The Questlove Show - QLS Classic: Maya Rudolph

Episode Date: June 2, 2025

Actress, musician and comedian Maya Rudolph shares some revealing stories about her famous parents, her musical ambitions, her time on SNL and much more. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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From 1979, that was a big moment for me. 84's big to me. I'm Sam J. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick a year, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. With our friends, fellow comedians, and favorite authors.

Like Mark Lamont Hill on the 80s. 84 was a wild year. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. In 2023, Bachelor star Clayton Eckerd was accused of fathering twins. But the pregnancy appeared to be a hoax. You doctored this particular test twice, Ms. Owens, correct? I doctored the test ones. It took an army of internet detectives to uncover a disturbing pattern.

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Of course, Love Supreme is a production of IHeart Radio. This classic episode was produced by the team at Pandora. gentlemen, you're in for a treat. This is QLS classic. The very first ever Questlove Supreme episode with Maya Rudolph. So awkward. Actually, small tidbit, this is technically our second episode. We had a pilot episode that never made it to air back when Unpaid Bill was a guest on the show because he was a producer of an unknown play called Hamilton and Sesame Street. He was our first guest, but I don't know, the vibe was so good. We actually kept unpaid bill got rid of his episode so yes my rudolph is our first episode and uh it's really crazy

and awkward we learn a lot a hell of a lot hope you enjoy my rudolph uLS classic here we go two one does suprema suza supremer role call suprema sub sub sub prima roll call supremer so sub subprima role call Ro call. Suprema, Supraima, Roll call. My name is Questlove. Yeah.

My name's not Rob. Yeah. And with this radio show? Yeah. It's 19 John. Roll call. Suprema, Subrema, sub, subprima.

Roll call. Supremma, sub, sub, Supremma, roll call. My name is Fonte. Yeah. I drink Brass Monkey. Yeah.

Once never I play. Yeah. Got's to be fucking. Roll call. Suprema. Suba, Suprema roll call Suprema

Subrima Roll Call My name is Sugar Yeah Sugar Steve Yeah I can't eat candy Yeah So I eat weed

No call Supremma Supremma Rold call Supraima Supraima Suprima Supremea Roll call

My name is Bill Yeah I got first dibs Yeah I'm fucking tired Yeah Because I got kids Ro call

Supremia Subima Role call Suprema Subra Role call I am boss Bill Yeah

I listen to Prince Yeah Got so many Holes Yeah Don't make no sense Roll call Supra

Supra Ro call Supraima Submma Role call My name is Maya Yeah I am not mean

Yeah I am not a nightmare Yeah. I am a queen. Roe call! Suprema! Supremah! Subrema,

Roe-Call. Suprema, Suprema, Suprema, So, Suprema, Suprema, Ro-Call

Suprema, So, Suprema Ro call Supremea, Subima, Sub-S-S-Sepriam Ro call Supriva

S-S-S-S-S-S-Spreama-R-Crema Call Suprema-S-S-S-S-S-S-Pra-S-P-S-Preme-R-R-R-RRRRRRRRRRR Roe Call. Suprema, Subrama, Roe Call Ladies and gentlemen,

boys and girls, people of all ages, creeds, colors, whatever you claim in life. This is Questlove Supreme, as if I need it, another thing to do in life.

So on today's show, we're joined by the incomparable Maya Rudolph. You probably know her from her time on Saturday Night Live. She was in the movie's bridesmaids. She has her own NBC variety show called The My and Marty Show. A lot of the other projects she's been involved with.

And of course, she's the offspring of a mighty musical pairing of Minnie Ripperton and Dick Rudolph. And she's connected to a lot more people in the music community. So we'll be getting into that. So I don't know. What should we talk about? Do we talk about music? Did we talk about life? Let's talk about life.

I'm talking about music a bit. Because they're expecting to talk about music. You know what I'm saying? Like, let's talk about life. So how's life? How's life going to go in North Carolina? Where I reside is going cool. You know, I'm about to take a new step forward in my life.

I'm about to start. And get married? No. Oh. No, I ain't getting married. Oh, sorry. Yeah, but the look on your face is like, don't you see. No, no, no, no.

I ain't doing that. I mean, I got a lady in like, we're, We talk about getting married, but I ain't, you know, I ain't doing the shit tomorrow, you know what I mean? Okay, good. But I'll let y'all know when I do it. We might do a Quest Love Supreme on site at Ticklowe's Whip. You know what I'm saying? I bring y'all out here.

Please. We'll be. Please, can I just go to that? We'll broadcast from there. Yeah, broadcast from the wedding. That'll be live as hell. So, no, I ain't getting married. Just thinking about my health, man.

Like, I'm sitting a lot of my homies, man. Like, they are dying from, like, you know, old man. diseases like they young cats that's dying from shit like gout and it's like nigga how the fuck you get the gout at 35 you know what the gout are you familiar with the gout uh this is the gout yeah the gout yeah i'm good wait why are you looking up the gout one urban dictionary right now scy no i don't have to look that up i got that too yeah it's like it's something that's in your foot wait you have gout steve i don't know probably i didn't got the gout you ain't got got you Too skinny.

You can fit in your shoes. You ain't got gout. The gout hits you in your feet. Oh, you are like size, what, 15? Size 13, yeah. 13. Oh, wow. He got the gout.

Let's just fucking say what it is. Go ahead. Yeah. So, now, I've been taking, so I'm about to start a new, like, health regimen, man. What's that consistent? When are you going to start, September? Well, I was going to start earlier, but I got called to do this fucking radio show. I got a fried chicken and shit.

You know what you? Who turning that down? Nah, man, I'm good. So, but now I'm going to start doing, like, more juicing, doing, like, smoothies, more raw vegetables. You know what I'm saying? I got, like, one of my IG holes on scammer. The scammer holes are selling waste trainers.

I'm going to get one of them probably, and she's selling detox tea and shit. You know what I mean? I might give me some of that. You know. And then just made, verifying, H-O-E-S, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. I thought that was an abbreviation, and then I realized that, oh, one of you.

Your joins. Oh, IGJJ. Oh, I get it. I get it. Instagram, yeah. You, yeah, I see now. No, man, I'm just making some changes, man. I want to stick around.

I've always, like, been healthy. I've never had no health issues and anything like that. So I want to keep it that way. Well, it's important because, you know, back when we were 20, our main concern was bullets in the club. Right. And in the parking line. And now, like, that we're in our 40s, the new concern is. Bullets in the driver's seat?

Right. Man, listen. Oh, come on. Nah, for real. That's no matter. That too. And strokes. So, you know, that's...

No, strokes, yeah. I lost a buddy dead out to a stroke. He was... I'm 37. He was 38. He was ahead of me. He had multiple myeloma, beat multiple myeloma,

and died of an angriism. Okay. On that note, I will be bringing... Yeah, I was going to say, next week, we're only doing salads. Like wheatgrass, man. shit. How's it going, Steve?

I mean, it's like, he's talking, I mean, we're talking about strokes. I'm just depressing a shit. Right, we're really starting us off on a very unhappy note. Oh, I'm sorry. But we're laughing. Yeah, we're laughing. He got laugh.

I'm like, look, I'm happy just to be, you know, alive. We're alive right now at this very moment. What a time to be alive in the words of our great Negro poet future. Wait, what about the other one? Oh, and Drake as well. Your inspiration. Yeah, yeah, Drake.

Yeah. as well. Not many people know. All right, for our listeners out there, if, I mean, if, if,

if, if, if, if, if, investigate it, uh, you will see that

Fonticolo is kind of Drake spirit animal. I mean, he's going on record to say that, uh, Fonte is one of his favorite cats ever.

And that he kind of secretly wishes that he was in little brother. So, I mean, you guys can do your research. No, no he don't.

He'd say that too. He'll say that too. He looks at his publishing check. And he'd be like, nah I want to be a little brother you know

you guys are you guys are an inspiration believe it or not oh no no yeah I'm aware and the guys they tell us they tell us

you know it's all good it's all good I know I know you feel like oh our influence wasn't there but I swear to you I've only listened I mean I get a lot of

yo Pete Pete my peep my join real quick and let me know you know what you think of it whatever whatever but you know

I mean just on general I don't do that because I don't want to be there for the law. I don't want to be susceptible to like a lawsuit. Right. Here, my song, I mean, that's big. But, you know, I'll say maybe four or five times I've had a situation where it was like, okay, there's something special about this. Let me peep this.

Blau was one of them. Slum Village was one of them. Jill Scott was one of them. Little brother was one of them. Wow. That's big. Cody Chestnut. Those five are.

It was like, okay, I'm not going to use this as a drink coaster. I'm going to actually, some told me to listen to this. You're welcome. It was on. You're welcome. Right, right, right. Wait, was it you? Yeah, he gave it to you.

Yeah, he gave it to you a CD. No, in the rain. Yeah, in the rain at Duke. But I think, well, you, it was a coaster. I remember a little brother. Because, no, no, no, I felt bad. All right, it started raining. It was at Duke.

This is at Duke. This is like 2001. Our phonology came out, so it was like 2002. 2002 then. 2002. We did our annual, like we were doing Duke on the regular. There was like the fifth year in a row we did Duke. And it started raining.

And one of our members of the group who will remain nameless kind of, you know, through a fit about getting electrocuted. and I'm walking off stage. And so I felt like we should stop because, you know, maybe we won't get electrocuted. But I'm the type of person that I actually want to play on. But I felt bad. So I figured let me just go in the audience

and shake some hands. Something I never do. Like, I'm not saying like I'm the avoid my crowd as, you know, like the play. No, you been playing for two hours. Like, y'all did my job. Y'all get to hell on. So I went to shake hands and then you said,

yo. And yes, you told me about little brother. Yes. I didn't keep the link. Yeah, me and his person, he cussed him to hell out. Why? I was so wrong. Well, it's just one of those things where you just don't know the future.

