DJs:
Questlove’s
Inspirations
- DJ Jazzy Jeff. “Hands down, my No. 1. He’s a perfectionist. I’ve never, ever heard a cleaner DJ. His timing is perfect.”
- DJ AM. “He really had the biggest influence on me, in terms of range. Saw him at a Super Bowl party in ’04 and I’d never seen anyone cross genres like that, and he made it sound so fluid. He taught me to connect the dots between Miles Davis and Benny Goodman, Jose Feliciano and Stevie Wonder, Public Enemy and Snoop, like, you should be able to travel through 80 years of music.”
- Gary Dove & Cosmic Kev (tie). “Gary was my grandma’s next-door neighbor and I’d always hear him practicing. I learned a lot about music from, say, ’76 to ’81. Got my DJ education on a lot of the disco stuff, Giorgio Moroder, things like that. Cosmic Kev was kind of Philly’s Funkmaster Flex—just a really clean, street DJ. His cuts were precise and I patterned my style after him.”
Questlove: Oh-ho-ho, it’s coming! The revamped version that’s coming… it’s everything that we’ve ever wanted Serato to do. This next version will be the standard, I believe. I’ve seen it and it’s almost too scary. They’ve improved so much, from the hardware to the software to the mixer. Now I’m just looking at the endless possibilities. They have, what I call, this “Donuts option”—you can make anything sound like Dilla’s Donuts. It’s a compression thing and you can just start beat-jumping all over the song. You get to choose your samples and put them in rhythm. I can’t wait to see what a 13-year-old will do with this! You wanna see what’s next? Go to YouTube and watch 13-year-olds flip shit on Ableton.
DJ Times: For someone who’s getting into DJing and wants a career in music, what’s your advice?
Questlove: You have to have a relationship with music. Knowledge never hurts you, but you have to start with genuinely loving music. That’s where the relationship starts.
DJ Times: And that started for you as a kid, of course.
Questlove: A lot of the greatest memories I have as a kid is bin shopping. When all is said and done with me—if I have an untimely demise, whatever—I’m certain that a lot of the common stories will be, “Yo, one time he took me bin shopping!” That’s my favorite thing to do, so when I’m with people I really care about… I buy for everyone. This year alone, there’s six or seven tweens, 11- and 12-year-olds, who have very mature starter kits. I get ’em all The Beatles, all Dylan, all the Stones. Now when I go to Amoeba, I call ahead and they’re like, “I got you, Ahmir!” [laughs].
DJ Times: You’re on national TV every night. You play with and produce top artists. You tour with your band. You DJ exclusive events. You’ve played the Super Bowl. You’ve backed The President of the United States. You’ve even done a beer commercial. Look at where you are… any idea any of this could happen?
Questlove: And I don’t even drink beer! It’s the tortoise-and-the-hare journey. [The Roots] were at the starting gate in 1991-’92 and just went on and on. Some people passed us along the way and I’ve had some breakdowns about that. But nobody could’ve called this. People are like, “Oh, you’re the new Doc Severinsen or Paul Shaffer…” I just learned to accept it. I’m not perfect, but every day’s a new adventure and I’m open to it. I never thought that all this could happen, no, but it keeps happening.
