Questlove Can't Take a Compliment

Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin

iHeartPodcasts

Music Interviews, Film Interviews, Tv & Film, Music, Arts, Performing Arts

4.3 • 8.4K Ratings

🗓️ 8 February 2022

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

As we prepare to launch our second season at iHeartRadio, we’re revisiting some of Alec’s favorite episodes from the archives. In this episode, Alec speaks with musician Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson. Few musicians can compete with the encyclopedic musical knowledge that “Questlove” possesses—which is great news if you got to be a student of his at NYU. When not teaching music history, the 45-year-old drummer is directing the Grammy-Award winning group The Roots—a hip hop collective that rose from “everyone’s favorite underground secret” in the late 90s to Jimmy Fallon’s house band on The Tonight Show. Whether drumming, DJ’ing, or writing a book on food, Questlove is universally beloved. “The coolest man on late night,” according to the Rolling Stone. But there is one thing this genius of music can’t do: accept that he is one. He talks to Here’s the Thing host Alec Baldwin about a three year exile in London, Jimmy Fallon wooing the Roots, and how meditation saved his life. Most recently, he’s received critical acclaim for his filmmaking debut with his 2021 documentary, Summer of Soul.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is an I-Heart podcast.
0:05.0	Hello, it's Alec Baldwin.
0:06.9	We're going to rebroadcast an episode from our archives this week.
0:11.6	You'll hear my conversation with Questlove.
0:14.1	His band The Roots is a fixture on late-night television, but the iconoclastic artist
0:19.5	has recently added film producer to his bio with the
0:23.2	release of the movie Summer of Seoul. We'll have new episodes of Here's the Thing beginning
0:28.3	March 15th. Until then, enjoy my talk with Questlove. This is Alec Baldwin, and you're listening to
0:36.5	Here's the Thing. His family and folks close to him call him Amir.
0:43.3	That's Amir Khalib Thompson.
0:46.3	But you probably know him as Questlove,
0:49.3	Philly native music history savant,
0:52.3	and drummer and music director for the Grammy Award-winning
0:55.8	hip-hop group, The Roots.
0:59.4	When the Roots aren't in the studio or out on tour, they're backing up Jimmy Fallon on The
1:04.5	Tonight Show.
1:05.5	But here, dude, I gotta say you're one of the hardest working guys ever.
1:07.7	We love you so much, you know, and you and the guys are just the coolest. We've been doing this together for, what, like seven years now?
1:14.6	Six, seven years, yeah.
1:15.6	He's been called America's band leader.
1:18.6	The 45-year-old drummer is also a DJ, and he's been a caterer.
1:23.6	He just came out with a book about food this year.
	...

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