So you kind of, you know, so at the time. Y'all were going to give up? No, no, no, no, no, no. No, no, no, no, no, we weren't going to give up. We were just doing records and, you know, putting stuff on the Internet was still kind of new at that time. So he, quote-unquote, bootlegged our shit and by putting us up on the net by leaking it early. And so I sent him a highly emotional inbox. The emotions was high.

I was, motherfucker. I'm going to see you, niggins. I'm going to take a plane in Atlanta. Oh, wow. It was real. It was highly contested. It was just the heat was coming off my keyboard. Side note, I once had a message on my machine.

Yo, who brainchild? Ah, shit. Next. Wait, is that Q-Tip? Yeah One of these days We gotta talk about the time He called me at work

Wait He rang you up Yeah What did you say To make him want to ring you up We'll talk about this on another episode Oh fun We bring a tip here

Oh my God I don't tell him who you are It's all peace now Because actually we made peace At Brooklyn Bowl Like one night He was there He was there

He remembered Yeah He remembered Who is Wow Like you are his Shrug FWMMJ almost

I don't know Yeah Yo, no, OK player is gladiator school, man. Like, all the cats you see popping now, I'm telling you, it all started with OK player. Like, all the hot podcasters, the, like, the movie, it all started OK player. If you could survive the lesson or general discussion,

you can make it anywhere. Well, yeah, this is the result. This is the result. Yeah, this is a result. So, yeah, so our first encounter was me cussing him to fuck out because he gave my shit out. So, yeah, but I didn't know at the time that that was how music.

was going to be like you just give the shit out and you know I mean you're a pioneer because I mean with fruity loops and you starting foreign exchange you know another okay player yeah you didn't even meet Nicolay like when you yeah started now we met in the lesson me know me and Nick met in the lesson he posted a beat and was like yo this is a new beat by me what y'all think I was like yo this is dope what you mind if I do something to it he was like cool so we just started trading files back and forth. And so we would, and this is before, this is even before, like, Gmail, so you couldn't send big files. So we would be sending shit through Instant Messenger. And, uh, he was in the Netherlands. I was in Durham at the time. And we did the whole record just through email and sending

files. So you all were just a group without even having met each other. Yeah, we hadn't met. We didn't meet until the record was done and BBE had put it out. And they brought us together, like, to do some promo shit. And that was when we first met face to face. Pioneer, y'all. Pioneer. Let's hear if we're getting cussed out. for Bill and for making commitments on the internet. That's a real story. So you're the original going down in the DM. It was, man, it went all the way to fuck down in DMs.

DM got me a record deal, DM got me a radio show. Wow. I'm on my way. That's amazing. So to all the people listening, your dream could be in your DMs. That girl that you scared of the hollet, send her a picture, but not a dick pick because that's disturbing. But just, you know, say hey to her, send her something nice. You know what I'm saying?

Yeah, you know what I mean? And just, hey, that's amazing. Shoot your shot. Shoot a shoot. Not literally. Bill Sherman. How are the Muppets doing? Nice segue.

Fucking fantastic. So how's life on Sesame Street, Bill? Life on Sesame Street is great, man. Really? Big Word, Elmo. Everybody's alive. Give ready for season two? Yeah, season two, season 48.

Yeah, that. Well, I mean, now that do you have a new home, like, do you consider it? Oh, no, no. It's just on a different channel. Seven, seven. 47? Yeah. That's amazing, man.

I've been there since season 40. So, yeah. Wow. Wow. Wow. That's incredible. Congrats on all your Hamilton success. You too, man.

Congrats to you, yeah, but I just feel like I just told you guys to turn up and EQ certain things and pan stuff. I believe you said that. Then we high fives and that was all of my job, so it's all good. Well, yeah. I mean, but you were really like barking orders and, you know. I was.

I like that. I didn't like that vocal takes, sir. and that sort of, like you were, I was studying, you know, I was observing closely. Here we are. Yeah, here we are. So what are your future plans after, you know, I mean, I don't think Hamilton Mania will ever die down. You don't? It might.

Well, you know a movie's going to have to come eventually. Yeah. That's how you're going to get your Oscar. Yeah. If it's good, you'll get your Oscar that way. Yeah, if I work on it. I don't know. Yeah.

Everyone, the thing about the Oscars, everyone's convinced that it's just like this inevitability. in my life. Like, they just throw that shit out the window and I'm just catching it. I mean, you're motivating me. Like, we're doing a movie. We're going to do the Hamilton documentary. There you go. That's a start.

Wow. You're motivate me, man. I got to get, I got to get a ghetto. So where are you? You're Oscar. No, you're not Oscar. You're a Grammy and. I mean, I'm close call.

You have an Emmy. You Emmy, right? Yeah. Um, no, it's, it's like, I hear that I have a daytime Emmy for this project I did six years ago, but I haven't collected it. Matter of fact, I'm the only Hamiltonite that hasn't got my Grammy yet. For real? Yeah, if anyone knows where my Black Messiah Grammy is and my Hamilton Grammy, I'd be very appreciative. Like right now, there are two Grammys out there with my name on it that is just... For those listening, if you go to Questlove's house and you have to go to

the bathroom, you will find all the other Grammys. Yeah, my Grammys are, I keep them in the bathroom. I keep it on display in the hallway out there. It's fantastic. And it's a paperweight in here in this room. I want to be like Quest Low when I grow up. I can use Grammys his goddamn paperweight. Dude, everyone does that. John Legend broke four of his

Grammys. Kanye the 19-Gra. Jay, like, no one displays the Grammys. Like, even Michael Jackson's American Music Awards and Grammys are still in that Michael Jackson Suite at Disney World. Wow. Ladies and gentlemen, please give it up for Miss Maya Rudolph.

Maya, thank you. Thank you for joining us. It's a pleasure. Thank you. I see. You know everyone here. You've worked with Fonte, actually. Yeah, we both got fired from the same show.

Wait, you guys got fired or... I don't say we didn't get fired. We were never aired. It was Brothers in Atlanta. We shot in Atlanta. Written by... Written by Bashir and Diallo Riddell. Yeah, formerly of the Tonight Show.

And yeah, ma'am, she played a character, and she absolutely killed it. She played a character named Shirley, who was a 90s R&B singer. But she was like the washed-up 90s Army. She was like, if Mary Jay never had a hit after my life, like she was at. Like Adina Howard. Actually, wait, I take that back because Adina Howard was recently, as of this recording, still trending on Twitter. And she came back with T-shirt in my panties on. So maybe she was more like a...

She was like Gina Thompson. Like, she was like... Okay, there you go. There you go. Yeah, I mean. But, uh, and so I had to write songs for her. You wrote fantastic songs for her. Thank you so much.

And she sang... So you were her songwriter? Yeah, I was the... You were puffy? I was the puff. I was the puff. Were you clean or, like, what was your character? What was your character?

My character was, well, I was... Well, outside the show, like, in the real world, I wrote the songs for it. And, like, me and my man's... Sunday Cruz. Is that my big hit? Sunday Cruz. You had two big hits. Her big hits was Sunday Cruz, which was like the knockoff Saturday love.

And then Syke, which was like her big 90s bankhead bounce hit in Atlanta. Right. And so then, like, that was pretty much what it was. And so that was in like the real world. But then in the show, I played Andre and I was one of her background dancers that tour with her. And I had to, we had to learn choreo. We had to learn, like, to dance. Yeah.

I mean, I can dance, but it was, you know, we still had to learn some shit. Yeah. So that was my first time working with her. And I knew her work, but I had never met her before. And what we met? Did I live up to your expectations? She exceeded my expectations. Total sweetheart, had a lot of fun on set.

We met Keith Sweat. I don't know if that was your first time. He sure did. We met Keith Sweat. I got financial too. I met him yesterday. Oh, what? I was fixing my prescription, my glasses, and he came in.

And he has that, like, the way that he dances like an arts, I know we're on radio, so I can't. Exactly described Yeah, he even walks like he's doing the wop Like a half-wop He said, hey man, I ain't doing Like he's doing Like he's like he said

Yeah, man Saw Keith sweat yesterday Yeah So that was there That was Atlanta That was the last summer we did that And yeah man She just total see hard

So the company didn't love a show That's associated with It was the pilot It was the pilot We shot the pilot See but doesn't every pilot Kind of sort of suck With the exception of the soprano

Like what What pilot It didn't suck. No, the pilot was hilarious. That was even more surprising to me. Like, you know. Wow. But I don't know why.

I think it's like with HBO. It doesn't always have to do with whether it's good or not. Honestly, I think it's whatever's on their slate or who knows. It could be a million reasons. I try not to pay attention. If I did, I'd be too depressed to ever work again. I feel you on that shit. So you're saying you get your heart broken often?

All the time. Really? I think you're working at all. I'd figure like right now you're just, well, I guess perception. depending on who's watching it. Well, I have changed my attitude about it so that I don't get my heart broken. So you've got an occasional no, and we're going to give this role to someone else? Oh, yeah, I think that happens all the time.

It's part of the, you know, it's part of the dystopian world of being a performer, I think. So even now as a well-established figure. Well, I mean, look, there's always something. I don't think about it. Like, I remember the very first time I got cut. I got cut out of the first Anchorman, and I was devastated. What? It was so fun, and I basically played, like, an Angela Davis bank robber.

Hilarious. Yeah, you and Chuck D. And Chuck D. We were bank robber. Wait, how did you see it? It got released as a bonus footage. Yeah, I had to put it out as, like, its own movie because it was, like, 50 minutes of footage. Oh, that was like the one day.

