Common Folk Collective » ?uestlove

Words Of Wisdom: ?uestlove

thos — Tue, 29 Apr 2014 02:14:25 +0000

Last week ?uestlove kicked off a 6 part series of essays on Vulture.com called When the People Cheer: How Hip-Hop Failed Black America that takes a look “at hip-hop’s recent past, thinking about its distant past, and wondering about the possibility of a future.”

You know it’s good when when he start’s off with quotes from John Bradford, Einstein, and Ice Cube (from his N.W.A days). And though the title focuses on Black America it’s really all about how hip hop rose from a black culture and has morphed into a mass culture dominating the mainstream with music and style. Along with that integration into the mainstream a lot of the fury and counterculture hip hop was built on has been diluted and turned back on itself, using it’s own power to ultimately subjugate itself.

Granted, the argument isn’t that easy or cut and dry. Being so accessible to mass culture has diluted the original invigorating elements but that’s still mostly only in the hip hop you’re going to ultimately find in pop culture. If you dig, it’s still there, there’s just more crap you have to dig through. I digress.

So far the first essay is incredible and even if I have arguments with some of the things ?uestlove says he puts things in a masterful way that lends themselves to debate and give and take as opposed to an all determinate I am right, you are wrong. ?uestlove, enigmatic drummer and hustler of culture.

Read NOW…

Summer Playlists From ?uestlove and Others

thos — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 19:07:29 +0000

Vulture.com makes it easy for us to do what many of us are too lazy or busy to do for ourselves, the summer playlists. And they hooked it up so you can can listen to them. So pretend you’re friends with these talented folks and that they made them just for you.

These friends include Bobby Womack, Animal Collective, Santigold, Kreayshawn, Hot Chip, and more. Check out full playlists here. And ?uestlove wants you to check out his annotated list.

“Hip Hop On Trial” Public Debate

thos — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 17:05:34 +0000

For all you intellectual Hip Hop heads, there’s a huge global public debate going down in London today. But its also going to be using Google+ Hangouts and streamed live on Youtube. Sounds a bit gimmicky and marketing-ish but when you check the list of participants you can’t really go wrong: ?uestlove, Q-tip, Krs-One, Dream Hampton, P.J. O’Rourke, an advisor to the UK Prime Minister on youth & crime, and a bunch of others. Oh yea, Jesse Jackson, of course he’s involved too. I’m just wondering where Davey D is and why he’s not involved?

Check out more on OkayPlayer.com