The Questlove Show - A Reaction To The Thundercat Episode Of The Questlove Show

Episode Date: June 26, 2026

In this mini, Open Mike Eagle and Cousin Jake unpack the new Thundercat episode of The Questlove Show and the wider universe surrounding it—from Los Angeles' borderless music scenes to the mento...rs and misfits who shaped them. Inspired by Thundercat's custom mask medallion and reflections on MF DOOM, Mike recalls collaborating with the late MC/producer, reflects on processing Daniel Dumile's passing through song ("For Doom"), and shares memories of appearing on television alongside Thundercat and Flying Lotus. Mike and Jake also explore the rewards and risks of artistic reinvention, what it meant to connect with Hip-Hop beyond commercial radio and video shows, and how educator and musician Reggie Andrews quietly influenced generations of artists.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Starting point is 00:03:30 We're talking about Thundercat on this mini episode of The Quest Love Show. And his new album is called Distracted. And, you know, how do you handle distractions? Oh, man, I, like, distract myself from work with, like, other work. Like, I tend to have, you know, two or three big things that need constant attention and then a bunch of little stuff and admin and pop. throughout the day. And it's like sometimes my treats to myself
Starting point is 00:03:59 is just the work that I want to do versus the work I have to do. That's well said. Well, let me ask you this then. Like what in your repertoire, if you can say, like what is your favorite work to do outside of, I'm going to say, you know, recording and making music your impetus? So my favorite work to do is not
Starting point is 00:04:18 what pays me a lot. And I think that's typically how that correlation goes. My favorite thing to do this technically work is making beats. I'm honestly just making a piece of art for myself that's not attached to any expectation. And it feels a little more creatively fulfilling because of that. How long into your vocal career have you been making beats? I've been making beats the whole time. Whole time. Wow.
Starting point is 00:04:44 I started making beats well before I started recording. I did not know that. Okay. Wow. You came in on the production tip. I mean, when I say I was making beats, very, very few of them were worth hearing about other people. And even to this day, the vast majority of my beats nobody hears. And it's because I have access to so many really great producers that, you know, I don't try to force the issue on my stuff. Because I don't, you know, I don't think my stuff is quite that good. But like I said, oftentimes it's stuff that I hear in my head, that I want to hear.
Starting point is 00:05:23 And it makes me feel good for having done it, even if it's not going to be my next song, you know? Well, I have to imagine, too, for somebody that loves all music as much as you seem to, I mean, you and I are still good and know each other. But, like, I always thought, like, in my rapper fantasy camp or in my musician fantasy camp, one of the best things would be, like,
Starting point is 00:05:42 picking beats from other people. Like, that has to be fun. Yeah. You know what? This is the thing. It is fun, but what I have found because I have, been doing some group stuff with my group previous industries
Starting point is 00:05:55 with video Dave and Steel Rift. And the act of picking beats with other people is very different than the act of me picking beats by myself. And so in the fantasy camp situation, I'm like, oh, that could be fun. It could also be a little tense
Starting point is 00:06:16 depending on what people's tastes are. Yeah, my best. like musical, my best friend that I can talk week to week about new music with, we always laugh at the fact that a new album will release and it could be in any subsector of genre, but especially in hip hop
Starting point is 00:06:33 and we're always picking different favorite sections of it. And so that's funny. I can only imagine when you have a bandmate, a groupmate that that creates I won't say acrimony, but dissidents, you know. Yeah, yeah. It's just really interesting how something can be a complete
Starting point is 00:06:48 you know absolute smash for one person and another person is just like I hate this you know it's this is really fascinating yeah absolutely and since we last spoke too and when this comes out you know you have new music on the way a new single out which I truly dig so I appreciate that everyone who's listening to this and you know I get the sense from reading the comments so many people are very well versed and open mic eagle but let this be a reminder to uh Do your DSP Googles and check it out. Oh, for real. Yeah. I mean, I think especially when it comes to my podcasting exploits, my music is often not front and center. So I certainly couldn't blame anybody for not being aware
Starting point is 00:07:31 if this is how they came to me because I'm typically not talking about my stuff. But yeah, there's a lot of legacy, a lot of catalogs. So if people are interested, there's a lot for them to dig into. So, you know, I live on the East Coast, but one of the things that fascinates me about the LA music community period, especially of the last 25 years, it's just that, you know, walls don't seem to exist. Like, so many folks have worked together, have shared studio space together,
Starting point is 00:07:58 done all these different things. And you know, you and I are here to kind of as a supplement to the recent Thundercat episode of the Quest Love show. And I happen to be there for the taping, and we're running it with our kind of slate, which is something that started years ago with Questlove Supreme of Black Music Month.
