Nardwuar vs. The Roots pt 1 of 4

[Music] who are you my name is who am i today okay today I am okay I'm always me Questlove Ahmir Questlove Thompson drummer of the legendary blues crew myself of the roots you're a great hip hop historian aren't you I would like to think so yeah could you please unlock this mystery for me Questlove of the roots here we have the Black Eyed Peas as gangsters what can you tell me about the well the band class this is puddles of ACO this is the Black Eyed Peas oh [ __ ] yeah oh can I say that I'm sorry could you please explain a bit about this this was the Black Eyed Peas when they were gangsta right I have five of these I have I know this this is a very distinct uncover I did not know that I now have a collector's item um you know hip hop goes through many different phases so actually I take that back the Black Eyed Peas are very gangster you never heard about the the Playboy Emily you know they're at the Playboy Mansion and somebody was playing on a prank on them and have fake cops coming to arrest them to take them out of a particular room but um you know they got so gangster I'm gonna tell y'all gangster they got that when I woke up the next morning four time zones away you know because often too often they're like uh yo you're the drummer in the Black Eyed Peas right that that happens all the time it's like you know all the boho bands get lumped together that everybody was smiling at me the next morning when I got up in New York City going to the bodega they were laughing it like yo we heard what happened man yo baby shake my hand after the fourth person said yeah we heard what happened on the radio today you always had the Playboy Mansion and then the cops came up and he sucker-punched one of the cops and then it was a riot up in that piece and I was like I wasn't into play for a mansion and the dude was like wait you're the black eyed peas drummer right however there really is some gangster isms with the black-eyed peas what can you tell the people though adeb and Klein this is on ruthless records this is easy having the Attabad clam which was early black-eyed peas right Questlove yes it was I cannot believe see I'm now you're gonna force me go and those 50,000 records that I have in my house there are five of these unopened so I Wow okay I'm glad you notice that cuz I told this totally went over my head are they really gangster on you well you have to find out for yourself I don't see no son ruthless records but I don't see no sticker on it it ain't gangster lessons even our records have stickers on them so you know this is going back though this is back the easy we was we were sticker in 1994 but you know we won't check this one out there crystal off the roots on your brand-new CD which is stickered yes very sticker you do some sampling in fact I think you sample Michael Jackson now how expensive was it the sample Michael Jackson or the Jackson 5 oh not that expensive because we sampled from their Motown catalog now Michael Jackson the the mogul that he is also owns the the samples for the Sly and the Family Stone catalog that we saw which he sampled as well on game theory yeah have we so graciously have gone through but on the the cool thing about that situation is since we got real cool with the slide camp those people sort of you know talk to the publishing company which is of course Michael Jackson owns and told them to cut us a little break you know because you know Mike these days he need some money so you know don't don't take it from us because we don't have no money so he looked he cut us a break but uh yeah it was more it was more expensive to pay Michael Jackson for the sly songs that he owns as opposed to the Jackson 5 song that we sample from how about Radiohead in Public Enemy you also sample them how expensive was Radiohead um you know what actually a Tom Tom did a solid because actually when we we went about the regular way when you when you sample someone you have your label and they're publishing unit contact and call the other label publishing unit and you know let their lawyers go at it but because we got an immediate no from the publisher people because you know I guess that was Radiohead's policy and so I had to scratch a few backs and sort of go the underhanded way and you know I know that those guys are fans of the roots we've done a few shows with them over in Europe so um it was it was really down to the last minute like we literally had an hour to go before prep the pressing plant and the whole thing was we got label said you have 59 minutes to get a yes from Tom New York or else we're taking the song off the record then print up the record so I try for a half hour didn't get an answer I was on the treadmill and then I got the call man I felt like Rocky I went up to 20 miles an hour I was running you know I was happy so essentially Tommy org and his manager called they were actually quite honored that you know that we even knew they knew they were alive quote/unquote so you know it was uh they cut us a break Questlove you're very industrious but I think you're also very famous too for the roots ah I don't know if like famous like fame you come from a famous family what I find is really interesting is your dad was in a band Lee Andrews and the hearts these are some of us 45s right yes try the impossible this was his his last hit from 1957 oh why do I yeah we used to do like when I grew up I grew up in a whole DS doo-wop atmosphere so basically this this is the type of music the music that you see in Greece or American Graffiti or Laverne and Shirley or happy days like dododo you dodo you know like that's the type of music I grew up with matter of fact when I finally got in the first grade and we were talking about music I thought that this music was contemporary music so you know I'll be talking about Frankie Lymon and the teenagers and Harvey in the moonglow's kids are looking at me on like you know I like disco duck by Rick Dees and you know so it it wasn't until later in life that I discovered that this music was actually like 20 of the 30 years before I was born you know and this is your dad's music Lee Andrews and the hearts not I want to emphasize they had big hits like two huge hits in the 50s what's your dad bigger than you um I mean he was well respected see I mean there's a difference between I don't consider myself like famous or celebrity like I think that celebrity is when your lifestyle sort of supersedes what your talent is like in other words not not that I think that she has no talent but like if if you think Lindsay Lohan like you'll probably think of like Oh a crotch shot you know because every three seconds there's another photo with a crotch shot you know if you think of Nicole Richie you'll think oh okay I'm friends with the family so you'll think the events in her life as opposed to a particular talent you know and whereas I think in our case we get respect because people like our music like no one's following me around and ShopRite looking to see if I brought sugar-free soda versus the regular carbonated soda you know no one's going through my trash no one wants to know if I broke up with Cameron Diaz this week so you know he had just as much respect as I did but more on a local level and of superseded him on an international level but but I look at Lea Andrews in the hearts and then I think about them having a big hit two big hits in the 50s your dad must have done everything like you must have done the Apollo must have done the package tours it's incredible what a resource your dad must been for the rock and roll James Browning type stories um yeah he's had a few like he pretty much that's the environment he brought me up in like his era was the Apollo New York the Uptown of Philadelphia the Capitol DC like all those high-end chitlin circuit venues and then you know of course 20 years with any genre music whatever comes around goes around so when I was born 20 years later it was the same stuff but in a packaged thing like you know there been many a time when like I remember watching Jackie Wilson right before he went into a coma in 75 like I remembered Dick Clark throwing all these shows Bowser from China not picking me up you know when I was at when I was a little kid and singing goodnight sweetheart like all those things like that was that was my I claim do up just like a clean hip-hop classic hip-hop

