Rising Up

?uestlove’s omnipresence in hip-hop may be the genre’s longest-running example, and his band (and creation) The Roots established a reputation for an evolving sound early on. In addition to (and during) time spent writing, producing and DJing, ?uestlove is presently on tour with The Roots 200 days out of the year, including a current stint as opener for Erykah Badu’s Vortex tour. In terms of prescience and hopeful insight, ?uestlove is an unsurpassed voice for the genre.

Scene: You’re touring with Erykah Badu, who you’ve cited as drawing in “a very conservative, mature black audience.” How has the reaction been to you guys so far? Have you tailored your show at all to the audience?

?uestlove: It’s kind of weird. The zany nature of her new album is different than what people—myself included—maybe thought about when someone mentions the demographic of Erykah Badu: the over-40, black, adult contemporary crowd. Her new album is radical, a radically political stew of music, but each show is still a challenge for me setwise…. Before each show, I take a physical look at the audience and from that, determine the set. I’m going off of that impression when facing the challenge of turning a three-hour show into a 45-minute set, and each time it’s different. A different audience means a different set than before. But we apply a general knowledge of the audience, too. I’m getting ready to play D.C., and I already know I want to shoot for an authentic go-go moment for that particular show, which means I’ll be playing hard and fast straight through the entire set. We’ll see how that goes.

Scene: You grew up in the backstages of your father’s (Lee Andrews & The Hearts) doo-wop shows, something you’ve cited as musically influential. Can you tell me what that was like for you? What lesson did you learn that most influenced you from this time?

?uestlove: No question, I learned how to play a show from my parents, working that, [imitates a shrieking fan] “Oh my God! Oh my God!”. I learned from my dad that there is a science to making a good show, that lights are important, what’s playing in between is important, what’s going on in the down period is important. I mean, I’ve been doing this since I was 5 years old, and it’s a Shakespearean plot. You have the rising up action, the rising action, the plateaus and the down period—you head downstairs again. And I learned from my dad that the most important times are two sets of 15 minutes, the one that starts the show, and the one that finishes it.

Scene: I was having trouble understanding the idea of your new heavily synthetic sound on Rising Down “transcending” or “moving beyond” neo-soul. What do you think has changed? Why has neo-soul stopped evolving?

?uestlove: I don’t think neo-soul is dead. Rising Down is inspired by hip-hop’s resistance to maintain political status. Historically, hip-hop is pop, it’s gangster, it’s political, and that was the condition that allowed us to be labeled as an alternative group, that allowed us to play around with neo-soul on our records. Then, the release of Rising Down would have been the norm, like any Public Enemy record. But the left establishment has been blown to smithereens.

We’re touring 200 days out of the year, and there are moments inspired from just being tired of doing something over and over. Our stage show determines the direction of our next record: the punk-rock inspiration behind Phrenology, the 179 BPM drumming. When that tour was over, I was like, “No más.” The Seed was the first time I broke a sweat during a show, but we learned to change the instrumentals [accordingly]. This album is instrumentally different in that there wasn’t heavy use of a Fender for any song but “Rising Up” on Rising Down.

Scene: Why on that song?

?uestlove: We wanted a song that we could offer like a ray of light on such a dark album. People need that.

Scene: How have you managed to do what most artists dream about: to play to an audience without compromising your vision?

?uestlove: There’s one rule: Establish an evolution of sound early on. Prince is one black artist who’s a shining example. Some people like The Roots because, to them, that’s classic hip-hop. People like The Roots because we’re a full band, and we bring virtuoso. Jam bands flocked towards Phrenology. Game Theory drew emo fans of hip-hop—people responded to that melancholy, sad sound. People cleaned their house to Things Fall Apart—it was like musical aromatherapy. With Rising Down, we’re going for meat-and-potatoes hip-hop.