Starting point is 00:08:15 and you know I'm curious being that he's an LA guy and you've been in LA I mean damn near 30 years you shared with me recently um is there is there a relationship uh have you guys shared air has there like you and Thundercat is there anything you know in that dynamic well 20 years was the one to say that you didn't move there I got you but um yeah yeah me and him have been in a lot of rooms together we famously in my world performed together once on Hannibal Burris' television show.
Starting point is 00:08:51 I was sort of making my television performance debut and it was in collaboration with Thundercat and Flying Lotus when I performed on that show. And we didn't know each other super well then, but we got to know each other quite a bit after and had run into each other
Starting point is 00:09:08 quite a few times since. We have a lot of shared interests when he took that deep breath and started talking about comic books, I was right there with him. In the room, I thought of you. Because that was about, I think we,
Starting point is 00:09:24 yeah, we did. We taped that episode in April about fresh off of coming in LA the first time. You and I were in the room together and hung out with you, Amir, Brittany, Nick, the rest of the gang. And,
Starting point is 00:09:35 you know, I got a sense of listening to you talking about comic books and wrestling. So when I watched his take a deep breath and then just kind of micro machine man, through it. I thought of because that's a passion I don't have. I've actually never owned nor read a comic book in my life. You've never read a comic. It's really interesting. So
Starting point is 00:09:53 the only reason that's really surprising is because we're around the same age. And when we were young, there just wasn't a whole bunch of stuff to do. So I'm amazed that you never found yourself where a comic book was your only option.
Starting point is 00:10:08 I grew up in a household that didn't It always sounds like a religious thing. But, like, my dad would never, like, watch anything science fiction, with, like, one exception, like, the Mad Max Road Warrior Canon. But, like, I didn't see Star Wars. I haven't still not seen it the whole way through. Like, I am. Wow. Okay.
Starting point is 00:10:27 Okay. Yeah. And so Carmel is the funny thing is, like, I watched the Robert Crum movie back in the day. And I watched, I remember when American Splendor came out. And I was like Harvey Pico. Like, this looks like a comic I can get behind, like a cramagin. Indie comics, yeah. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:10:40 But even still, all these years later, I'm sure promo-wise, like, people have sent me, like, when Tsar face or somebody would do, like, an item. And I'd set it aside or I'd give it to somebody who would appreciate it. But, yeah, man, I still got my comic book virginity intact, you know. That's what's up, man? You know, that's, I'm like, on one hand, oh, it'd be a nice thing to introduce you to. On the other hand, it's like, yeah, you know, let them cook. Yeah, you made it this far. Yeah, you're like, and you're not missing that.
