![\"\"](\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/questlove.jpg\" "\\"questlove\\"")
<\/h1>\n<\/h1>\nMake no mistake, the average modern person has a very full to-do list from day to day. But does yours look anything like Ahmir \u201cQuestlove\u201d Thompson\u2019s? Today he\u2019s driving from his native Philadelphia to New York City, where he\u2019s due to help put on a pair of Jay-Z performances at Carnegie Hall. That\u2019s just a side project, of course\u2014his main gig is behind the drums leading the Roots, the veteran hip-hop group he and rapper Tariq \u201cBlack Thought\u201d Trotter formed in 1987 and which since 2009 has been the house band for TV\u2019s<\/p>\n
Late Night With Jimmy Fallon<\/em>, also based in New York. Plus he has to do all the stuff we ordinary humans do. \u201cMy goal for today is to broker between the orchestral director and the rhythm section for Jay-Z\u2019s shows, renew my driver\u2019s license and choose a movie for me and my girl to see later,\u201d he notes.<\/p>\n It was between tapings and rehearsals in the Roots\u2019 cramped Late Night<\/em> dressing room that the premier band recorded 2010\u2019s How I Got Over<\/em> and the critically acclaimed new Undun<\/em>\u2014a concept album tracing the death and life of a fictional midlevel drug dealer. How can one man oversee all this frantic music-making? \u201cI make time,\u201d Questlove says. \u201cI found out that a human being can only do, at maximum, five things a day. Really, they can only do three things a day well.\u201d Among the many things Questlove does well is expound on his music, so he interrupted his travels to explain how the Roots\u2019 extracurricular activities\u00a0helped to shape Undun<\/em>.<\/p>\n Undun<\/em> is a dark album \u2026\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n And how can we make such a dark record in the dressing room of the happiest place on earth? If you could only see that dressing room! (laughs<\/em>) We first recorded How I Got Over<\/em> there, and it was like, man, times are changing. Part of the reason we had to convert our dressing room into an actual studio was that only two studios we used to record at in New York were left: Electric Lady and MSR Studios. So we did it in our dressing room out of necessity\u2014though I was worried whether we could get a great quality record in such an uncomfortable space.<\/p>\n How did you?<\/strong><\/p>\n I\u2019ve noticed the more uncomfortable we are, the more focused we are. When we\u2019re in a very relaxed atmosphere, that\u2019s very distracting and we\u2019re not as focused on making music as when we\u2019re in weird circumstances. Like Illadelph Halflife<\/em> [1996] and Things Fall Apart <\/em>[1999], it was winter when we were recording\u2014and sometimes the heat would be on and sometimes it wouldn\u2019t. I do my best work when I\u2019m in circumstances where I have to focus. Some studios give you more amenities than they do great studio equipment. You get caught up in the break room, you\u2019re playing pool or video games and the next thing you know six hours have gone by. With a very small, 15\u2019 x 15\u2019 room, the Roots managed to make probably our best two records\u2014and change our clothes in time for the show.<\/p>\n How do you avoid distractions?<\/strong><\/p>\n We\u2019ve been together for a long time now, and we\u2019re also observers of human nature. So we know how easy it is to sabotage a situation, especially in an ADD environment like that. Somehow, album after album, our focus just gets better. I think we\u2019re influenced by the Motown system of factory working. When we work on stuff, you automatically know when it gets unanimous approval. But when you do something and it\u2019s met with a lukewarm reception, it\u2019s not going to fly\u2014and you just have to go back and do it again.<\/p>\n What did you redo on Undun<\/em>?<\/strong><\/p>\n This is the first time we worked more on the lyrical end than on the musical end. Our executive producer Richard Nichols and I were discussing the direction and he said, \u201cLet\u2019s do a concept.\u201d Immediately, I thought, \u201cTariq isn\u2019t going to want to stick to a script. It\u2019s going to be a hard way to go.\u201d But Tariq really shocked me\u2014he was actually the mature one in the process, while I threw at least three fits during this album. (laughs<\/em>) All my foreshadowing, like, \u201cMan, it\u2019s going to be trouble, he\u2019s not going to do a fourth take of that or a rewrite of that nine times over,\u201d was wrong. For example, on his first four lines on \u201cI Remember,\u201d he went through nine rewrites. And not simple rewrites: He spends an hour to 90 minutes per verse. Every verse on this record had between nine and 15 rewrites, and there was no complaining.<\/p>\n Why so much rewriting?<\/strong><\/p>\n There\u2019s a Danish filmmaking technique called Dogme 95\u2014these filmmakers got together and established all these restrictions and rules for filmmaking. You had to shoot using only a handheld camera, you could use only natural light, you were not allowed to use [directorial] credits or a musical score. It\u2019s basically a list of things you\u2019re not allowed to do. Making this album was similar. For starters, someone had to act as a script supervisor, to make sure no one went into first-person. The MCs had to be the character, and they had to be the thoughts in [the main character\u2019s] head. Also, we wanted this to be shorter than 40 minutes, so you\u2019ve really got to get to the point.<\/p>\n Why a concept album now?<\/strong><\/p>\n I always wanted to do it. Probably the most beautiful thing about the Fallon situation is that it allows us to focus a long time on music. Previously we had been road dogs doing 250 nights a year, with very inconsistent studio habits. Four days here, one day here, go on the road for four months, come back, one day here, go back on the road. How I Got Over<\/em> and Undun <\/em>are probably the only Roots albums, with the exception of Do You Want More?!!!??! <\/em>[1995] and Organix<\/em> [1993], which were created with no interruptions of any kind. I was able to spend 10 hours a day for 29 days in a row working on this record. I now know what a difference production habits make, so I don\u2019t want to create any record unless I\u2019m uninterrupted.<\/p>\n How did you adapt to Late Night<\/em>?<\/strong><\/p>\n One of the hardest things was getting used to playing together as a unit. We hadn\u2019t played in a studio together as a unit since those first two records. I remember the first time we were in the Fallon studio together, it was almost like looking at someone naked. It\u2019s easy if you put us in front of a crowd\u2014we\u2019ll give you a show. But facing each other in the room, it was like, \u201cWhat do I do? Do I count off?\u201d It was as if we didn\u2019t know how to play. It was weird for three weeks, and then we got over it. Then it became fun. More practicing, more playing, has gelled us in a way I can\u2019t explain.<\/p>\n How did that affect songwriting?<\/strong><\/p>\n We compose between five and 10 songs for the show every day that we\u2019re shooting. Out of 100 Roots songs, 15 are really good, and of those 15, I\u2019ll say that five are banging\u2014and of those five, two are worthy of an album. So you rinse and\u00a0repeat, over and over.<\/p>\n \u2013Eric R. Danton<\/p>\n The Roots Questlove talks about making dark, gritty hip-hop in \u201cthe happiest place on earth.\u201d Make no mistake, the average modern person has a very full to-do list from day to day. But does yours look anything like Ahmir \u201cQuestlove\u201d Thompson\u2019s? Today he\u2019s driving from his native Philadelphia to New York City, where he\u2019s due […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23],"tags":[3185,1612],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5208"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5208"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5208\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5210,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5208\/revisions\/5210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"