah dah,’” Questlove explained. “He didn’t see it as an art form. You know, I’d blast Public Enemy’s ‘Nation Of Millions’, and he’s just like, ‘Ahhh, there’s no music, that’s not art, it’s not music.’ So we just never bonded on that level.”
Despite his father’s insistence on the Soulquarian getting a ‘real job,’ Questlove never wavered. Ultimately, he reckoned that some of his dad’s wariness came from his own career. He didn’t want his son to turn out jaded and bitter by the industry because it never worked out.
Obviously, things worked out in the end for the legendary drummer. Do You Want More?!!!??! became a big hit with critics, still heralded as a jazz rap classic to this day. Moreover, the band still performs on Jimmy Fallon’s late-night show when they’re not releasing albums.
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