Starting point is 00:11:10 much, you know? Yeah, I mean, I have a compulsive personality. And the funny thing is, is like, as a kid, I think the other alternative was like in terms of, of tangible media, it was like baseball cards. Yeah, yeah. You know, not, not at a collector way, but I just loved looking through them, learning the stats, assessing that way. Yeah, same here. Yeah. Same here. Um, like, I have, um, I have a, a collection of comic book trading cards from that era, but in that era it was all trading cars it was basketball football baseball everything and and the same experience you discuss of just reading through and trying to understand the stats and all of that i think of every time my mom you know must have handed me a five dollar bill to try to like be a cool
Starting point is 00:11:56 mom or like she knew that like i had waited in the car for three or four hours and i wish i wish i had now at this age like it brought me delight at the time but i wish that i had done other things with that money. You know, let alone let her keep it, you know. I feel that. But, you know, getting back to your point, like, comic books is one thing. Also, you know, and it's right at the top of the episode, you know, Thundercat, you mentioned him in Flying Lotus, you know, working with you on the Hannibal show. Also, just his, he walked up at Eyeheart, and I'm not a, I don't pay attention to jewelry and stuff like that, you know, but he came in with a doom of medallion that he talks about at the top of the episode and then elaborates on his profound appreciation and
Starting point is 00:12:41 collaborative plans with Daniel Dumalay. And I thought of you as well, because I know he's a North Star in your life. Hopefully, I'm not misspeaking. No, no, that's absolutely the case. Not only creatively, historically, I have a lot of doom art here in my home. People send me a lot of stuff like that and I tend to put it up in the house. Did you, I mean, similar question to what I asked about Thundercat. I mean, in your career, did you have any interactions with Doom? Not directly. I mean, we have, we got two songs together.
Starting point is 00:13:17 I'm on, you mentioned Zarface earlier. I'm on a Zarface song. It features Doom. And when I had my show on Comedy Central, the New Negroes, part of it was we had an original song for every episode. and we did a collab with each one. And one of them was doing. We were able to get him on a song
Starting point is 00:13:38 for our Comedy Central show. Wow. Wow. So, but did you, I mean, at that point in Doom's career, I know he was abroad a lot. I mean, you never got to give him a pound or anything like that. I never did. I never did. By the time I was in the,
Starting point is 00:13:53 even the beginning of having a career, he was already out of the country and not allowed back. Yeah. I mean, to me, when I think of the pandemic, and I think of the ugly side of the pandemic, which, you know, from a health standpoint was all of it. And, you know, Amir talks about this a lot. But I think of sort of what you and I are talking about, the lack of distractions that we sometimes have gotten back to. But I think of the one battle after another emotionally of 2020 into 2021. And I think, you know, the loss of doom learning it and then learning that it was kind of after the fact, at least for me with the general public. You know, that was one of the hardest blows ever, you know, in terms of just mourning.
Starting point is 00:14:31 your heroes. Yeah, I was, I remember that was a, that was a New Year's Eve when the announcement came out. And I hadn't heard it either. I remember I took a nap that day so that I, I would be ready to hang out that night. And I woke up from the nap to people texting me that they were sorry about the Doom news. And I'm like, whoa. So I'm like, disoriented coming back into consciousness and getting this terrible news. And it really, it put me down for like three or four days. I feel like, I feel like New Year's Eve was like a Thursday that year or something like that. Sounds about right. And I feel like through that weekend, I was just really in a bad, bad space. But that was when it sort of occurred to me that for the first time of my life, I needed to
Starting point is 00:15:19 directly and in real time wrap my way through something in order to process it. And so the song that I have that is an elegy for him is called for Doom. I wrote and recorded it like that weekend. It was like four days after he passed where I sort of was
Starting point is 00:15:41 rapping about my feelings of being a fan of his my entire life, how privileged it was. I felt to collab with him, how nervous I was about it, how it felt to hear that news. And it sort of culminated in me realizing as
Starting point is 00:15:58 as I was writing this rhyme, that this piece of doom art that I have in my house, that's a photo of him, is not really him. Oh, wow. And it was like the perfect coded to the thing. And that's very open Mike Eagle of you, too, just to kind of pull the rug at the end. That's so interesting. And it's funny. Like, you know, I've worked over 20 years kind of in the hip hop media side.
Starting point is 00:16:21 I don't, the word journalist is weird, but, you know, I led hip hop DX for a number of years back in the mid-200. Oh, wow. R-IP hip hop DX, man. Yeah. Speaking of rest in peace, like that's an important. All of our work, but the work that, you know, for my seven years, they're gone off the internet. That really bothers me, like, a lot more than people might understand.
