Q-Tip Talks Prince, Native Tongues, Missing Phife, and the Future of the Music Business

this is Fort Knox and I am here with q-tip from many things including A Tribe Called Quest where many of us first got to know you thanks for sitting down for Fort Knox I want to dig right in to what you're doing right now Elton John hmm did a song that you worked on a tribute related to with with Demi Lovato yes tell me how that came about a lot of people might not know you pull from a lot of different piece genres pieces artists inspiration how did well the Elton Elton thing happened as work we was working on the last tribal so I'll also yeah so I you know was working with Jack White and he had this song and I was like maybe should get out and we reached out played it for him he dug it flew out to London and cut it he was just extremely gracious and like just open and just it was just a great experience and when the time came for him to do his his legacy piece where he had all these different artists covered you know he he reached out and gave me kind of the pick of the litter so many great songs that he's done to choose from to redo and I was like maybe don't go breaking my heart because it was like at that time it was like crossing into disco but it was still a great song that's some soul and had a soul to get so I was just like let me just take it and flip it and you know we cut it we you know reached out to the great Demi Lovato amazing and we knocked it out this is kind of like that what is it about Elton John I don't know if you remember when you know the first Elton John song that you heard but there's something not only in his his lyrics and his storytelling but in the way he uses different sounds I think is unique he's got some well candle in the wind Rocket Man don't go breaking my heart it's a really wide you see a musical well he's you know he's from from what I gather you know he's kind of rooted in you know blues country so you know he's really you're more of like a blues man kind of piano playing edge rather than like a kind of modern rock thing mm-hmm you know that's his kind of his rearing I I think and you know obviously having the facility as a musician you know he and Bernie were able to kind of like pin some of the greatest songs of the last century into this one and you know they had a connection they had a real partnership creatively and they wrote a toast to the wheels fall off and it was just it's just so like you said it's just such a diaspora of different idioms that he melds into what's uniquely him yeah he can still do so going he's couple years ago I saw him in Venice and he was at that piano belting it out yeah you think that's what keeps him going I was just joining his love for what he does you know he's on the roll right now probably doing like 300 shows I know so it's one of those one of those people that it's definitely an inspiration speaking of those unique musicians at our time Prince would have been 60 years old today you and I were both coming up in New York in throughout the 80s yeah and for me as a young kid 1984 Purple Rain was one of those moments unique because it was bringing together this album and this look that Prince had and this movie all at the same time it was such a creative convergence I wonder what did Prince mean to you as a developing creative person who hadn't really launched your your collimation he made you major one of my major influences you know I have a few he's definitely in there was definitely like since this first album he's just I feel like especially in today's world the word genius gets used carelessly but it's appropriate in his case you know you're talking about him a prodigy who at 18 recorded his whole album and self produced it which was kind of unheard of for like 1970 80 79 and he's somebody that I've always liked admired studied dealt it like he's just so much a part of what I do even still to this day so and then you know as I've you know went into my career having the opportunity to have worked with him and knew him like intimately like that was my boy like he was like my big brother and we would have just hours and hours and hours of conversation about music life everything that you could imagine and then to be able to be she had a stage with him and to work in the studio with him it's just like the sound of myself still you know the name I just don't tell people to study music like not just don't just play it and but go deep and understand yeah why different types of rhythm and different chords and scales well yeah I mean we've we we didn't really have that cuz I I'm not trying to like to my horror his whatever but we kind of connected like that creatively and musically so we past that initial I guess barrier of musical language and all that stuff and we we became friends you and I'm saying I was my big brother like he would like tell me other stuff and you know he was like one of the first guys like on the Internet and I remember him like telling me all about it and setting up his sites and stuff like that and just watching it and you know it was just really a great there's one he's one of my mentors you know and I miss him dearly it's um you know it's still doesn't you know that whole year 2016 of the loss you know because right prior to that I lost faith and I think he reached out but I didn't get to speak to him because I was just in the middle of all the bereavement and all that stuff but then a few weeks later he was gone it was just like wow you know it was just um a heavy blow but his contribution is is timeless you know when uh when the UH the archaeologists come to go through the rubble and they look for you know what was this culture they're gonna look to the art first and I'm sure they'll find you know he's following cool yeah yeah he I mean you understand this better than I do but he had a kind of ambivalent relationship with things like streaming services and his actual music on the Internet mm-hmm did you go through that well you know it's it's crazy you know because um there's there's energy and forces out here that that tend to when you have when you get blessed