Best hip hop band, best live band, best band ever, best drummer – the hymns of praise on The Roots are diverse, but the superlatives always the same.
Since 1993, the combo around drummer and mastermind Questlove and rapper Black Thought has been setting standards in hip-hop and beyond.
In today’s text, we are going to learn everything you would like to know about Questlove and his amazing life.
Early life
Questlove was born to Lee Andrews and Jacqueline Thompson on January 20, 1971. His birthplace was the United States of America, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
He’s got a sister named Donn T. He attended the Creative and Performing Arts High School in Philadelphia.
Christine McBride, Joey Defrancesco, Boyz II Men, Kurt Rosenwinkel and Amel Larrieux were some of the classmates.
Career Path
No other band unites purists of all genres with this vehemence. At least the “Legendary Roots Crew” goes by as the lowest common denominator between poppers, rockers and of course head nodding. “Organic Hip Hop” calls the band their style, which has always been characterized by dry, punctual drums and live instrumentation.
This characteristic gives birth to the misery: For lack of money the art students Tariq Trotter (Black Thought) and Ahmir Khalib Thompson (Questlove) instead of samplers and turntables fall back on discarded instruments. In 1987, Black Thoughts first rape discover the light of day, accompanied by Questloves Percussions. The beginning of a Philadelphia success story unique in Hip Hop.
Six years later, the long-playing debut “Organix” is released. Meanwhile, bassist Leon “Hub” Hubbard and second MC Malik B have joined other members. The roots are quickly becoming an insider tip that even the record labels cannot escape.
Geffen makes the race and published two years later with “Do You Want More?” the first major album of the band.
The music scene reacts enthusiastically to the combination of hip hop and live jazz presented. The roots play tours and festivals around the globe, but the financial hit is out. “Illadelph Halflife” is scratching the Top20 of the Billboard charts, but only “Things Fall Apart” brings the absolute breakthrough.
“You Got Me,” which features Erykah Badu, overruns the Western music world. The classic song heaves the roots to the hip hop Olympus.
In particular, Questlove is in the limelight. Together with the musically similar Common, Talib Kweli, Mos Def and Q-Tip he founds the Soulquarians. The musician collective is behind the hustlers “Voodoo” by D’Angelo, “Mama’s Gun” by Erykah Badu and Commons “Like Water For Chocolate”.
Al Green, Bilal, Jay-Z and Nikka Costa are among many others under the wing of the producer from Philadelphia. In 2009, Jimmy Fallon quits Questlove and bandmates as the house band of his new US-wide Late Night show on NBC.
In line with the Jam idea, the band members have always been changing. In the mid-’90s, Rahzel’s “The Godfather Of Noyze” adds a human beatbox. Scott Storch earns his first spurs as a studio musician, but soon focuses on his producer career.
Dice Raw is a frequent and welcome guest, and after the turn of the century Peedi Peedi is on the verge of getting in, but ultimately breaks up. Malik B gets out of it, but returns as a feature guest to “Game Theory”. In addition, Martin Luther helps regularly on the guitar, which later replaced Captain Kirk Douglas. In addition to countless other changes.
While the staff comes and goes, the thought remains constant. And forever young, as the successes in the 2000s prove. Cody Chesnutts title “The Seed” take on Quest and colleagues, grab a “2.0” behind the name and storm the charts. At the opening of XXI.
2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver the troupe soul singer John Legend drives to peak performances. A few months later, the Kollabo album “Wake Up!”
This manifests a change of direction that was evident for years. The jazz that characterized the roots at the beginning of their careers keeps fading into the background. Soul replaces him slowly but surely, next indie pop and singer / songwriter, as features of Joanna Newsom and Monsters Of Folk show.
Their genre colleague Sufjan Stevens is the godfather for the next trick. The piano piece “Redford (For Yia-Yia & Pappou)” by Steven’s record “Michigan” inspired The Roots on the story of “Undun”.
The troupe’s first concept album tells the story of the misguided Redford Stephens and explores questions about the origin of evil and the tension between one’s will and everyday reality. Musically, Questlove and colleagues, thanks to orchestral backing again a new direction.