Starting point is 00:16:40 Yeah. I hope it comes back. I was going to talk to some of the folks that are now at least own it, you know, try to understand the logic behind that. But, yeah, it breaks my heart. But all that to say, you know, in DX and then I spent, for the last 13 years, I've been part of Ambrosia for Heads. And I've known.
Starting point is 00:16:58 over the time that, you know, when we've cut still images, sometimes, especially in the later years, once there were glasses involved, it's not always actually doom and that messes with you. And I think that only adds to the legend, you know. I always think of like the internet being shocked that Humpty Hump was Shock G, but sometimes wasn't Shock G. It's like Andy Kaufman and Tony Clifton, but I think it adds, like when you see both in the same room at the same time, you're just like, what? Yeah, I think that contributes to that effect, whatever. It took me a while to get to the point of being able to appreciate Doom for being able to pull that off because I had the misfortune of being at two of those shows.
Starting point is 00:17:46 Okay. Where he wasn't there. I went to one show that he actually was there in like 2004, 2005. And then I'd say like 0-607 maybe. I was at two shows where it was not him, and that did not feel good. Just to be like a paying customer coming to see him perform, and you can tell very early and easily that it's not really him, that was not a good feeling.
Starting point is 00:18:13 And I came away from those events feeling like, oh, that's kind of messed up, that he doesn't care about his audience enough to actually show up and perform. But that is also before any of us, understood what the circumstances were behind that as well. But, you know, he also didn't put that out there. Right. Do you remember on the second time was that when he was on the Lupe Fiasco Food and Liquor as the opener?
Starting point is 00:18:40 No. One was, I want to say it was Rock the Bells out here. And another one, it was a New Year's Eve show, a big huge New Year's Eve show here in L.A. that had a bunch of rappers on it. And he was the headliner, you know, with the countdown and all of that. It just was not him. I talked to, I'm homies with John Robinson, who was a close collaborator of Dumes.
Starting point is 00:19:07 And John Robinson was on the stage that night. And he, without saying too much of what he said, he was telling me that the way that it went down, it was also a surprise to him. So, yeah, it was levels of theater happening. Yeah, shout out to John Robinson. when I'm in New York, he and I had lunch one time, I mean, 2007, 2008 at this vegetarian spot on West 4th Street. And he was always cool. I'm a big Signs a Life fan.
Starting point is 00:19:39 Yeah, a little sad. The stuff he did with Doom, and then he had that whole album. One of the cool things about Doom, and I think Dilla and Madlib have the same kind of mythology is that before producers were talking about loaning beats, a lot of those productions just felt like they, because they would appear different places. and especially with John Robinson and never he made that whole album over doing production but it felt real because I knew he was always inner circle as I understood it.
Starting point is 00:20:06 It is different when you know that those artists have a connection versus you know the label has these beats and they're just pairing them with somebody. Yeah, somebody trying to get on rapping over Dilla beats, yeah. Spin, hit the tables or join the action live with Bet Victor tons of casino games away
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Starting point is 00:24:58 The Chicharito. And together with IHA Radio, we're going to make the ordinary, extraordinary. Stay close. It is a carac. Wow. Listen to learning to be human on IHA Radio, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your I'll share my little story. I never met Doom face to face, but I interviewed him in 2003. There's a lesser known thing that you remember back when like sandbox automatic and hip hop site, the early online
Starting point is 00:25:32 retailers of the hip hop that you and I love. Oh yes. I spent I spent hours on them sites. I spent not only hours. I spent wages from Burger King, wages, all sorts of jobs. And there was an exclusive kind of mashup thing that was authorized by Doom called Nostradu. And it was 2003 and it was when Nas had put out. It wasn't just the Nostradamus stuff, but it was recent, you know, I Am and kind of the early 2000s, Acapela's, put to Doom. And Matt Conaway veteran, Amir and I just worked with him on booking DJ Mugs. He offered me Doom.