with weight with an idea right and you get blessed with the fortitude and the Moxie to be able to kind of go through it and see it out and you do it more than one time especially in a creative sense and then you start to see that light whether it be it doesn't necessarily have to be you know music it could be you know in tech it could be in politics it could be whatever it is is your is your acumen if you get this thing that's kind of really unique and you start to step into truth and step in the light you know the obvious thing is the thing that's anti it right hmm and then you know we exist in a paradigm here where real capitalism you have to capitalize right so then when we enter into these contracts into these deals you know everybody is I think trying to look out for their best interests but it seems that the controlling factor goes beyond looking for their best interests on control even control yeah which for a creative person yeah right that sucks all the oxygen yeah and if you don't have if you don't have faith and they're not just talking about a faith in your in your talent or faith in what you know you were gifted but of faith and where that comes from mm-hmm you know it could be it could be rough because you're always gonna be dealing with challenges and a faith are you saying because especially his young heart is my devout yeah if they need the label that those powers yeah ambivalence about that that he had for you know streaming services and putting things online and stuff like that it's it's many phones and I think because this is kind of the fashion in the parlance of the day where we stream now you don't go out and buy a collection of songs speaking specifically to music it's been chopped up I think that the music industry you know has missed a step or two but one of the major steps that I think that they missed in the latter part of the last century which they're still kind of like licking their wounds from is not embracing the intimate and how the incident can you know be another conduit for them to put out product they kind of where the music industry was still a little bit fat off of the CD explosion because it's all about how many different ways can we present this in a hardware right so initially it was a cuz I made okay so I'm not gonna go too far back but you notice it's vinyl then when they figured out they could put the same thing out with no cost but just on a different medium which is cassette they reintroduce that they have these talks with you know different you know audio companies and car companies on how they can change their formats that now can assist this it gets a wider reach which is great for the audience and great for the artist because now is dispersed on another medium now here comes and when everything was reissued on CD in the 90s or the eighties rather mm-hmm the easy business saw a crazy surge because their catalog just got bought again like by all of the consumers so then when the internet came along you know I think a lot of the gatekeepers were like a get away from her kids or Shawn yeah yeah and it it was something that they they didn't see they didn't have the vision to see that far ahead it was kind of like a new thing for you know a lot of us on that in you know in the business so they didn't really have people in it I could see the exposure so now the music business has to kind of we reappropriation tompa knees like artist development arms and things of that nature to save costs and now there really is now really about you know analytics and numbers and metrics to try to like gauge what's what so that they can jump in am I making sense so that makes that I was just with Troy Carter about a week ago yeah he's working with Spotify some always great I guess trying to build that artist development sense up for the new era and so much of it seems to be missing in the industry and I wonder I mean have you kind of made some degree of your piece with that because when I when I listen to abstract radio right on Apple music it's a huge canvas at the same time used to be there were more gatekeepers in between you getting your ideas as a producer as an artist out to the masses I like I remember reading an interview with J Dilla who's a protege of yours about you know waiting for the label to release his stuff right maybe it was too edgy right now in this day and age you can break stuff on abstract radio you don't you don't have those same radio gatekeepers that you used to have or if you're a super creative producer out in Detroit you can put yourself out there yes and and get discovered and build your own audience mm-hmm is that unbalanced good that's good yes it's actually the thing which is why we all have this debate and these talks about it because it's you know you see how it works and then you see you know how it doesn't but that's what if anything isn't it you know them you know but the great thing for artists is pro artists about you know putting your music out is like you said you don't have to wait around you could get it going on your own you know and you know it's really liberating to do that but then the other problem on the other side of that is that because of that availability and because of that instant access to be able to professionally gather your ideas and launch it out yourself is that because of the ease you know now a lot of people feel like that they can do it to kind of mm-hmm and that's a problem because for the actual work you know the guy didn't just wake up and just you know dudes I had to still work you it's work you have to put the time and you have to put the hours in you have to put the days in and you can't cut corners because if you do you know all that easy access to be able to make stuff and push a button and put it out and you may catch a lick initially but because of the lack of work and substance there is going to be short-lived yeah so I would encourage everybody that because yes you there is an ease and in a quicker track to getting your thoughts and ideas out there you still can't you can't duck the responsibility that you need to have to your craft yes some