The Daily Show: Ears Edition - Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson - "Summer of Soul"

Episode Date: February 13, 2022

Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson, drummer and cofounder of The Roots, discusses his documentary "Summer of Soul," which explores the cultural significance of the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to Comedy Central. Welcome to the show. Thank you. Thank you. How you been? This is great. I love this. There are few people I know who have had more jobs than you

and excel at more jobs than you. I know many people who have had more jobs than you, but for a bad reason. I don't know many people who have had as many jobs as you have and just done well at people though because at one point I thought there was honor in sort of matching James Brown and the hardest working man in the show business. Once I stopped doing everything then a whole new world of magic open that I never knew of and one of them is what I called storytelling or directing which this definitely wasn't on my my bingo card back in 2005. But if you look at it, everything I've done to this point is preparing for this moment. This point.

Because I mean, those 40 hours could go, the 40 hours of the footage that's set in the basement for five decades. Yeah, I still don't, wait, wait, let's just talk about that. I still don't understand this because nobody has seen all of these performances, nobody has seen these moments, nobody has seen what happened in Harlem in 69. I need to start with that. So how did you even begin to find 40 hours of footage of, it would be like, it would be like somebody now finding, hey, I found a concerted, thrown Jackson and like just like everyone. Right. I directed this film and I refused to believe it.

I get word backstage of the Tonight Show that these two gentlemen want to talk to me about these so-called Blackwood stock and I was like Black Woodstock and well I'm thinking of Woodstock and you're saying there was a black version of that and then I was like well, I'd like to think that I they.... there was there was there was there was there was a there was a there was a there was a there was a there was a there was a black. I was a black. I was a black. I was a black. I was a black. I was a black. I was a black. I was a black. I was a black. I was a black. I was a black. W. W. I was a black. I was. I was. I was. I was. I was. I was saying there was saying there was a w. I was saying there was saying there was saying there was saying there was saying there was a black w. I was a black w. I was saying there was a black. there was a black. there was a black. there was a black. I was a black. I was a black. I was a black. I was a black. I was a black. they. they. they. they. they. they. th. I was a black. I was a black. th. I was a black. I was a black. I was a black. I was a black. I was a black. I was a black. I was a black. I'm. I'mthink that I was a music expert or new things like how come I didn't know that over 300,000 people gathered in Harlem for a collective six weekend affair with Stevie Wonder's Lie Stone, B.B. King, Mavis Staples like how come I didn't know about this and you know I was like call another me you had a black woodstock at dinner I never heard of it and so I don't don't the the the the the the th th the th th th I don't I don't I don't I don't I don't I don't I don't I don't I don't I don't I don't I don't I don't I don't I don't I don't I don't I don't I don't I don't I don't I don't I don't I don't I don't like like like like I don't I don't I don't I don't like like like like like like like like like st. I don't like st. I don't like st. I don't like st. I don't like st. I don't like st. I don't like st. I don't like st. I don't like st. I don't like like like like like like like like st. I don't like like like like like like like like like like like like like like like like like like like like like like like like like like like like like. I don't the the th. I don't. I don't. I don't. I don't. I don't. I don't. I don't. I don't. I don't. I don't. I don't. I don't. I don't. I don't. I don't. I don't. I don't. I don't. I don't. I don't. I don't. I don't. I didn't know about this? And you know, I was like, call another me? You had a black woodstock at dinner? No, I never heard of it. And so, I don't understand how that's possible. I didn't believe it, I didn't believe that it happened.