Starting point is 00:26:08 I was at the time editor at all hip hop.com and I spoke to Doom for half an hour on the phone. And it's similar to kind of, I think his music. Like on one hand, he was super lucid. super he remembered things that really shocked me but on another hand he was kind of one take jake and just like some things he would talk about some things he wouldn't and that added to the mythology but what always kind of blew me away about that is i asked him at one point i'm like you know kmd comes under the third base story you know as as you've covered with your podcast and so does naz and you know as i understand it you know pete nice was a big cultivator of kmd and doom
Starting point is 00:26:46 and search obviously, you know, sign Nas, the production company, and, you know, had a strong hand in the business side of Elmatic. And it's so wild that at that point, which was about 10 years later, you know, after Elmatic and around, you know, the same time as the second KMD album, you have these guys interfacing in a way they might not even know about. And Doom had memories of meeting Nas being in the same room, sitting in the same studio sessions. And the cool thing is, is that was 03, which a year,
Starting point is 00:27:16 later, Doom really starts to occupy that amazing spot, you know, with multiple albums. Victor Vaughn and Mad Villain and M. Food all dropping into the same. Danger Doom. Yeah. All of that stuff, exactly. So, you know, and it lends itself to a question. And obviously, we're talking about Thundercat, talking about Doom. But, you know, to me, he's always, hip-hop's, like, greatest reinvention story. It's the one that, if I was explaining this stuff to my son's someday of why it means to me and why it might be like comic books or might be like a great movie, Doom is that story. And, you know, I want to ask you being a fan that you are, like, can you speak to what that reinvention means to you as an artist? To me, it's remarkable because it's such
Starting point is 00:28:02 a difficult thing to do when you have your business hat on. Like, it's one thing, you know, we're all creative forces. We all have this creativity we have access to, and that tends to always perpetuate. But It's difficult when you have stacked attention and notoriety and you've really nurtured a name. You have people invested in that name. You might have companies that invested money to promote this name. And for you to choose to walk away from that in order to re-approach the business from a different creative lens, I think that's so risky. And I think that like it is a really powerful move because you're walking away from everything. But I've also seen it not work because it's such a difficult thing to do.
Starting point is 00:28:56 You're in essence walking away from all of the work you've put in. And unless you're arming people with the tools to tell the world that this guy is now this guy, then you're truly starting over from scratch. And it's a really difficult thing to do. I always applaud people and commend them. And I think there is something to be said for how it helps rappers specifically age more gracefully in rap. Because I feel like oftentimes you come into this business 17, 18 years old, and you have a particular sort of creative ethos that you're coming at it from.
Starting point is 00:29:41 and you have your experiences in the industry, you have your experiences in life, and you come out of that at a different person. By the time you're 30, you're probably not very much like you were when you were 17, 18, and that might have been when people were promoting you the hardest. So it makes sense that you might want to step away from that and come with a different perspective, a different direction.
Starting point is 00:30:08 And so I think that when you look at long careers in hip hop, oftentimes you can point to, oh, there was a reinvention there. There was a reinvention there. And that helped them adapt to the different errors. Yeah, that's a really good point. I think Doom exemplifies that. Like, it was funny.
Starting point is 00:30:28 Like, I meet people sometimes that only know the hits of the Beastie Boys. And, you know, like, and that speaks exactly to your point. Who they were in the eyes of Def Jam as 18. 17, 18 year olds is vastly different who they were at 21, you know. And then how do you manage that image? How do you reconcile that catalog and talk about it and maybe disappoint people when you're not that? One thing that I've learned in the process of this Thundercat journey with this conversation, which I truly love.
Starting point is 00:31:00 And I love the fact, and I'll call him Stephen because that's how he introduced himself to me too. I love it when an artist, it just enters the conversation to talk about anything. I mean, very true of your Quest Love Show conversation last year. I'm just like, hey, I'm going to meet the combo where it's at. They talked a little bit about distracted and, you know, a dedication to Mac Miller. But it was also just, I'm going to be human. And one of the things he spent a lot of time talking about was mentorship. And he spoke about a figure that I'm always curious about Reggie Andrews.