stuff yeah some stuff you go back to and it still sounds fresh yeah and then just you know you you have this whole conversation today about like all music is this is that it's you know I tend to see a lot of great things but I also see some things of like I said we're you know people don't some people don't want to put that time and at work in you know I'm saying I just want to get to that end result mm-hmm you know so I see that and you know it's it's just the interesting equi want to talk the making of tip a little bit I'm about to go to my 20th college reunion tomorrow as a know that right I went to school in rural Indiana Greencastle Indiana I'm a kid from New York Washington DC but I was like up there well they had a good media program and I was into like diversity and understanding different points of view so I said why shouldn't I go to school in the rural Midwest right I never spent any time there let me go out there and see what it's about okay it was rough for a while and I found out it up writing about 50 songs throughout okay college and for me the music was like alchemy it's like you can turn pain into something beautiful mm-hmm and it was my way of working through a lot of things because it could be the the lyrics that the tune whatever came out of pain and then when I played it I could sort of work it out right you've talked about how in 9th grade what you dealt with the passing of your father and got into music at the same time yeah is that part of how you work through some of the things that life throws at you it's cathartic it's definitely a refuge and that's one of the the things that unify all of us underneath the auspices of art right whether it be music or literature or film or what have you you know these things you know by able to potentially encapsulate where you are in your life good bad or otherwise these things are able to encapsulate how you feel about yourself or about the world or about others in in a specific way and these things are able to encapsulate your queries or your pains or your questions or your sadness and then also able to like help build you and make you inspire you to go forward so for me you know watching my father basically pass for over a year in front of me and then in passing when I was 16 you know the music was just always a safe haven for me you know it was a place where I got to express myself you know yeah and all of that so it was definitely a refuge where do you find it now I mean I know there are still places that sell vinyl it seems like there are a lot of different places where you can get inspiration ideas I know you you took a year at one point and really did a retreat and read a lot and did poetry where do you find the pieces the inspiration the music these days that ends up informing you about sound and helping to birth new ideas oh all right you know I like everybody else a fashion online you know I'm saying I buy it I go out I try to move around and try to like like keep myself in places of inspiration of light you know godliness and I'm saying I just try to like strive you know I'm far from perfect and in my findings but I still try to like seek out those things that keep me informed and inspired you know do those different ways is touring cathartic or was it hard I remember seeing you in Jareau be on stage after this last album right and I remember that if he was SNL when the banner came down with Fife on it yeah and I mean it just it looked like it was hard to have his voice booming but him not there and then for you to have to go through multiple nights of that I it was very trying yeah but it was also cathartic to you know to me yeah because I was still of you was still working it out you know I'm sure some of the people who were watching a listening was still kind of working out that loss for them but just lost in general but for me personally it was something and then you know after that we did a few shows but I just couldn't I couldn't move without him there you know it was definitely a lot but I'm happy that I accepted that challenge and went through it went through it and experienced that and I'm able to call it out and notate what I was feeling you know yeah I think that that was that was instrumental for my continued growth but yeah of stuff yeah when you hear the voice and you you're on stage and it's something that not only did rebuild it but I knew him since we were four years old you know I'm saying so to lose your friend it's not many people that you you grow up with since four that you still stay in contact with through your latter years and on top of it create something with that person and make something with that person and on top of that make something that people sing to today and I'm saying yeah all of those things you know sit there why do you think that is I mean there's a certain demographic probably between age 35 and 50 I fall in there where I mean yeah we listen to a lot of music but tribe the Native Tongues movement I'm sure you hear it all the time how man that meant something to me you know personally it was like just a representation thing even within black culture there was an acknowledgement that we were more than one dimension right he was he thought emotion love brought that guys you know you and ity yes some I mean those lyrics and those issues just as relevant today as they were back then what what do you think it was about the Native Tongues what you guys were about that meant so much to a generation I think that at the time you know we were just blessed to be able to be at the right time at the right place that's part of it but also you know prior I guess to us you were starting to see different shades of black complexity through this music mm-hmm on this initial you know implosion from the you know early 70s up into the 80s it was kind of like a you know a smaller dimension but like most things that you know that grow it started to widen and then through that it was able to carve out paths for other people to enter us and then you know at that time we were able to express that we're more than one dimension that we we don't just do X we do