?uestlove :"Being ignorant is not cool"

Try to envision Hip Hop thirty or forty years from now. If we're lucky, a new style of music will have emerged by then and rap music will be back in the shadows ans will no longer have to be cool or hip. The only thing it'll have to worry about will be to stay creative and relevant, just like in the "days of yore"... Old grumpy men will still be arguing about who was the illest, Rakim, Jay-Z or Nas, while 50 Cents' records will be found by the hundreds in the $1.00 bin in every record stores. But then, who will serve as our living historian of the art form, our Dizzy Gillespie? From the emergeance of Jay-Z to the disaperance of D'Angelo and the everlasting genius of Jay Dee, ?uestlove has seen it all and there's no doubt that he'll be ready to testify. In the latest issue of Tyler Magazine, we had a chance to talk with this walking music encyclopedia. Here's some of the things he had to say. If you want the rest of the interview, buy the damn magazine!

Lyrics: Théophile Haumesser

Tyler: Is there an MC that you absolutely can't listen for more than 10 seconds?
?uestlove: Oooh, yeah. The presidential speeches of George Bush (laughing).

T.: Which is the worst love song you've ever heard?
?.: "You Got Me" by The Roots (laughing).

T.: That's funny because the last question I was about to ask you was: Which is the worst Roots' song? The one you really wish you didn't release?
?.: Worst Roots song… Man, I cringe at any song that have my vocals on it. "Worldwide", "You Ain't Fly" and "Pass The Popcorn".

T.: What is the stupidest question you were ever asked?
?.: Once, somebody asked me if I could get ?uestlove's autograph.

T.: What do you hate the most about hip hop right now?
?.: I hate the absolute celebration and embracement of ignorance. Sorry, but being ignorant is not cool.

T.: Who would you say is the most underrated producer?
?.: J-Dilla!

T.: By the way, what's up with the Soulquarians?
?.: We are producing Al Green's next record.

T.: What?!
?.: I think we were wasting our time. Why produce cats of today when we can produce the cats of yesterday? We've written eight songs with Al Green in one session. Hands down, the ruff mixes are better than anything he's recorded in the last twenty years. The album is supposed to come out next year. I went to the president of Blue Note, I talked a little shit. I didn't think that he would pay attention to me. I was like, "You know that this Al Green come back was ok, but you know that I would have knocked it out the park, right?", and he was laughing. And then, we got a call, four month later: "You want that job?"

T.: Damn that's crazy! Do you think that there's an MC out there that could compete with Black Thought on stage?
?.: There's one gift that Black Thought has and that no other MC has, except for one: ab-so-lute breath control. I've only seen one other MC absolutely master perfect breath control and his name is KRS One. KRS One can project his voice clearly and absolutely reach the last row of the room all without losing his breath, without cupping the mic, without feedback, without anything. I've seen about seven shows in the past five days, I've seen everything from Jadakiss doing a party to Jay-Z and Nas finally reunite with each other. If you don't do shows, constantly, like every day, and you don't exercise your voice, it's hard to know how to project your voice and to make sure that it's clear. On stage, aside from KRS One, Tariq is the king of breath control. He can rhyme at 200 BPM without losing his breath once and you can understand every syllable.

T.: And finally, the last question: Will you ever give up the afro?
?.: I think it's genetically impossible for me to give it up. Cause every night, it grows another 2 inches (laughing).