Hey, it's NPR's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh. In modern music, I can't think of many

bands where the drummer is the one with the most to say, where the drummer is the most famous.

I guess there's like Phil Collins, Dave Grohl maybe, but that feels like cheating a bit.

And then there's Questlove of the seminal hip hop group The Roots.

He's been in the game for decades at this point, and he's gone on to be a TV star on Jimmy

Fallon. He's directing his own documentaries. And now he's written a new book called Hip Hop is

History, which is a reflection of the genre through his personal lens. He spoke with MPR's

Rodney Carmichael about what it means

to be an elder statesman of hip-hop and the state of rap today. That's after the break.

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If you're fortunate enough to become an elder statesman in hip hop,

it probably means you've done something big,

like a masked and incredible discography,

wielded influence over a generation,

or just survived.

As a master of all three,

Questlove has earned his crown.

But he'll be the first to tell you, heavy is the head that wears it.

I realized maybe 10 years ago when my 40s were creeping up on me that one day, like, I'm going to be the adult in the room.

...