a and D and H and J and you know just like somebody else yeah so because we were kind of like first to kind of of the first to kind of like you know have that kind of position about you know showing our complexity is showing our levels and showing our depth I think that that's probably why there's still you see J Cole and you see Ken Drake and there's still it's still it's out you know it's out growth so that it's out spurts of that you know and Kanye getting car so somebody who looks up to you yeah Wes yeah that's right he took that from A Tribe Called Quest and yeah and flipped it yeah kind of like you're doing with Elton they in tribute to you I the the biggest cultural moment from my childhood that I remember with hip hop was EPMD Oh Roxanne Roxanne right no ut'fo sorry okay I get the Roxanne Roxanne oh no it was ut'fo Roxanne Roxanne sorry but that would come on the radio one week and then you had like a blast yeah you had Roxanne Shaun Ted you know you had this feminist response to it you had Roxanne's grandmother you had like every right there was another twist right right showing the diversity of viewpoints and kind of like this gas station emerging the town of the radio mm-hmm do we have that anymore should we do we still have the diversity of voices in any musical genre that are doing that kind of almost jazz like call-and-response and riff on you do but going back to the whole record company paradigm it's probably harder for you to find you have to really seek it out you know you almost have to go down a labyrinth on YouTube or something if you if you put up you know Roxanne Roxanne on YouTube and then Roxanne's revenge and Roxy and Shante Roxy you know when you look to the videos on the right you see you know other suggested use are things that are similar and then it takes you down a path and then maybe you'll find somebody in 2018 who's from Piscataway or whatever that's you know looking at things from different perspectives there's people who are kind of having those kind of conversations musically but you know record companies aren't going to pay attention to that unless it's already starting to grow and is already an audience and is already like all these gazillion followers because they don't have time to get into the development stages to help bring those things out and really shine a huge light on them mmm so they'll wait and see if that conversation was a cat from Piscataway grows over a period of time once they do then they'll jump in and then see SOR to answer your question is that still happening yes but I feel like this cloaked I really have to kind of find it you've embraced this role it seems to me as a sort of historian archaeologist philosopher in hip-hop and beyond you're getting ready to teach this course at NYU on the link between jazz and hip-hop man you're also artistic director creative director forgive me for mangling the title and Kennedy Center I'm Anglia and you pulled together you're not trying to do it by yourself you pulled together a bunch of thinkers right Questlove black thought you know from the roots journalists who have been following hip hop for just lots of people tell me about this I think I once I heard you talk about different periods for artists mm-hmm this period for tip what is this period of professorial I have no idea I'm in the middle of it brother III I'm just following it like you know I mean and it's kind of a natural thing you know I guess when you get into elder statesmanship you know you start so you've been bracelet huh do I embrace it yeah that older statesman now is III guess and I mean when you start teaching I don't know I know these terms are I'm trying to say these things to help everybody understand I guess but I don't really put too much weight on the titles I can't believe we're that I don't feel like we're like we're like we're living you know it's all every moment is an opportunity for you to gain wisdom and more you have you know you it that's the thing that differentiates one who has the wisdom versus the younger one who doesn't and there's a younger it's just time the more time you have the the more things you you have potential access to that you add on I think those are the things that are monikers of time and grow if I don't say older age I mean obviously physically is one thing that we can't really rewind but you know we still have the the spirit the energy from the Creator like we still have that source so as I move into that that phase I don't know what it is I still I don't feel like I've peaked yet musically I don't feel like I've peaked yet I still have ideas and thoughts off like a peak yet as they I don't know you one of those iceberg guys were 90% of the songs and beats and you've created or still below the surface we haven't probably robbed princess hopeful but I'm striving to like put it all out you know but there's other things that happen in life that you have to kind of tend to as well and take care of and set up but I'm confident that all of that stuff will see a light of day and then I could continue to to do that but um tell me about abstract radio as part of it yeah because I mean it's like two hours Lois yeah yeah it's rich and layered that that's got to take a lot yeah well time right yeah I don't you can't get time that time back so I try to make try to make it enjoyable and again palatable for everybody who could potentially be checking it out you know what does it do for you it makes me happy I feel connected energized peace with it you know I've fun mm-hmm it informs also because I get to do mixing you know I put myself where I have to listen to a whole bunch of new things you know and I really try to source out certain things to make certain musical connections between something that could be present-day that maybe people haven't looked at and something that could have been yesterday it sounds like you had you do work that forces you to do a process yes yes yes like the work makes you do the part makes you do the work yeah opens you yeah yeah and that's important for a creative person maybe that's a lesson no matter what you're doing take