So the very first meeting, I just thought that these two were trying to just scam me for like tonight show tickets or whatever. next week with a hard drive and even then I was like well the footage must be better maybe Stevie had an off day or right right right and everything I saw was magic and to this day that the reason why even when I agreed to do this at first I was just going to compile like 17 songs yes wow like a mixed tape you know that sort of thing. But the curiosity kept burning me inside that like, the question I ask is, is black a racer this easy? And that's the thing, I think oftentimes when, you know,

when we speak of like Black Lives Matter or, you know, is that racist or not racist? I think people think of the most extreme definition of it. Like in their minds, they're saying, well, I've never once hung somebody to a cross or castrated them or set them on fire. So I'm not racist. But there's other, there's benign levels of racism as well. And even as sort of the, sort of the dismissal of like, well, we'll pass, you know, we're good. For a lot of people, their first view of us was either in black face or mired in trouble or controversy or, you know, getting

arrested, getting hosed down. And, but Black Joy is the component that shows that we're human, you know, and this could have been that moment had it allowed been, you know, the spotlight that Woodstock had had gotten. It was also a crucial time as well, you know, it's the sum of 69. So many things were happening in America. You know a lot was changing in the country and I remember watching this I had never seen it. I had never seen something like this. To your point, a lot of what you see from that time period is a very one-dimensional view of Black America. So it seems like Black America has only existed in strife for a long time. Exactly. And only strife I should and then you watch this and you like, man, this is, I couldn't believe the scale, I couldn't believe the party people were having, I couldn't believe like who was there

and how they were there, who was performing and what it signified. When you told that story, what do you think the significance of this event was. The significance of the event, at least what I got from it was that this was a community trying to heal., and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, was, was, the, the, was, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, they, the, the, they, the, they, the, the, wa, the, wa, the, wa, wa, the, was, was, the, was, was,that this was a community trying to heal. And so for me, shall I say a really beautiful Gander into the infinite possibilities of what a future is. You're seeing Stevie Wonder a mere two years before his genius period. You're seeing Nina Simone give one of her very first non-jazz, non-love song, non-Broadway musical performances, like Nina Simone stepping into her activism shoes in real time. So you're seeing all these artists, but really you're also just watching the people.

And that's the thing, like, when I say like, we were robbed of that, not just as black people, but the world to see, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, to see, to see, the, to see, the the the the thi, the the thi, the to see, to see, their, their, thi, thi, their, thi, thi, thi, thi, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, thi.... thi, thi, thi, thi, thin, thin, thin, thin, thin, to, thin, thi. thin, thi. thi. th th th th th th thin, thin, their, their, their and that's the thing like when I say like we were robbed of that not just as black people but the world to see you know oh families just like mine yeah just like mine yeah happiness just like and that's and that's sort of the that's sort of the the the missing fiber element and telling our stories from the civil rights period that people don't know. You look at America's story over and over, it's such a giant country, you know, where if people don't have an interaction with the people on the ground, you don't know a black person, you don't meet a Hispanic person, you don't know, do you get them saying? You can get to a... just knowing someone at your job doesn't make you... Maybe you don't even. Maybe you don't even. That's what's maybe you don't even, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, that's, that's, that's, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that's, th. this documentary. I think it's to what you're saying, is it showed a joy, it showed a normality,

it showed a... There's just a human element that I didn't even know I was looking for, like, because I didn't know that this was gonna invoke some sort of emotion out of Merlin McCoo as she's watching herself. I'm thinking like, you know, how do you remember this very specific show back then? But you know when she started to really open up about code switching. Yes. And you know something that every black person relates to on the professional job and even I needed to see that like wow, even when you're

the number one singing group in the world, like you still have to always be on guard and you're never comfortable and you know you have longings for just love from your people. Right? You just want to be accepted. I won't lie. I think I think you deserve every award that this film has one and is going to win because it's you know what it is it's it's the it's telling a story from history that is lost. It's sharing a joy from history that is lost. And I think it's something that people need today where you go like, hey, you know, yeah, we can fight, here we can argue, here we can argue, here we can, we can deal with what we need to deal with, but at the end of the day, but at the end of the day, don't tho, don't tho, now I'm back in. Let's go watch right now. Let's do it right now.

All right. Some of So, it's currently streaming on Hulu and Disney Plus, and it will make its broadcast television debut, February 20th on ABC. The Daily Show with Trevor Noah Ears Edition. Subscribe to the Daily Show on YouTube for exclusive content and stream full episodes anytime on Paramount Plus. This has been a Comedy Central podcast.