Samara Joy Part 1
The Questlove Show
iHeartPodcasts
4.6 • 2K Ratings
🗓️ 7 January 2026
⏱️ 39 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this episode of the Questlove Show, Questlove sits down with rising jazz star and Grammy winner Samara Joy for an intimate, wide-ranging conversation. Samara looks back on her musical roots and the thrill of her first Grammy win, opening up about the influences, challenges, and defining moments that have shaped her path. The two dig into family, creative risk, mentorship, and self-belief, with plenty of warmth, humor, and rapid-fire moments along the way. Part one of this special two-part series offers a revealing look at Samara’s artistry and perspective, and a reminder of music’s power to change lives. Samara is also nominated in two categories this month for her album Portrait.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | This is an I-Heart podcast. |
| 0:02.6 | Guaranteed Human. |
| 0:04.6 | The Questloff show is a production of I-Heart Radio. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Questlove show. |
| 0:29.8 | I cannot come up with enough superlatives to describe the gift that our guest today possesses. Occasionally, in private, I will rant |
| 0:42.4 | about my disdain and dissatisfaction with the state of what we call music today. But in |
| 0:49.9 | 2022, when I received my Grammy ballot, and, you you know I'm looking at names of people that I know personally |
| 0:59.7 | people that I've played with people that I'm friends with Anita Omar Apollo Damien J.D. Beck |
| 1:06.8 | Lotto, man skin, money long, Toby Nguweigwewe, Molly Tuttle, Wet Leg, named them all. However, |
| 1:14.6 | I chose the right option when voting for the Best New Artist Award, and that is our guest |
| 1:23.6 | today. Welcome, Ms. Joy, to the show. How are you? you i'm doing well walk with me just five minutes |
| 1:32.0 | before when you know your cat do you know who's like presenting your category like are you aware of |
| 1:37.2 | these things no oh so yeah no idea like when it's coming up in the and i was just coming from the |
| 1:43.7 | red carpet and so i was a little disheveled because of what happened earlier in the day I had to change my outfit I had my little brother with me as my date and wait that red outfit was wasn't what I was wearing that's your second option that was my second outfit what happened to the first option it was only for the pretel you know what I'm saying it was only for the live stream portion. and it had to change, you know. And so five minutes before, I'm trying to get my seat and all these seat fillers are my seat. So I couldn't really... Don't you hate that? I couldn't get to my seat until the next commercial break. But me and my little brother, of course, it was the anniversary, 50th anniversary of hip- hop, I think. Oh, that was a nightmare for me. |
| 2:36.2 | No, really? That was a nightmare day for me. I put it all that together. Okay. Buster Rhymes is on stage, Quinn Latifah. Right. I mean, we were having so much fun. So five minutes before, I was just like, there's no way this night is even happening. Like, this is amazing. So you walked in right when the medley was happening? |
| 2:34.5 | No, I was like a couple minutes before a couple minutes |
| 2:38.8 | okay there was still some other awards being given out so yeah i was having fun very surreal for you |
| 2:43.7 | i was there at the very beginning when i believe bad bunny started the uh the telecast and he's dancing through the audience |
| 2:52.8 | and if you saw the layout of the you know they have these like elegant cocktail tables |
| 2:59.1 | or with stuff in the middle that you couldn't really eat yeah yeah cheesecake factory i don't know |
| 3:05.3 | like it was given that. Definitely fake grapes. |
| 3:08.4 | Yeah. |
| 3:08.9 | I try to. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from iHeartPodcasts, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of iHeartPodcasts and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.