Starting point is 00:31:34 And I learned about, you know, it's funny, like I own some DAS band records that I've listened to. And I didn't know that name. But years ago, I was watching the Farside early in their career in an old interview where they were talking about how this very musical person came into their life and really kind of honed them and cultivated them. And it was Reggie. And they were laughing because it was 10 years past the Daz band. And they were making fun of his hairstyle and, you know, this passe thing. But to really hear Stephen, to hear Thundercat drive home how this one edge. educator changed generations of musicians at Lock High and other places in California.
Starting point is 00:32:12 I thought it was just super illuminating. Yeah. You know, and what it illuminated to me specifically, I've been in this town, like I said, 20 years. I didn't meet Thundercat till, like I moved here in 2004. I don't think I met Thundercat to like 2015, 16, something like that. what it made me really understand was, yeah, we've all been here and we're all part of this grand creative community. But the relationships that they have over on that jazz side are cultivated by those years they spent in the trenches running around the city, playing stuff out of the fake book and being mentored in this case by that one person. And to me, it illuminates the sort of distance between the different creative communities here.
Starting point is 00:33:03 like I was in I was on the rap side so you know we were doing stuff over Project Blode and which were the descendants of the people from the Good Life Cafe and so we were very rap heavy to the point where even the producers involved in our circle split off and started doing the low-end theory thing and then that became a whole other thing and it's funny I ended up you know connecting with Thundercat through largely through Flying Lotus and the beat scene which developed over there. So to me, it was just an interesting peek into a history that was happening while I was here. But it was like over there in a community that I wasn't involved in.
Starting point is 00:33:45 I thought that was really fascinating. Yeah, I think that happens a lot. Like, you know, similar to you, I moved to Philly in O2. And it's funny, like, I just went to the Roots picnic and spent most of it. We taped content, you know, taped interviews Saturday and Sunday. So I wasn't out there mixing up. But there are so many people in Philly. that folks will always
Starting point is 00:34:04 oh you must know so and so and I don't you know I've heard of them I've heard of them but you know I spent my trenches were not in studio you know they were they were covering they were listening they were working they were one to one they weren't necessarily communal and it was always
Starting point is 00:34:21 fascinating to learn that there are so many times you were in a room with somebody that you don't even realize and then years later you form a bond and you realize you know and Thundercats that I really dug his energy I um also just appreciate, I'm a big fan of just self-deprecation. And I love the way. I found it inspiring the way he leaned into, you know,
Starting point is 00:34:41 handling kind of being bullied or being teased or being ostracized in school. And also yet coming from an environment that I feel like, you know, the environment that he described of Compton and other parts of Los Angeles was very much the John Singleton, you know, Hughes brothers, like literally he said his house was shot at. And I thought that that's wild because he doesn't lead with that in his public facing persona, you know. I mean, you know, that's that, I want to say, is that unfortunate? Something like that. But it's part for the course.
Starting point is 00:35:13 Like I know, I know that story all too well. And so one of the things I was connected with that he was talking about was how people he was around, like in school, didn't understand or had no awareness of the music he was listening to. Because to me, that goes right along with that. It's like you're all in school with these people. You might have grown up with these people. Some of these people are in the streets doing street stuff. And then some of us are in the house learning how to play an instrument. Or I was, you know, somewhere learning how to break dance and doing graffiti.
Starting point is 00:35:46 And so my experience and interest would take me away from what my homies were doing. And my homies would be in the streets creating the stereotype that people understand my neighborhood by, you know. but I'm having this whole different experience. And it's like, yeah, throughout my life, I've just known so many people who like myself kind of have that experience where you know this environment. This environment is in you, but it's just not a part of you in such an overt way
Starting point is 00:36:14 like it can be with other people. Yeah. And I'm just curious to you, like what do you think? I don't, the term weird, especially in this political climate, it's such a loaded adjective all of a sudden. But you and I are just meaning like alternative, different, out there music, but what do you think, you know, raising yourself on that diet, what do you think
Starting point is 00:36:34 it did for you in those formative years of being an adolescent, regardless of you as a creator? I mean, I think it was actually, it made my life feel tougher at the time that I didn't have the same sort of common touchstones that other people have. We would sit around and talk about music and, you know, they'd be talking about McAvelli and I'd be listening to MF Doom's first 12 inches. You know what I'm saying? Like it felt, it used to often feel like socially me and my friend group was on another planet compared to everybody else. Because we weren't, you know, in my high school, it was do you like Biggie or do you like Pock? Right.