Wake up Ronberg. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's hilarious. And that was the first time, like, I was ever in something that I could not wait to be, like, to show off about and be proud of being a part of and all these guys that were my heroes and my, I was new on SNL, new-ish, but it was a big deal. So you just have to take Will and Adam's word that, or you trusted, not trusted, sometimes that happens with the directors like, you know. And then I remember at the time, I was heartbroken and I talked to Paul. about it who's all, you know, was already, like,

hardened and gristled by the... Wait a minute. Wait, we're trying to, we're trying to maintain... What is happening in this? Like, Thanks way. Listen, I don't even want to edit this because I want you to know that it, you know...

I know... I left off hardened and grissel. You left me at hardened and grisled. We're trying to maintain, like, a professional decorum here, but, like, as Maya speaks, like, All this construction is corned right. Yeah, we're trying to make room for the chicken.

I ordered, I've had complaints. I've had complaints that I've not fed my family here at Questlove Supreme. So now I go way out and I've ordered the motherload of Korean fried chicken that we cannot eat on microwave. Are you talking about fuku? Yes. Well, you know what? It's kind of weird because first it was mad for chicken. Then it was mama fuku.

and now it's turntable chicken. Like it's the same, it's a speakeasy. Have you heard of this spot? Yeah, I've heard of, yeah. Yeah, it's a speakeasy spot where it's a Korean restaurant, but you go in, it's like, it's hidden on top of a pizza spot. And then what's really weird about it is that the music they play in there is a very specific type of soul music.

Oh, wow. It's like right up your alley. It's like Marvin Seas. Oh, they play a liquor house shit. Yes. Barbies East, Roy C. Richard Dimmel Fields. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's a very specific, like, Frankie Beverly Mays is too... No, that's too popular. It's too, yeah, that's too... Like, downhome blues. Yeah, yeah, Bobby Blue Blaine. Yeah, Zee Hill. Yeah, Zee Hill.

I learned a new genre. Licker store music. Coco Taylor. The house. The house. The house. The house is a house. It's a house.

It's a house. It's a house. Yeah, at first, when I went there, When I went there, I didn't know how to feel, because first of all, it was like, you go there and, you know, like, in the movie, when you go in the alleyway and the little slide door things, you only see the eyes, like, what's the password? Like, back then, you had to have a password. And this place is open until 7 in the morning, and this is the spot you go to after you party all night in New York. From 4 a.m. to about 8 a.m., it's on. Like, it's overcrowded.

So even my Quest Loveness couldn't just get me in. I had to know the password. What was the password? I forget. I mean, this is like, back when it was mad for chicken, it was like five years ago. What's the password? Yeah, what's the password?

Right. Purple Rain reference, number one. So the point was that when I walked in, first of all, to be told that their brand of fried chicken was better, the way the person described it was like better than your moms or your grandmamas. Oh, wow. So I already felt some sort of way. And then to see the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the,

cosmetic view of what I was watching. I was the only black person in there. But they were playing Richard Dimples Fields. And explain like that to the people, to the listeners. We have to be specific. There's a specific type of soul music that, like, you only hear South of the Mason-Dixon line. It is like Malico Records has it. It's like the Malico Records' greatest hits, like the box set.

So you growing up in North Carolina, like you've heard Marvin Cs all the time? Oh, my God. man, Marvin Sees was a legend. Marvin Sees' son follows me on Instagram. Like, success. Life goals, nigga. So,

you and Marvin Seas' son, we kick it. So Marvin Seas, for the listeners, let's kind of just give him. Okay, there's a song called Candy Liquor, okay? And this was a song that, okay, the genre of liquor house music,

it generally falls under what we formerly called, I guess, Southern Soul and Blues. So you have these guys, that are like, you know, Marvin C's, you know, Ridge of Demasfield, Roy C, Zee, Zee Hill, like Brainset. You know, these are just guys that were kind of like the underground rappers. They were like the two shorts and the precursors, okay. Of that.

So they were like kind of like the underground rappers of the soul scene. You didn't really learn stuff on the radio like that. But when you went to the little clubs, the little like speakeasies, the, you know, there's a little holding of all joints, that's where you hear their records. And so Marvin Sees in particular had a record that was big called Candy Liquor. And Candy Liquor was about... Oh, it's not liquor like you drink. Oh, you ain't up on this one? It's not.

We got to play it right now, man. I think we should. Can we? Okay. Hey, Steve, have you ever heard this? This was actually, me and my mom danced this at my barman's book. That's what X-Gay. Makes sense.

Yeah. Wait, wait, what was that? It sounds like blowfly. Very blowfly. Very, yeah. Why is he heavy breathing? Why not? I think he might be doing that for real in the studio.

I don't feel like that wheezing is sexy. It's okay. Yeah, he had his inhaler next door. Does that matter? Well, that's clear. And this song is like 10 minutes long. Wait, that heavy breathing is really part of the song? Yeah.

It's nine minutes and 59 seconds. Yeah, it's 10 minutes. So what happens in the... Why can't it just be 10? Because he wanted to remind me that his pull-out game was strong. I can make it out of time. Oh, my God. This is the type of soul music they would play.

And I didn't know how to feel being the only... black man in a Korean establishment and they were serving fried chicken only and playing this music sounds like a lot

but I ordered a lot and was there every other night okay every night I'm sorry so this is the this is the place this is the speakeasy yes now known as turntable chicken but formerly man for chicken

they're going to have to pay us for these plugs man well no I'm just saying we're tying in all my lives Like, you know, the foodie, now I'm bringing in the foodie world and the music world. See? See? That's how we do it. Anyway, Maya. Yes, sir.

I kind of want to start in chronological order. Of course, we know the powerful lineage that you come from. Being as though your father is Richard Rudolph or Dick Rudolph. Like, professionally, was he Richard Rudolph or? My whole childhood, he was Dick Rudolph. But I think every record said Richard. But everyone was like, your dad is Dick Rudolph. Okay. I didn't know like he became richer, like once he became like 60.

No, when he was like 50, he started telling everybody his name's Ricardo. We don't know why. That was midlife crisis kicking in? I think so. He was raised in Miami, so he thinks he's part Cuban, but he's Jewish. Okay. So where were you born? Gainesville, Florida, because my parents were, my parents were in Chicago. My mom was sick of Chicago, and my parents met in Chicago because my dad was managing, what was it called? The electric playground, I think, was a, it was a club. Okay. It was one of those clubs that was like, I forgot what my dad called it, but they were on those circuits. Like, if you go to different boutiques, they have, you know,

they sell the tickets for these, like, bands that would go in, like, packs of two and three. Like, Led Zeppelin would go play this place in Chicago and this place in San Francisco and this other place. My dad was managing the one in Chicago. Kind of like the House of Blues of the 60s? Yeah. Or now the film were the 60s. Yeah, like smash. You know, the, it was very 60s.

Like, what are those things called? The, like, the trippy, like, smash color thing where people like. Lava lamp kind of. Yeah, you know, they like, the visual stuff of, like, groovy liquids and shit in different colors. Oh, kaleidos. I know you're talking about. Yeah. And I think it was very corrupt.

Like, the bodyguards were, like, black belts at, like, some karate places. It was something about it. very corrupt and bad. And I know that he said he, like, went to deposit the money one night. And, like, when he drove back, it was burning down. He thought it was, like, an inside job or something. Wow. But he met my mom there when she was in the rotary connection.

And he said, and I quote him, they met on the steps. And she was at the top of the steps and he was at the bottom. And then he got, like, he got way too into it. And I was like, I don't care about that story. You're still my parents. I knew then. Yeah. But they, like, saw.

each other. So they were living in Chicago. They had my brother there, who's four years older than me, and it was still Chicago then. Like, this is late 60s. My dad had, like, a long ponytail and, like, had to tuck it in his jacket to hide from the landlady, and they had to, like, hide my mom and my brother because they were black. And so they just got tired of it, I think. And then they were, like, looking for places to go because my mom had just had it with Chicago. But you were born in the 70s though, right? 72. So even then, the block was hot.

Yes. So it's always been Chicago has always been Chicago. Yeah. Like, it's never not been Chicago. I see. I don't know where they lived exactly. I know my mom grew up in the South Side, but I don't know where my parents lived at the time with my brother.

And then they had friends that lived in this little... Gainesville was a college town, so it was like quiet in a bunch of babies. We only lived there for about a year. I also hear that it's the music capital of Florida. Well, yeah. Tom Petty is from there. And who else? My first show there was half the roots.

Only half of us made it. And because we needed the money, we still did it. Like, I drummed, Razzel did all the music with his mouth. And Tariq rhymed for an hour and a half. And they're like, dude, this is the music capital, Florida. And we've never seen anything. You know, so that's where I learned the history of Gainesville. Was that the lesbian sex?

act show? No, no, no. That was... Say that again? Yeah. Sorry, what? Everyone gets... No, there's a famous lesbian sex act show that we did under an alice at New

Yoreican Cafe in New York. It was common to wreak myself and James Poiser. We just needed a name to make up because we couldn't be the roots playing a free gig at the New Yorking Cafe, so we made up lesbian sex act. And that got butts and seats? Yes. We debuted some things fall apart songs then But this is before then

But yeah So you only did a year in Gainesville Just a year And then they drove out to L.A. Because Well there's an actual story That I should know Like all the names of

But a guy came from Capitol And fat like My mom thanked him And I remember I can't remember my guy's name But she was like Thank you to so and so For coming

Like Come in rescue me from the Gator So he She had been on chess You know Since she was a teenager She worked at chess records when she was in high school And she sang in the gems

Which was the girl group she did She also had a solo thing Under another name though Andrea Davis was My cousin's name is Andrea. That's why she was Andrew Davis But I don't know But Andrew Davis had her own solo single

Lonely girl is the one I know And then But she also did backup For stuff And the only thing I know about that she's not credited for But weirdly like when I was in college My dad was like We just got a royalty check for Rescue Me, the Fontella Bass song.

