Details about and excerpts from ?uestlove’s forthcoming memoir, Mo’ Meta Blues: The World According To Questlove, are discussed in a The Village Voiceprofile on Ahmir “?uestlove” Thompson. The Roots’ drummer and band leader is going as “Questlove” for the book, which he co-authored with Ben Greenman, a novelist and New Yorker editor.
?uestlove says in the article that it took four years for his publisher to convince him to write the memoir, which took close to a year to complete, according to The Village Voice story. Amazon.com lists June 18, 2013 as the book’s release date.
In the book, ?uestlove discusses his life and includes lists of his favorite albums. The book also features footnoted commentary by Rich Nichols, The Roots’ manager. One of Nichols’ excerpts discusses 2 Chainz’s 2012 album, Based On A T.R.U. Story. “It’s a fucking object lesson in thematic narrowness, one dumbass idea repeated over and over again,” Nichols says in Mo’ Meta Blues, according to the story. “There’s a song called ‘Crack’ and then a song called ‘Dope Peddler,’ right next to each other. Then a little later there’s a song called ‘I Luv Dem Strippers.’ I’m not knocking 2 Chainz, but what kind of market elevates him like that, at the expense of everything else?”
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That line of thinking is why Nichols says it was imperative that ?uestlove wrote a book, namely that it isn’t centered on violence and criminality, according to the story. “Stories that revolve around Black people, the shit has to be this weird sort of outlawish type of existence for people to get into it,” Nichols says. “For some reason, there’s this idea, post-Hip Hop, that Black peoples lives are always on the edge.”
In addition to the book, ?uestlove is preparing for the release of two The Roots albums, including Wise Up Ghost, a project with singer-songwriter Elvis Costello that is slated for a September release. ?uestlove also has a Thursday DJ residency at the Brooklyn Bowl and is approaching the fifth-year anniversary of The Roots’ run as the house band on “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.”
The Roots earned its first platinum album in April when its 1999 release, Things Fall Apart, was certified by the RIAA. The collection featured the Grammy-winning single “You Got Me” with Erykah Badu.
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