Starting point is 00:37:11 And we were like, we don't care about either of these people because we're over here spinning on our heads and listening to Diamond D. And you know what I'm saying? Like so it didn't feel good at the time socially to have. have a different set of interests. You know, we like what we like, and that was cool. But when I think back on it now, it's like, oh, yeah, right. Like, that's, like, following our interest to that degree and finding these sources of other music, this made us who we were.
Starting point is 00:37:44 And oftentimes, I get tickled sometimes when I'll, you know, see something on Facebook, and it's somebody I knew from high school talking about how they just, you know, bought a Doom album or something, you know what I'm saying? saying and I'm like, that's cute. But you have a vivid memory of you coming in, you know, playing something or you couldn't talk about it then.
Starting point is 00:38:07 Yeah, or not feeling like I could. A lot of times when I think back on it too, those the distance between me and other people oftentimes was more stark in my mind than it was in real life. Sure. I just didn't feel a lot of license to to
Starting point is 00:38:23 discuss what it was I was into with people because I didn't feel like there was enough common ground. When I would go into a record store in 99, 2000, I was in my teens, and I asked, you know, hey, do you guys have the Blackalicious A to, you know, A to GEP? And they, oh, you like that. And you could have a conversation with somebody who spoke your language. It meant, like, the world got real small and it was fun. Right. It was so exciting. And I don't get that same joy in connecting with people that way. I mean, do you find that it's different these days with that?
Starting point is 00:39:01 I don't know. Maybe it's because of just the way we access music. I'm just like, oh, that's cool. You got a loaded iPod, or, but like, it just feels different. I don't know. Maybe I'm being cynical or jaded about it. Well, I think that part of what you're describing is the effort that it used to take to find stuff that wasn't on the radio.
Starting point is 00:39:17 Like, just that alone, the steps you had to take to find music. that wasn't just being served to you on television or on the radio, you know, the people who were willing and interested in taking those steps, they felt a kinship with each other. And now, not only do we all have every genre of everything at our fingertips, we also all live under a different algorithm that's giving us a different digital product line of music every day.
Starting point is 00:39:51 So now it's just so much more fractured. Yeah. And it takes so much less effort that I think it's hard to tell how much you and this person are alike now based on having a shared interest in a particular piece of music. That's real. Your point is valid to, like, the algorithms that be are forcing me right now to get really into Tom Mish. It might be working. It might not be. But like, I appreciated our discussion in L.A.
Starting point is 00:40:16 and it's in one of these many episodes where you kind of spoke to the effect of XTC's mummer. And you were like, that's what I'm listening to right now. And I still try to do that, whether it's a CD, it's an album. I'm streaming, like, play it, play it again, play it some more. And yesterday, Amir was talking about, you know, he's very much on a Steely Dan journey right now because he was like, I feel like we're always, all of us are always on a Steely Dan journey. But that is a habit that I'm trying to keep and integrate. And that way, the person I run into or meet that we get to talking and they are talking about
Starting point is 00:40:49 what's currently in my ears, then it means a little more. That's real. That's real. Yo, man, thank you. I encourage everyone. I mean, certainly if you got this far, you probably checked it out Thundercap, but it's a great episode.
Starting point is 00:41:00 It really is. It's a great talk. Yeah, absolutely. And more many episodes coming. The Roots have a lot of dates this summer. I tried to get a mirror in on one yesterday. Our guest showed up early. And sometimes that throws things off.
Starting point is 00:41:13 But he will be back in the mix soon come. But in the meantime, I'm having fun rapping when you might. Awesome. Always a pleasure. Question of show is a beautiful. production of IHeart Radio. Joy is essential, and it's also elusive, but now there's a new and exciting way to start your journey toward a more joyful existence, Joy 101.
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