So my mom's singing on that. Like, she would basically, you know, be the receptionist. And then if they needed backup, she'd run upstairs and do backup and then still, like, man the desk. Oh, that's dope. Questlove's Supreme Trivia moment. Bill, when we first met, I'm sorry, boss bill, not unpaid bill. Boss Bill. When we first met

I think you copped a copy of Thrust by Herbie Hancock Yeah How do you remember that? Who's the lady on taxi? On taxi My name has the stupid Yeah Mary-Henner. I kind of have a Mary Lou Hennar musical memory.

I mean, I could tell you like You know the amount of times that people misspelled the word on soul train scramble board But I can't remember to show up on time to like my own radio show So it's like, you know, it's an yin for yang thing. You're telling on yourself. No, I'm very imperfect. You were here when I got here? Well, you know, because they trick, they, they, they diAngeloid me.

However. The de angeload me. Yeah, but my point was that that day I copped three, Andrea Day 45s. Yeah. In Chicago. The first day I met Bill. Wow. So we're connected.

We're connected already. We're connected. So, you know. You guys went to L.A. That's just weird because now if I want to find somebody, I could stalk them on the Internet or social media. Yeah, I don't know how he found her then. And then the other part of the...

So we moved to Laurel Canyon. And then my mom's... Like, she was set on Stevie Wonder. She wanted to find Stevie Wonder. Wait, we... There's one crucial thing. We never said your mom's name yet. Maybe people...

Yeah, we might want to do that. Who is your mother? Okay, so her mother, of course, for those listening to Questlove Supreme, only on Pandora, Bing! Is Minnie Ripperton considered to be one of the finest vocalist of all time? What was her octave range? I've heard five. You know, she died in the 70s, so.

We have no way of proving any of it. There's no. There's a lot of folklore behind it for sure, but I've heard five, which is a lot more than I've got. Let's just say seven. Let's say eight. I don't give it. Perceptions reality. I mean, people will say it and then people will believe it.

True. We can set it. We can set the record now. Seven octave range. Great. Many. I've actually read seven octaves before. Have you really?

I've read that. I've read that. I'll be honest. I don't, you know, I hear so many things. I can't. You probably know. more than I do. I know she can go high, but what was her low

register like? Because in order to really be five octave range, that I don't know. Like your base game has to be on point. Well, I'm low. I'm nothing but low. And nobody really has her voice in our family except her speaking voice. My auntie Sandra's got her speaking voice. Her

older sister, she was really close to who is still one of her only siblings that's still around. And she sounds a lot like my mom when I talked to her on the phone. But she doesn't sing. I mean, I think when she does, she probably has some of that in there,

but I don't know anybody else in the family who has it. My mom's brother was a horn player, but I don't... How many siblings? She was the youngest of eight. Wow. Whoa. South side of Chicago, youngest of eight. Wow.

So she needed to leave. Oh, we was waiting for an inappropriate comment from Fontaine. No, man. No, that was, nah, well, it wasn't. But no, that's the time. I mean, that makes sense, because that was back in the day, like, well, no, this is true. My grandfather was a Pullman Porter. And, you know, they always said that.

Pullman Porter's always had, like, you know, he worked for the railroad. So I always say he might have had more kids because Pullman porters go from one place to another, yeah. Well, I know that back then, I mean, at least with farmhouse mentality, the thing is that you have a lot of kids so that you can have hands to, yeah, to work on your farm. Or Jackson's, you know, however you want to put it. So what was your first cognizant memory of music? Yeah, just of the environment you grew up in. Like you don't remember that soul train episode in which you were crying during your mom's interview segment.

I don't remember it, but I remember that, all that era for me, I mean, we were on the road with my parents most of the time until I started school. So, I mean, when we were little, little, sometimes they'd go out on the road and they take us with them. But pretty much, especially when I was a baby. I think my mom went out on the road for a minute and then she called my dad. She was like, you have to come with me. I can't. I can't be without the baby and without you guys.

And so we were on the road a lot. And I remember being on the road with my parents. Like, I remember somebody lost a tooth in, like, some town with a casino. and we got like a chip or something. You know, like, I remember, like, sound check to me is like my childhood. You or someone else lost the tooth. I think it was me or my, I think it was me or my brother. I think you meant like a bar fight or something.

No, like the normal things that happened to a kid, but the tooth fairy brought me, like, a casino chip. Because we were in, like, Lake Tahoe or something. But, like, being on the road was very normal. And then, like, um, see my mom, yeah, like, being in studios, being backstage and, like, See my mom before the show, like before the audience was there, all that is like tied together as one kind of large memory. Really? Yeah. 2%.

That is the number of people who take the stairs when there is also an escalator available. I'm Michael Easter. And on my podcast, 2%, I break down the science of mental toughness, fitness, and building resilience in our strange modern world. I'll be speaking with writers, researchers, and other health and fitness experts, and more, to look past the impractical and way too complex pseudoscience that dominates the wellness industry. We really believe that seed oils were inherently inflammatory. We got it wrong.

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Yep, that's me, Clever Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast,

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I mean, at this point, Mark, this is the second episode where we've discussed crack. So I'm starting to see that there's a through line. We also have AIDS on the table right now. Thank you finishing that sentence. Yes. I don't think there's a more. important year for black people. Really? Yeah. For me, it's one of the most

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I wish every year was the year of the child. So do I. So do I The things you learn On Questlove Supreme I'm saying Even why you're all in Quest Love Supreme

Why I'm your father This just got real This is why we don't need to pay Unpaid bill It's not paid in Education So how old are you when you do How old are you

Well let's explain Wait for those Just tuning in Is Maya Rudolph So we just played too many colors on Tina Marie's second album, Lady Tee. And always knew of that song, never knew that that was you. Because you have to listen to the very end.

No, I know that song, but I never knew that was you. And what's like, there was just a string of 70 soul songs where like somebody went impart like this wisdom on a kid. Yes. Even on cool the gang's Wild and Peaceful, together at once. You know, cool. Exactly. Well, young Timmy.

Like, young Timmy. The thing was, now that I know that's you, I feel like you draw from her. Like I now see you channeling that 70s. soul energy in your acting when you do any singer that you do, the way that you talk, like I see you

channeling that. Really? Do you channel that moment? I'm not not consciously. I mean, my dad, I was around the studio a lot and my dad did that record because you know, we didn't have like babysitters and stuff then, so I would just like spend

a lot of time. I remember when he was writing behind the, he helped write behind the groove and he would sell the story like I would sit in the passenger seat and like He would, with a legal pad and he would say, like, write this down, and I would, like, write down the lyrics for him. Another me and another you. Zanadu, did you know that spells Zanadu with an ex? Of course.

Because of the movie. I don't know. I don't think I've ever, in the years I've known you, I've really never, like, thoroughly discussed your mom's exit from this particular plane. But I definitely know that that was the first time that I had to deal with, I guess, loss. Like, my parents used your mom's passing as a way to explain to me what death was. Really? Yeah, because, I mean, at that time. How were you?

79. I was eight years old. So even though my grandmom passed when I was five, like I you know they never told me or sat me down explained to be like okay this is what death is and da da da da da so I'm a bad it's

sense too because it's also like easier to like explain it about someone that's like you know like oh shit what are we going to tell them grandma died then we're like you're like oh making stuff up but then if it's like okay we're sad because this thing happened and we have to explain like I had to explain why the freedom tower was there yesterday my five year old son and explain why the buildings were gone.

And I just said it very like, you know, as simply and as matter of fact. That he could handle it? Yeah. And he was like, why did they do that? Well, yeah. But, yeah, maybe because it wasn't someone personal, but personal in a different way.

You know, your relationship to the music is personal. So that's that period in the summer of 79. I mean, was your father working on this album as that was happening or? My dad wasn't working on the record then. He met Tina later. She was a big fan of my mom's. I don't know how they connected.

Your mom passed in, what, July of 79? Yeah, July 12, 79. But she had recorded her last record and didn't finish it when she died so posthumously. Then my dad, then he went in the studio and had, that's when I got to meet the Jackson's. Because, like, people would come and, like, play stuff on each song. Yeah, Michael was on a, I'm in love again. I remember my dad. I remember one of the, I don't remember who, somebody, one of the Jackson helped me with my math homework.

I was like, Jackson helped me with my fourth grade math homework. And it wasn't Michael? No, Michael was too shy. Michael, they were in the studio and they were friendly. Michael was really shy. My dad gave him, like, I remember he gave him, like, a Pittsburgh Pirates hat because my dad had some Pittsburgh. Oh, originally.

I didn't know that. But I, but I, that's like, I can remember, like, people were coming and, you know, he was putting stuff on songs with different people. It's such a blurry time to me. It's, you know, now that I have a daughter who's about, she was, she's the age. My daughter Lucy is the age that I was when my mom died. right now. She's six and a half. She's almost seven. It's so fascinating as an adult to see that person. She's so into me. She's so into her mommy. But she's kind of a baby still, like in a lot of

ways. And so my memory, it's like, you know, because my mom was my mom, people asking about her a lot, but my memories are from a child's brain. So it's really warped. And I always talk about magical thinking. There's like a lot of my memory that's like a little bit make-believe. Right. Wow. Because that's how kids cope, you know. You know what I remember about that record, that last album? Stevie wanted his autograph was his thumbprint. I would, the first time I ever got in trouble playing with matches, like I get a big pin

and then light the ink so I could spill on the table so I could put my thumbprint and just thumbprint everything. Because, yeah. Because Stevie did it? Yeah, I was impressionable that way. Oh, that's so nerdy. And also knows that Michael had immaculate penmanship on his autograph on that album. Yeah, because his dad probably.