“Maybe we’ll go on the next album and work with a full-fledged orchestra,” Questlove ahead after the release of the eleventh studio album at the magazine Spin and thus proves one thing above all: the development of the group is, despite all successes far from complete, the joy of playing and originality and not used up for a long time.
And the Hip Hop Olympus is apparently too small for one of the best bands in the world. Bamboozled star Questlove’s personal life is low-key.
He said in a March 2012 interview with the Associated Press that one of the reasons for moving from Philly to New York was that he was unable to manage time with any women he was interested in that time. The genius of music is a female guy and does not hesitate to mix with a friend.
He shares with Amy Winehouse his close friendship. He even called her teacher and talked about how she had suggested forming a super group. He said, “I don’t know.
We spent a lot of time thinking about crazy ideas on Skype and she told me about Sarah Vaughan. I’ve been educating her about J Dilla. And she was like, well, we’re going to start a great group. You, me, Raphael Saadiq, Mos (Def).
But that doesn’t mean Amy’s charm for his lady. Questlove’s dating life is miles away from the limelight. He is reportedly unmarried and has so far no wife or children, but a girlfriend.
He introduces the great hip-hop pioneer, Theodore Livingston or Grand Wizzard Theodore, best known as the inventor of record scratching, on the page.
He offered a musical core at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome’s Essence Festival on July 6, 2018. He performed on the show’s final main event with vocalist Erykah Badu and Jill Scott. His instrumental ensemble was the audience’s source of attraction.
Credits Good Food For Weight Loss Questlove, now 47 years old, is diet-aware and has the right weight. At 35 years of age, he began to change his eating schedule at his friend died due to heart strokes. He cut off all of his diet’s gluten and dairies.
The above-mentioned people went into the music industry. Earlier, for both composition and jazz lessons, Questlove attended Settlement Music School. Khalib has kept a mystery of his dating life successfully.
He, Malik B, Josh Abrams, Tariq Trotter, and Scott Storch founded the Roots group. Questlove was responsible for both drums and percussion. On the other side, at keyboards and drums, Scott and Leonard were respectively. In 1994, Abrams was succeeded by Leonard Hubbard.
In 1993, a record called Organix was released by Relativity Records. Then Illadelph Halflife was released and Do You Want More? Because of the single You Got Me, Things Fall Apart was a success of the Roots ‘ record.
For albums like Fantastic, Electric Circus, Voodoo and Like Water for Chocolate, Questlove was the executive producer. He performed in 2004 on Jay-Z’s album Fade to Black.
He and his bandmates collaborated with Jimmy Fallon for Late Night at first. We then headed for Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show Starring. Questlove is a poet as well. So far, he has written a lot of novels.
Personal life
He also went for Philadelphia’s mayor Jim Kenney. He met the rapper Jay-Z and expressed his dissatisfaction with the decision of the government to move next year off the Ben Franklin the popular Made in America festival.
He sarcastically revealed his resistance on his Instagram video to the administration’s decision by questioning the rationale when on July 19, 2018, someone cuts his nose to spit on his head.
Although Questlove kept his ladylove’s information suspicious, he announced back in November 2013 that at Prince’s roller skating party he had his best Valentine’s Day date.
Questlove has earned a net $16 million worth of jaw-dropping. He earned his net value from his early musical career.
He also earns from acting in various shows and films about reality. He also picked up his fortunes from his food brand Quest Loves Food.
Since February 17, 2017, he has been collecting wealth as the band’s house for The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon.
The Roots had previously served with Jimmy Fallon for Late Night before Fallon overtook the spot of Jay Leno on the Tonight Show.
Drummer Questlove is also teaching a classical album music course at the N.Y.U.
He is also an author of the book Mo’Meta Blues: The World According to Questlove, a twisting memoir.
Questlove will be working on the American Educational Television Series, Drunk History, going into 2018.
Since 2016, he has been employed for two years.
Questlove’s job in the TV series is a Story Teller, where he explains how Hip-Hop has evolved and how it has been commercialized.
He is still very active in many fields of music, so we can expect his net worth and popularity to keep on getting even higher.
Quick summary
Full name: Ahmir Khalib Thompson
Date of birth: January 20, 1971
Birthplace: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Age: 49
Profession: Rapper, Music journalist, Record Producer
Height: 1.93 m
Weight: 110 kg
Net Worth: 16$ million