that away do work that makes you work that makes you work that makes you not think about the fact that you're doing work you understand I'm saying do work that makes you not think about the fact that you're doing work hmm before we set off to do our work you know we could be anxious or doubt or you know nervous or whatever but the minute we drop into and we step because we have to do it so when we drop into it and you get into it it's almost like when you start running for all you runners out there like after you hit a certain pace you know your endorphins kick in and it gets bright and you could go a little bit further you don't think about the fact at a point that you're running because you're working and starts to feel good it builds you so when you do work that makes you not think that it's work and you drop in you start to do it if feed you would build you the work it becomes you this is wrote this it's met it's a meditation and then by the time it's like wow I did that you know I mean yeah but then you realize then when you start having to do the dailies of life and you do whatever you do and you have to get up the next day it still could be daunting oh man I gotta do this do that but the minute you drop in and you commit to it and do it it's it's it's a joy it's a blessing it's a gift yeah I love it you're gonna do more TV I'd like to I know you're talking about that Native Tongues thing with DiCaprio for a while yeah yeah yeah we were talking about doing that and um you know he and I we have some things that we're working on developing right now for film and TV you've been working on some things for a while and love to do that I would love to do some acting again forget to the opportunity to ah Miles Davis the Miles Davis saying yeah yeah so that's what did you get from that a connection to another one of my heroes you know it's funny because I wrote it as a short at the time I'm Christine vashaun was was heading a company called killer films I get people to love it so that I'm not just throwing out mild days it's called people a lot of my funny Valentine but we currently we you know we're out there we're talking to some folks out there we haven't closed yet but we're in the middle of talks but I started with Christine vashaun and Killah films so I have to give a shout out to because um she was gonna let me it was going to be a short and I was gonna be in it and direct it and I just left a meeting with her and I was going to meet up with Nelson George the writer journalist director yeah fantastic guy so I had your script under my arm I was going to meet him because he was gonna write a and I guess I put it down and he saw like a script with Miles Davis a what's this and I said son I wrote this I just left killer films I'm gonna do a short and uh he was like man give it to me let me write it we need to do a whole thing he took it he wrote it you know we're here with it and I just got to again that I gained the connection to miles I gained the connection to my artists to that world and told the story was able to like not be myself and portray this other thing it's another side that I don't get to do much but I enjoy mm-hmm you get to see a lot of different facets of the creative process the entertainment industry just from the people you've met and gathered around you over the years I heard somebody say once that music makes money for everything except music you know they put money for everything except music you put music sells everything but music you put it in a commercial and it sells the car right okay you know you put it in a TV show it sells the scene you know movie soundtracks you get all emotional and you hear the music but these days anyway and this period music has a hard time creating a business model around itself is it live shows where artists these days need to look to actually eat you know to figure out how to I mean initially yeah you know the road is one way but you know record companies for a minute we're doing and probably still do do these things called 360 deals where they now we're trying to take your road money and you merge money mmm you know so they're trying to and again would you say don't do this I would say don't do those but you know they've made a compelling case for themselves because some of the the things that they offer I guess it depends if you want if you're in it for fame and popularity and all that stuff for whatever but again and I hate to sound like such a I'm not trying to like berate the music industry and smack them in the back of it yeah but truth is true when I'm saying and/or the music industry you know a and you know the thing is is that because they're still looking their wounds from their you know being remiss of not to be inclusive on the initial phase of the internet and they're trying to like monetize everything right now the the in a space of desperation and they're not but but they're failing to realize is that this is a creative business its business but in the business that deals with intellectual property it deals with nuance hue tone so many different variables that aren't concrete can't reduce it to data yeah you know yeah but getting still they're trying to reduce it to data and as long as they continue to do that they're gonna unfortunately find themselves to be kind of like always trying to catch up and then being you know laughs and then turning into something else like they they have to realize that you have to kind of be in partnership with artists the music should be a didn't people who do the music should be able to make the money not just Chevrolet or McDonald's or whatever it is that uses these licenses but the deals are so like unbalanced that it's it's just it's just natural and just we see we've seen cases of this for hundreds of years yeah and it's funny because they're so in the middle of it that they don't even see it like this conversation if they hear it they probably would be like aha but not even here the the place that I'm coming from the place I'm coming from again is not to berate but it's hopefully to appeal to the human spirit stone of the person who's in