Hey! Go in. Go in. Fonte choice. No. Yeah, so just that transition period to... It was also transitioning from the 79, leaving the 80s. Leaving the 80s.

I mean, sorry, leaving the 70s. It's such a trippy, it's such a trippy era to have such an imprint on my life. The 70s is, is everything. I mean, how did you cope? Like, did you have big sister figures and, like, who's there to sort of fill that void? Or just to, who's there for you to leave you? Really, just my dad and my brother, honestly. And, I mean, we were the only ones that lived in L.A.

Because everybody, we came to L.A., my dad's family was in Miami, my mom's family, was in Chicago. We were the only ones, like, out there. We were kind of on our own. So, you know, and I come from, like, you know, pretty big-sized families, but everybody was somewhere else. I'm kind of a disconnection in a lot of ways, especially because she was the only one that was, like,

in the entertainment business in her family, which always, as you know, like with death and fame and all that all just becomes so strange when people, people, die. It makes family even, you know, you know how it is. No, I know. So, I mean, your dad obviously jumped head into producing. My dad, I cannot believe, like, he was in the studio all night while, like, our housekeeper

was, like, sleeping at the house so that there was someone in the house with us. And then he'd get up in the morning, make my lunch, pack my bag, send me off to school. If he wasn't the one that was driving me, I was like, older because that's what I remember. And then, like, go back to bed. Where did you go to school? I went to high school in Santa Monica, a school called Crossroads. That was, like, a ordi school.

I was going to say, was it a performance. So when did you realize that you, did you always have a talent? Were you always singing around the house? Yeah. I didn't, I was, I was singing. I was just like a handbone. Like always doing shows, like my kids do now. Like, always doing a show.

My brother was always playing sports. I was always doing a show. show. So for you, was it like, I'm going to be a singer or I will be an actress? I think it was a combo in my head of, but I don't know where the comedy came from because my dad says that if my mom wasn't a singer, she would have been a comedian, but I don't know anything. That's what he says.

I don't know. I don't remember any of that. Wow. But the music seemed normal, so they're all, it's kind of a hybrid in my mind, you know. But I would go to shows. It was like I would watch people on stage and think, that's what I'm going to do. And then I'd watch a movie and say, like, that's what I'm going to do. But it was mostly like in my house, we watched a lot of comedies.

It was like a lot of Mel Brooks movies and stuff. Oh, wow. Do you remember your first concert? Not your mom's. I remember going to see Funkadelic in the mothership landing. I was sitting on somebody's shoulders. I think we were in Chicago. I don't know what the first – I mean, if it wasn't my mom's –

I mean, my mom played with George Benson, and I remember being at, like – it was like the Greek theater or something. thing. Just that perfect, magical outdoor summer night. Like, dun, dun, do you dun, dun, dun, dun. Right. I went Broadway. Yeah. Okay.

So all your concerts were related to your mom in some sort of way? I guess so. I mean, the Parliament one, well, my brother was crazy huge into Parliament, Funkadelic when I was a kid. And so I think we,

I think we went to go see them because he wanted to. He was, like, infatuated with George Clinton when we were kids. Just the two of you together? And some family members. I don't even remember who. Oh, okay.

I think we were into the silvers. We were really, me and my brother were really into the silvers. I remember like, it's actually, because I've been asked that question, it's so hard to remember, like, the first, first. I mean, when I was like a kid kid, it was like Durand, Duran, but that doesn't count. Well, because that was like my choice when I was like fifth grade. But when I was little, I don't remember. So Duran Duran was your first love?

Like, Nick Rhodes, yeah. Poster on the walls and all that stuff. It was Nick Rhodes. I wouldn't say, was it first? I really liked, I was really in love with Stuart Copeland from the police. Drummers. I'm gonna say. Clap my hands, what he's doing.

Thank you. And, of course, sting, but, you know. And then I remember being, like, band-wise. but my prince love was early. It just wasn't as much of a connection. Like, Dirty Mind was the first record that I really truly listened to and understood. Wait a minute. I was little.

Yeah. Because my cousin Ingrid came out from Chicago. She was much older than us. She bought that record. She was staying with us, and she shouldn't have played it for me and my brother, but she did. And we all, like, and the record player was in my dad's bedroom, and we all just like dance to it in our socks. But but then like I didn't have a poster of prints or anything like that and I didn't.

But it was like it was in there. Did you realize what you were listening to? No. Mm-mm. That's crazy. But I remember staring at the record and staring at him laying on the bed with his trench coat open. And I was like, wow, he's got a lot of hair under his thighs. Like that's man thigh.

But it wasn't until When Purple Rain happened Then I made like a conscious shift And that I was 11 I think Right? Right Were you 12? Purple Rain, I was 13

So I guess I was 12 Yeah, you were 12 You were allowed to see Purple Rain? Well my dad took me to see Purple Rain Because he didn't know what it was My mom took me to see Purple Rain Oh! I was fine

Wait, what? My rabbi took me to see Purple Rain. None of us knew that we were going to see Apollonia's boobies. Were you allowed to see Purple Rain unpaid bill? I didn't see Purple Rain until away later. Regular bill? I didn't see it until it was on HBO. Oh, wow.

So I'm the only one to which Purple Rain was like contraband in the household. Oh, no, it was contraband. Oh, you weren't allowed to go see it. Hell no. Prince was the devil. I got on, like, all my punishments was Prince related. Really? I would have otherwise been the perfect child

except the day that, you know, I discovered Prince's music. And then, you know. But it's weird, though, because during those punishments, my punishments, I mean, some of them were corporal, carpal, corporal. Carpool. Corpore.

I'll write that down. Some of them were corporal because, I mean, a black household, black father, you know, the belt is always used. The belt. My dad wasn't black, and he always. talked about the belt. Oh, I'm going to go get the belt and y'all straight now.

It was just more of a threat. The belt was the, the belt was the impending terror and doom. I'm going to get that belt. I'm going to get the belt. Ooh. I don't remember, I don't remember having the belt. I got the belt. I got the belt.

I got the switch. I got the hot wheels race car track. I got a couple things. It was pretty sure that would constitute as child abuse. I got the house shoe. Yeah. The flip flip flip. And not like the cutie, like the thug-seed, like just the thong flip-flip.

You know what I mean? Oh, yeah, brother. It went down in the DM. Look at them, hey, Bill, all traumatized right now. I don't know anybody from my generation who was not spanked. No, I got hit once for drawing the family on the freshly painted walls and crowns. My mom was pissed. That'll do it.

Was it good art? That's a paddling. I mean, yeah. Was it like a Tito Jackson moment? I mean, like Joe Jackson beat Tito for breaking a guitar string. And it was like, oh, wait, my son has talent. And then that's how the Jackson's became to be. Oh, wow.

He didn't realize that his sons had talent until he had to beat Tito. Jesus. Wait, you can talk about it. What? Oh, what, the switch? The Jackson switch. Oh, no, man. My dad has a, uh, uh, a, uh, my dad has a, uh,

a doctor degree in Jacksonology. I mean, that's why I had to be so, you know, I mean, you know, I was always like, not the goody kid, but I always did what my parents said. I was home before the light went out and, you know, I always joked to people that if I ever came home one minute after that Oprah theme, oh, wow. That was my ass. And I mean, even into high school, like, I mean, it was just that their fear of me being out on the streets in the 80s was, it was too risky.

So it was just like, you come straight home. Don't go record shopping. Don't go to, you know, you don't go to the arcade, hang with your friends at the mall. You run home. So it was like, that's why I know flight of the bumblebee so well, because soon as school let out, it was like, That's pretty much what That's pretty much what life was. What was the Prince record that you got into?

I'm just curious what the relationship was for your parents that said like... All right, so Prince got introduced. All right. It's weird that Michael Jackson obsession led to all of my musical knowledge. because even those groups you mentioned, Duran Duran and the police and all that stuff, the only reason why I know all of those MTV Ready acts is because you'd sit in front of MTV for hours waiting for beat it to come out. Right, that one to watch all night long to do that whack forward moonwalking all night long

or beat it or 1999. So wait for that one black video to come on. You'd have to sit through Thomas Dolby and all these other. So after, you know, five weeks of doing this, suddenly, you know, I'm singing like hyperactive by Thomas Dolby. And I remember Yes had like 12. Hyperactive is Robert Palmer. No. No, hyperactive.

Never mind. I'm definitely wrong. Oh, Steve. Wow. Thank you, Maya, because Steve would have, you see the smug look on Steve's face right now? No, I can admit when I'm wrong. No, there's a, you're right, there's a Brava Palmer. I have a big Thomas Dolby, love.