Channel: NardwuarServiette

Views: 249,111

Keywords: Nardwuar, Human, Serviette, The, Roots, Ahmir, Questlove, Thompson, Atban, Klan, Black, Eyed, Peas, Lee, Andrews, and, the, Hearts, interview, 2013

Id: 100pI-ktOxQ

Length: 9min 38sec (578 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 08 2008

Reddit Comments

[u/LilAhsoka]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUK3jJ1xZGI

This is the song he's talking about, by the way, sampling 'You and Whose Army'.

[u/technicalogical]

Man, a Nardwar Radiohead interview would be awesome.

[u/nomenclature87]

Honestly i feel like nowadays nardwar doing an interview with thom at least would work out pretty well. Now that thom seems more easy going and such. Id love to see thom geeking out to like nardwar presenting him with a bunch of fringe underground techno records that thom prolly listened to in college or something.

[u/BRLND]

Questlove is in the house

[u/thespymachine]

All of you need to watch Nardwar interviews and listen to "Game Theory" by The Roots

[u/27aaa]

I love Atonement, especially the Breakfast With The Arts version on youtube

[u/julieinderbycity]

With Thom's sense of humor and intellect, he would definitely shine in an interview with Nardwar. Wiki says: "Henry Rolllins found Nardwuar to be disingenuous, saying 'I like the character that you're playing. I like that you can turn it on and off. That's cute.'" Hope there is an interview - soon !