business and to truly understand what they're in business for what they're doing so that you know the people who do the music can also benefit because it's enough for everybody yeah it's enough for everybody you know jay-z you know Jay Z I know jay-z like personal you know listen to your stuff pre-release and you guys you know both New Yorkers came up that way so he's got title mm-hmm Questlove who's also a friend of yours I know he's got he's got a thing going on Pandora you're on Apple music do the platforms matter are there differences how do you look at what makes a particular company or platform you know there's Amazon in the mix there's Spotify how are they going to show whether they're more righteous than another what was the differentiator between those companies yeah I mean for a consumer who cares about music and musicians and how healthy the business is going forward how are we going to be able to tell whether one is better than the other for for the artists without support well I mean I think the way you tell is do content and I guess you know innovation in in marketing and innovation and you know how they message mm-hmm and specificities in their marketing and how they message but it's ultimately content Jamie I are being about here's where you need to get to you know Apple talks that they all talk about being good for artists but where you really need to get to in order to reach some of those issues you were just talking about about you know being for them really it's about market share it's about consumption it's about having the most to be the biggest because you know when you when your conglomerate in that way you know you kind of become like I don't know if you're into into comics I am you become Galactus yeah and Galactus was the lender what's our world eating world's that's all he did was swallow world can somebody be silver surfer and sober surfer that's that's where you and that's where I believe jay-z the Silver Surfer and Questlove the Silver Surfer and I could be Silver Surfer you know you have to instead of airing complaints and stuff like that you have to you have to kind of see it from both sides you have to put yourself in their shoes right so I understand that in order for Galactus to survive his practical need is to eat world it order for for Norman ride or Silver Surfer to save his world he says look I love my dear world of peace so much I have these I'll do I'll go out and get other ones but leave this one alone so I understand Norman rights position and you're dealing with something that's just kind of a one-dimensional you have to consume because if they don't have market share than they fall yeah it's a bottom line there's thousands and thousands of people that work at these companies people so they have to sustain themselves in their lives right you know so we understand that but then taste of the DI the iconic insignia of the Apple or Pandora or dis or whatever and this big conglomerate is to Galactus and then you know hopefully we could be again the silver surface to bridge the gap because it could work hmm I'm an idealist you know I mean I'm an optimist although I'm also an agitator and I'm also somebody used a rumble hmm you know I don't I try not to mince words even if it's against myself because I believe that we all have things that we make and things that we miss but ultimately is trying to to bring about that bridge you know so that the music I don't know if I'm losing you but no no I don't yeah you know so we gotta like we gotta figure this out you know you don't you have to have people who are truly creative you can't just just analyze and you know come up with some analytics and and and and and make an equation to find nuance and to find mood in to find energy in to find harmony you know we make the computers you know I'm saying like we are sensitive we complex and we have great potential but we can't succumb to [Music] you know fears you know I know what you're saying I could talk to you all day but I want to respect your time know this again um I want to wrap up with what are you excited about creatively right now whether it's a young producer who might have given you you know a file I don't know how they give you their stuff these days or something that you've seen or something that you're heard something you're working on with Kennedy Center out or anything tell us what to look forward to but I'm excited about Kennedy Center you know we're we're getting ready to start putting together the rest of our council with what the good folks there shouts out to Simone Kim but I'm really excited about that and I am excited about this artist that I'm about to work with this young lady from Houston her name is Megan hmm sea stallion what does she do but I'm excited about that I'm excited about you know seeing how this country grows I think that we is pregnant with possibilities there's a lot of dissension there's a lot of bad vibe I feel like that's going on in the world always has been but you know I'm excited about this the spirit of the good man mm mm you know and I think that good spirit should be served and brought out of all of us and the only way we do that is that we recognize and accept and our responsibility for the other sides of us so I'm excited to see that discourse happiness as it is happening right now live it's being televised the machine is Gil's guy said yeah and you know I'm excited too you make it some more music and putting some stuff out here that's a big part of the role of the artist I know is to not only hold up a mirror but show us what we can be so hey I appreciate you sitting down and having this conversation with me more than you know oh thank you thank you

Channel: Fortt Knox

Views: 88,175

Rating: 4.9517279 out of 5

Keywords: CNBC, money, business, technology, tech, entrepreneur, gadgets, phones, music, Q-Tip, Native Tongues, Hip-Hop, A Tribe Called Quest, Elton John, Prince, Pandora, Apple, Tidal, Jay-Z, Kanye, Kennedy Center, Phife, Phife Dog, NYU, Scenario, Busta Rhymes

Id: 5yyNMpxpY54

Length: 52min 50sec (3170 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 15 2018