I love you, Ropa. Yeah, yeah. And come the pirate twins again. Well, that's what I'm saying. Like, waiting for Michael Jackson videos led me to just studying everything else because you didn't want to take your eyes off the television. And so back when I wanted to see The Rock With You video, knowing that it was coming on Midnight Special,

um, Prince was the second song. as a guest I want to be a lover and my dad just felt the need to add on there was like 24 hours later and his whole thing was like why is this boy wearing a diaper why is he wearing a diaper and so just the next day he says don't don't you listen to that boy that was wearing the diaper which wasn't like you know like when your parents tell you know then it's like oh automatic yes I really didn't care like I just I just I didn't care like I just I just I didn't care like I just I just I just now know that with parenthood, and of course I'm not a parent Sammas, I'm just saying that if you are adamant about a no, you might as well tell your kid just do that. Do it. Yeah. Because I'm certain that Prince would have been just a footnote in memory had they not made a big deal of that boy in his diaper. I remember

soft and wet being, I remember being exactly where I was standing. Our garage door was open and we were in the driveway doing messing around doing something. I had one of those, you know, those green, like, inchworm things and you would, like, bounce on it? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I was, like, playing with that or something, and then soft and wet came on. And I remember we were all listening to it on the radio, like... It's a very inappropriate visual. But I didn't feel that wrist slap of, like, oh, boy, we'd better turn this up.

You know, it was sort of like, oh, this is a Prince song, and the song's kind of good. So I didn't... I don't... But then again, my dad, there was no concept of PC, and my dad was so... young. Like, I mean, my mom and dad were like 25 when I was born, you know, and my mom was 31 when she died. Like, they were kids. And I don't, and that politically correct thing was not in ordinance yet. So, you know, I was, we were watching movies with our parents because they were young and they wanted to watch them, too, and we saw boobies and butt. It's weird because I don't necessarily consider soft and wet that memorable to be that, where was I when I first ever

Prince. No, but it was, yeah. But everyone has a soft and wet story, like the first time they heard Prince, which only because the circumstance that I was in, I remember more, and he just happened to be playing at the time. My grandfather had just died. And my dad came to my mom, said, babe, come here one second. They went out the room, and I never heard my mom freak out crying.

So she screamed, ah, and everything. And I was like, well, I mean, you know, 78. That was seven. So I guess in order to just shield me and protect me from it, my sister just took me from the kitchen, took me up to the bedroom, got these big-ass headphones, and just put the radio on. And Streetwave by Brothers Johnson was playing on WDAS. It faded out.

Soft and wet came on. And the only thing that I remember my seven-year-old self saying was that this is the same instrumentation that Graham Central Station would have used. Later I found out that, yes, he also recorded at Salas, in Salida, the same recording studio, the same ARP, the same Moog, the same patches, which probably explains his Larry Graham obsession. And even that told me that you let me get up, that's straight Graham Central Station. So that's the only thing I remember. I remember this song, I don't know, remember hearing his really whirly synth part that reminded me at Graham Central.

Yeah, like, it was Graham Central Station, and that's all I remember about Prince. And again, leading back to, they never told me my grandfather died. I just knew that mom was freaking out crying. And then she went away for a week, and I stayed at my grandma's house. But that's what I remember. But, yeah, like, really it wasn't until I got into the time. And then someone told me the connection between the two. and then

and then that's how I got I finally caught up to Prince but it really wasn't until the time's first record my brother got us into the time and then it started beginning and I was like what is this 777 993 11 like

songs with phone numbers were so exciting Jenny 6753 yeah but then by that point I just it was punishment every you know Like the church I went to

Had a sermon on why Thriller was demonic Requards your children And if any of your parents own this record And they had a 1999 record And he turned it upside down Said this is a penis And this is a 666

Oh wow Your kids are being led And you know Is it 666 on there? Look Where is it? 1999 I never paid attention to that

Right I just saw the penis I thought I was one with a football in it You know Again Unless you pointed out Like I don't know these things And so

It was just like Then we went home Don't you have this record of mirror And they went in my room And took everything Through it away Wow Then it snowed

And then I did some shoveling And got it back From the money I earned shoveling And then it was missing again And then after that It was just like contraband. It was just punishment. So I'll say between 82 and 87, life was hell in West Philadelphia based on all.

It was just hell. Like, you know, it was the best and worst times of life. God, that's a classic, like, you're clearly like driven towards something in your parents or, you know, you needed to find out. needed to turn everything over and find it out for yourself. And I don't even know if it, I mean, I don't know if it affected me in the way that they thought it was going to affect me or not. Yeah. I mean, he made me aware of shit that I didn't know about.

Like, you know, it was like, what's a cherry and all this stuff? Like, I would ask my friends at school, like, what does this stuff mean? And would everything explain to me? But really, I was just about, I'd never heard music sound like that. Like, it sounded futuristic and, you know, I was obsessed with the patches and all those things. But, you know. I think it made me realize later. because I put all the pieces together when I go older that I wasn't really,

truly, like, identifying and obsessed with Prince until the Revolution actually had Wendy and Leeds in it because I could identify with girls in the band, and then I wanted to be in the band. I wanted to be Wendy. So were you, besides knowing Jill Jones, well, you knew Jill Jones during the Tina Marie period, right? I remember meeting her. I think of my memory serves incorrectly. Her mom was Tina's manager. Who's her mom?

I don't remember her name. But I think Jill's mom, I think she worked with Tina. I remember going to their house or maybe met her at Tina's house or something like that. So you didn't put two to do together when you see the 1999 video and be like, oh my God, that's... Later, like way later. Grinding on Lisa for some strange reason. They're best friends. Yeah, there's a lot of that.

Wendy and Lisa are best friends. Friends. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway. I didn't really know. I didn't know people's names yet then. Like, I didn't, I just, it was all about Prince to me.

And even though there was a revolution, like, it was just Prince. But then because of the movie, I think it gave me, like, a little bit of a story, whether I knew it was real or not. I didn't know. Do you know that was Jill when you saw Purple Rain, or? I think so. Actually, maybe not. Maybe not. I think I put it together later.

Oh, okay. So, yeah, Princess. I'm skipping over, of course, the part of your life of which a lot of our listeners know, which is your acting career, but I have to... Sure, you don't need to tell them that shit. I have to... You're an actor?

Yes, Steve, I'm an actor. Yeah, so, like... What kind of stuff do you do? What, no, what made you want to do Princess? Well, what is Princess? Princess is me and my friend Gretchen's cover band, Prince Cover Bam. Cool.

That sounds like something that people always say they're going to do, but they never do it. Also, we've been doing it for like five years, and I'm 43 years old. Like, yeah, I'm in a cover band. It's always so funny that you can be like in a cover band, but it's so fucking legit. But it's just from such a hardcore, deep place of love and like a burning desire to play these songs.

She and I were in a band together in college. And when we met... What band? It was called Super Sauce. It was a nine-piece funk band. Oh, wow. Headed by me and Gretchen. Nine piece.

I think you can find our one video on YouTube. How did all get paid? Well, we only played, like, local. We went to school in Santa Cruz. we only played You went to school in Santa Cruz? Yeah, you see Santa Cruz Isn't that one like the party?

Northern California. Oh, okay. Hippies. Grudgeon's from the Bay Area. She's from Berkeley. Bay Area's got its own its own thing going on. It does. It really does.

And up there, you know, it's a small town and a lot, like, there's a, there's a theater called the Catalyst, which is kind of the only, like it was the only theater in town for a long time and we would play there. But it was like when Nirvana came to town, they'd play there.

Or when Gwen, when Gwen doubt When no doubt played We opened for them Because we were like the local band opener It was a tiny tiny town And then they had another place I forgot what it was called

Yeah I don't think you'll find much super sauce But we had one song that we wrote Called Milkshake and I think I think it was on YouTube a while ago I don't know if it still is Okay I'll say it Go Did it bring all the

Boys to be right Boom Listen it was pre pre Farrell You didn't have to defend it Just let the joke be even joke That's all

That's all So you stole it? No, he owes us money No we didn't I don't even It wasn't he hadn't enough Well what I'll say is We did a cover

That was just very recently Allowed to sort of Return to the Internet Our cover of Darling Nikki that happened on back then was late night with Jimmy Fallon

and I have to say that he watched it and enjoyed it and loved the fact that you guys got the backwards part

that was correct we went to go see him play the last time I saw him play like a proper show was like that tour

he was doing with third eye girl and we had to go down he wouldn't play in L.A. And you got us in because of Ramadan and we went to

down Anaheim. He was playing in Anaheim. Okay, yeah. And I was so pregnant. But we were back, we were, we went backstage afterwards. And he came out and he saw us. And the first thing he said to me was,

how y'all going to do the backwards part? It was so fucking cool. That was a cool moment. Well, you had prepped me because you told me It was when it was guitar gate when he came and threw Kirk's guitar. And he had been here and he played. And you told me that he had mentioned that he had it, like, recorded on his DVR or something. Yeah, yeah.

He really loved it. Every time he told me to me this story, I was like, I was trying to picture, like, where's his DVR? Like, where is he, is he on a bus? Is he in his house? Like, where is he watching this over and showing it to his friends? You said he was showing it to his friend. He told us that. Yeah.

He watched it. I mean, he does that often. I know that when I worked on the Chappelle show, Morris and him had spoken on the phone for like the first time in a second about that. Yes, Morris Day. The Morris Day? Yes. Yes. Right.

So sexy. I mean, my visit at Paisley Park, I was very shocked You've actually been You've been in the Paisy Park I've been there a few times Oh that's dope I went for the first time

Well I mean it's after he passed You went as a pilgrimage Yeah as a pilgrimage We had a show We had a gig in Minneapolis And a jelly bean actually came out to the gig Okay And the next day

We had a day off We were traveling somewhere next I can't remember And we went there And I went out there And the first day and came out And I was like Damn it was like a call center

and like it just you know what I mean it just looked real you know Were the eyes watching you? I don't think no eyes watching me It was Oh God

The the controversy eyes Like yeah When I was there There was a painting He'd have these I meant life-sized paintings Of his face From like various album covers

Adorning the walls And when you get to the controversy pick You know like those Three Studeges things Were like Moving Eyeballs Yeah the moving eyeballs Are watching you

through the picture. We swore that he was watching us somewhere on like hidden camera. Erica told me when she first visited Paisley Park I said, did you see the eyeballs moving?

It's like, yeah? I said, oh, were you freaked out? She says, nah, I took my tithes out. Oh, wow. Hey, Erica. That's one way to handle it? That's one approach. She said, she trying to figure out where all the hidden cameras were in Paisley Park

and she just took her t-shirt off and she's like I'll just show him these tittyes oh my god oh my god oh my god bro yeah I didn't make it then we went

because this is after you passed this is recently so we were just there and actually we were there and you know it was people out you know so it wasn't like a police line or like a police tape Nah, no, now we went. I mean, this is like, not even, it's like a little over a lot of a little over a little.

No, I didn't see the elevator. I didn't go in. We were just outside, just kind of walking around. Okay, okay, okay. And so then the news truck pulled up. We'd be like, what the hell is the news doing here? And it was the day that they announced the autopsy results. Oh, okay.

So that was why. I was like, oh, that's why they were here. Oh, yeah. Yeah, well, it's, it's super normal inside. And the one thing I noticed. was there were a lot of, you remember there was a point where they had combo television and VHS recorders? Oh, wow. Like, I feel like he really spruced that place up.

I mean, it came up in, it came up in 87, but I felt like he had a redo in like 93. No, he redid the place in 96 for the, when the baby was supposed to come. Oh, the entire place? Yeah, like it was all white inside, and then they did all the paintings and stuff, and then they put it. That explains it because, well, there were a lot of VHS TV combos everywhere. There was like a Sega Genesis. He obviously was, or whoever was inside of Paisley Park, they were really a fan of, what's the Sega game with the cat? Oh, Sonic the Hedgehog.

Yeah, there's a lot of Sonic the Hedgehog games. And apparently a Tricle Quest fan because I think. found three copies of Midnight Marauders. I would say from the inside, his life was, seemed pretty much normal. I mean, there was nothing that unusual. Except for the giant eyes and cameras. Yeah, except for the eyes and cameras. Because that's normal.

Well, I know that it's wired for there to be microphones anywhere. So if he has a song idea, including in the, oh, God, including in the bathroom. For real? Wow. Which kind of freaked me out. That's like an invasion of privacy. He's had to be right. That's like some NSA shit.

On my second day there, I remember really having to go. And so my solution was to just constantly flush the toilet. So he didn't hear nothing? I was fucking around. End up on emancipation too. I think I drained like. This is a beer emancipating. Yeah, I think I just drained out late Minnetonka.

That's how many times I've flushed. 2%. That is the number of people who take the stairs when there is also an escalator available. I'm Michael Easter, and on my podcast, 2%, I break down the science of mental toughness, fitness, and building resilience in our strange modern world. I'll be speaking with writers, researchers, and other health and fitness experts, and more, to look past the impractical and way too complex pseudoscience that dominates the wellness industry. We really believe that seed oils were inunders.

inherently inflammatory. We got it wrong. Many of the problems that we are freaked out about in the world are the result of stress. Put yourself through some hardships, and you will come out on the other side a happier, more fulfilled, healthier person. Listen to 2%.

That's T-W-O-Persent on the I-Hart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what I'm saying. Yep. That's me, Cliver Taylor the fourth. You might have seen the skits, the reactions,

my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes,

creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week, I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment, and the next we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music. The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast. It's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger.

So, if you've ever supported me or you're just chasing down a dream, this is right where you need to be. Listen to The Clifford show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. Do you remember when Diana Ross double-tapped Little Kim's boobs at the VMAs? Or when Kanye said that George Bush didn't like black people. I know what you're thinking.

What the hell does George Bush got to do with Little Kim? Well, you can find out on the Look Back at it podcast. I'm Sam Jek. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we picket here, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. Including a recent episode with Mark Lamont Hill, waxing all about crack in the 80s. To be clear, 84 is big to me, not just because. There's a crack.

I'm down to talk about crack on day, but just so y'all know. I mean, at this point, Mark, this is the second episode where we've discussed crack. So I'm starting to see that there's a through line. We also have AIDS on the table right now. Thank you finishing that sentence. Yes. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Really?

Yeah. For me, it's one of the most important years for black people in American history. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your Podcasts. Was Miss Maya Rudolph singing with the rentals? How old were you when you did the stuff with the rentals? I think I was just out of college. I did the five-year plan, so I was probably like 22.

I got involved with the rentals because my friends, my childhood friends, Rachel Hayden and Petro Hayden run a band called That Dog with my friend Anna Warrinker. Anna Warnaker? Warnker, yes. Yeah, we were just talking about, well, daughter of Lenny. Lenny Warnaker?

And Joey. Joey's her brother. So you say with his daughter, you were friends with her. I grew up with those girls and. So you grew up with the girls of the man that signed prince? Well, yes. Anna, I knew growing up. And yeah.

Yeah, that's true. Yes. And then Joey is the brother, right? Joey is her brother. Yeah, he's an amazing drummer. How do you know about the Warren. He plays on, Joey plays on like all the Beck stuff. He plays with Becca.

He plays with a couple of the cats too, but he's all over Beck stuff. Yeah. He's, who is this man? What? That's Fonte Coleman. I mean, but. Very impressed fun. You're going to the liquor house.

Liquor House to Beck and back in him. I feel some sort of way. I mean, we are now rechristen in the show as liquor house with Fonte Gorman. Or like, Fonte Supreme. Right. Nah, man. Fonte Galae Supreme. It's now your show, bro.

Not me, man. My, my friend Rachel Hayden, who's a triplet. But Rachel, Tanya, and Petra are triplets. The Hayden triplets. Wow. They're musicians as well. Their father was Charlie Hayden, amazing jazz bassist. And we all grew up singing together.

We all grew up harmonizing together. And I was like an honorary member of their band for two seconds, but then I went away to college. So when I came back from college, they had recorded that first record with Matt Sharp from, originally from Weezer. They were all L.A. local bands together. And so he put them on the record. Then he wanted them to tour, and they were going on their own tour. So Rachel said, you should call my friend Maya because she can harmonize and she can play keyboards. And that whole record is just all the harmonies that those girls always did.

So that was why I ended up touring with them. So I wasn't on that first record. It was actually Rachel and Petra's voices. You played piano? Yes, I played the Moog. I did not know that. Well, just on that tour I did. I just played piano.

Okay, so we are at the point of our show, if you're still here. We're at the point of... Okay, so we're at the point of our show where we kind of do this thing, blind test, which, you know, we'll play you some music. Am I going to have to drink something? No. You just, we'll play it for you and you give some sort of commentary live on what you think about it. Okay.

Am I supposed to know this song? Now, you've never got to know it. You're not supposed to know it. It sounds like I need a test drive from last dress. I hear a little bit of love as a battlefield in that little drum breakdown. Doo-goo-do-do-do-do-do. Sounds like a lot of the demos people would send my dad when I was a kid and we listened to him in the car on the way to school and laugh.

But is this somebody like Tori Amos or somebody who went on to do stuff later? This person's sort of connected. Connected. Um, to you. Oh, is it Jill Joe? No. Close. Close your eyes, listen to this voice.

I'm not a lyrics guy. I'm not a lyrics guy. I'm a music guy. I mean, just from the title, what did you think? Well, wow. See, the proper noun threw me off. I didn't even see the two words before. Okay, so you are listening.

This is tense-related, isn't it? sense-related, isn't it? Yeah, it's Vanity's strap-on, Robbie Baby. Which, I guess, now that I think of it, it's very apropos, being as though the very last song she did with Vanity 6 was Vibrator. Vibeata. I actually am shocked that I didn't recognize her vocal quality. It's very distinct.

All right, this leads to our second song. Ready for the world. Spoiler alert. I'm not exactly right now. Is it? Is it? RFTW? Yeah, there it is.

There's that voice. I mean, I didn't listen to this song. I listened to O'Sheila and got, like, an auxiliary prince, you know, like, satisfaction. It was, like, close enough. Which one is it? Is this digital display? No, which one is... No.

Digital display is pretty good. This is the second out would love you down. But this is... actually one of my favorite filler ready for the world. Like they did a lot of fast print songs. Oh, Slayla. Why did it sound

like there was no H in Sheila when he said it? Oh, Fyla. Oh, Sela. Oh, Sela. A nigga real song about Papa. So did he just Oh, Slela. Did he just use all the same machines? Is that how you got the sound?

Um, It's kind of weird because this is actually, I believe this is a DMX drum machine. So this is not even a Lind drum. But they often use the Oberheim and the Lindelm. It's close, but it's... The Lind drum. But this is one of the rare times in which they're not using that. Here is your next song.

Sounds very familiar. This is probably in second place. Yeah, yeah. Fox. Of my... Is that Brenda? Best songs that Prince never wrote.

I'm sorry, it's the chicken. Breast songs. Like Erica Badu, breath songs? Yeah. Will I know this artist? You probably won't. I mean, you should know.

It's not Brenda. No. That's a low voice. Is it that Annie lady that was like... Is this camera in the scene? What is it? All right, this is Tamara

in the scene. Okay. I don't know how I remember. She's got Shazam on his phone. I mean, she did a minor stint with Prince. In the 90s. Well, she's on that 1-800 new funk

compilation. Well, she was actually in a group that... Bongo, combo. No, well, Prince had a... She had a project called MC Flash that Prince had written over to song. Wait. What?

Yeah, in like 89. What? I didn't know that was her. Yeah, that was her. Margie Cox. I consider this like of the Prince Associated Records to be the perfect.

I heard the song once that was the strangest of locations. It was a stickball a competition that Nike was doing and somewhere like right off the Kamalski and a Q-tip was DJ. For some reason, he started playing this song like, you know the match.

Wow. If you're playing this and you're doing this, you're trying to send a message to somebody. Like this is one of those cuts that you do where you want to let somebody know what your prince IQ is. Wow.

So this is the cut that you play to let me know. We're here. All right. Here's our next song. Public joy. Public joy. I've heard this before.

I'm telling you I've heard this before. Like, Fonte's looking off in the corner, like he can't put his, he can't put his hand on it, but he knows that whoever's famous often has to wipe back the activated curve from behind their ear. Right.

Or do it backwards from, or stroke his ear with the opposite ear. It's kind of yacht rock you too. Billy's Eyes? Kelly's Eyes. Oh, yeah. You told me about this song. This is Andre Simone.

Yeah. Oh, wow. Yeah. And Andre Simone left the controversy tour in 81. So Lark and Arnold left Capitol Records. Took a gig at CBS and signed Andre Simone. All right, so Maya, here is your final song. Yes.

Wow. Sound like dang phone. So much. Like for real. Shakedown? Shape down. This is like the... Like wild girls, like climate.

It's that same. Okay, that was... Evelyn Champaign King's Shakedown. Wow. One of the main reasons why Jimmy Jammin and Teruus were released from the time for moonlighting, writing their first number one single for the SOS band, just be good to me, was that he thought that they were also giving secrets away to other acts.

Leon Silver's, in producing, just keep on loving me by The Whispers. Prince never believed that Leon Silver's wrote or produced that song. He thought that it was Jam and Lewis using him as a mask. Okay, so we got to rewind back. So how did you come across the attention of our beloved Steve Higgins, announcer of the Tonight Show and head producer of Saturday Night Live? I was performing at the Groundlings in, Groundlings Theater in Los Angeles, California. How did you get in?

I started from the bottom and now I'm here. You were getting coffee first. and then you worked your way up. No, you take classes there. You start, it's like a straight-up theater program. You, like, start there. You take classes, then you have to pass onto the next class. Then you start writing, and then you start performing.

Then I started performing in the Sunday Company, which is kind of like, it's kind of like JV. It's kind of like JVS&L, like on a little stage. It's like UCB style, but UCB didn't exist then. UCB is more like indie and hip, and this is just like, been around since the 70s. Well, who put you up to it? Like, who said, you know what? You should go to the groundings.

I did because I'd always wanted to be on Saturday Night Live. I fell in love with the original cast because my parents were watching it. And so I saw it, like, I got, I got an idea of it. And then when the reruns were on, then I fell in love with Gilda. And the cast as a whole is like this New York idea. Like, I've got to get to New York. I want to go where those people are. And that was like later when they were showing reruns,

and then I could start taping them and stuff. Like, I would, you know, I would tape everything off of TV that I liked. And then... You came in 2001, right? I think so. Well, I came at the end of the 25th season for three shows. So I don't... And then the Drew Barmore 9-11 episode was your first real episode?

Reese Witherspoon. Reese Witherspoon. That was your first episode? That was my first episode of the first official year. But I came for, basically, instead of auditioning, they brought me in for the last. I did an audition, which is so stupid and weird. And it's a miracle that I ended up on the show. But instead, I came and I had a meeting with Lauren.

Because I met Higgins and Tishon, Shannon, who was a writer and they came to the show, and they were like, you should come audition. And I had a janky-ass manager who was like, don't do it. The contract's really bad. And I listened to her because I was an idiot. I was like 25, maybe 26. And old enough to know better, but I listened because she knew about it. And so I didn't come.

I don't know how, but I saw Steve again. He was like, you really should come back. And then I got the call, like, come meet with Lorne. I met with Lorne. They had my tape. Like, I sent a tape of, like, my sketches. And then I came and I just did three weeks here. And I didn't really know what the hell I was doing.

Like, they brought me in. They took my picture that, like, on my first day that ends up. up on 17 and you're just like, what's this for? And then we didn't have a pitch meeting that day because John Goodman was the host and he didn't want to come in. I don't know, something. We didn't have a pitch meeting on Monday. So we just started on, I just started on a Tuesday.

And I remember I knew Chris Parnell because he was from the groundlings. And I said, what do we do? And he was like, we write. And I said, till when? And he said, all night. And then everyone's doors just started closing. And I was like, why the fuck am I supposed to do? Did you have a playmate?

Who were you paired with? Well, me and Zach Galaphnackas were weirdly put in an office together. but he didn't know, he had auditioned, but he didn't know if he was there to be in the cast or as a writer, and he found out the hard way that he was brought in as, like, a guest writer. And we were just walking back to our hotel

at the time, like, so bummed, like, just disillusioned. Like, we just did not know what was going on. It was so bizarre. And it was, like, starting school at the end of the school year when, like, everybody has a place to sit in the cafeteria, you know?

So who warmed up to you first? Molly and Will, and I knew Parnell. because they had Molly and Will had nothing to lose. They were like the prom king and queen. So they were like, hey, how you doing? And then I had a mutual friend because Anna, at the time there were a lot. That's the thing about the groundlings is that I knew that people from there went on to the show. And I was like, okay, so I got to go there first.

Because at the time, when I got out of college, it was like, all right, I'm going to go to the groundlings. That's going to be my graduate school. And at that time, it was the people that were there from the groundlings were, Will Ferro, Anagastair, Chris Catan, Chris Parnell And who am I forgetting? Somebody else. Oh, and Sherry O'Terry. Oh, wow.

They were like five current cast members that were all out of the groundlings. I was like, all right, this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to go here. Because I had gone to the Groundlings. I was weirdly introduced to the Groundlings Theater when I was 14 because I went to school with Jack Black, who was like a couple years older than me and this, like, theater kid.

that I just connected with right away and he became kind of like my mentor because he was just like a little bit older and got me into improv and everything and he took me to see the groundlings when I was like 14. So I knew about the theater and then I knew it was in L.A.

Like it was a way to get into it because people out here go to Chicago. They go to Second City. And so I just went in my own backyard. Was it hard to adjust there? At the groundlings? Yeah.

No. It was exactly where I should have been because it was like, It's like when you find your people, like, oh, this is where I should have been. I shouldn't, why did I go to college in the woods in, like, Northern California and study women's studies with, like, Angela Davis? Like, I should be here with all these, you know, horny nerds. This is where I belong. Oh, God.

See, I don't know if I want to share this story. You're about to. You do. I, okay, so I once dated a comedian. I cannot wait to find out. And, ah, damn, okay, so. Go in, son.

Yeah. Is this about black and Jewish? No, no, no, no. The thing, the thing was, was that we saw, like, like, me and my friends would watch her act, and she wasn't fully developed yet as a comedian. And the thing was, is that my friends started laughing at me because they were, like, facing me,

she's not funny. So every time we come to the club, they were laughing at me and at her, but in her head, she's like, yo son,

I'm killing it. I'm killing it. Like a stand-up? She was a stand-up? Yeah, yeah. She just stand-up. I've never, ever done stand-up. That's a whole other animal.

And that's even worse. Like, that's why I won't do it because, like, you fail at that. You're, that's it. It's the scariest thing ever I would do. I think you have to drown first before you resuscitate yourself. And it's just like you've got to be horrible. And then you learn the tricks of the trade.

I thought that if you wanted to be a comedian, you had to do stand-up. So when I was in college, I wrote some stand-up. I was like, I'm never fucking doing this. It's terrifying. Because I don't like to be exposed. I don't like to be vulnerable. And stand-up is vulnerable. Stand-up is so much more difficult, in my opinion.

And I just like to be other people. I mean, that's what I'm programmed to do. That's real deep. Well, I mean, I know it's just so much easier to be, to not be vulnerable. And I'm sure when I was a kid, that's like how I hit it. And then I was like, oh, my friends liked this. I should, I should keep doing it. But I also think that being around music, I just developed,

I think having a musical ear made me like a little, like a parrot, like a little bit of a mimic. So I didn't realize I was doing voices and stuff when I was doing them. But I think I was just always doing them. Like if you tell a story about somebody and you're like, and then she was like, why did you, why did you get the spicy chicken? And then you talk like the person and then you realize like, oh, I'm just copying sounds. I have a question.

Yes, sir. Do you think like growing up around music helped you with comedy, like with timing and all that, with rhythm and? I kind of think they're intertwined. I do. I feel like they're I do I feel like they're they're totally related

they're saying they be wanting to sing and vice versa yes they do and I've never I've never I've talked to many musicians about this and I've never gotten an answer why but musicians and comedians are each other's their counterpart and we're totally connected

absolutely but I think I think that's because there are also skills that other people you can't just acquire them you have to naturally possess them both. Do you think that the way you in a sort of therapeutic way

dealt with... Absolutely. I know exactly what you're asking. Because I know no comedian or funny person especially with all the time that I spend at the comedy cellar and really getting to know all those people. Like behind

every person that's ever made me laugh there's like a big giant bowl of pain somewhere in their backyard. buried somewhere. Well, I would also go out on a limb and say, I mean, I'm no therapist, but I would guess that it was also an active rebellion from my family. You know, my parents were musicians. So I was like, I'm not going to sing because that's like, that's like my, that's too painful. That's too hard. Like, I don't want to expose that part of me because that, like,

I don't even think I truly sang in my own voice, truly, truly, truly saying songs in my own voice publicly until fairly recently. I've only ever sung at like... Channeling other people. Yeah. Because it was too painful because it was just like so connected to my mother.

So I can sing a funny-ass song like for the rest of my life. Like I can sing anything funny. And that's probably why it covers are easy. But when it comes to like my actual, my real voice singing is very, very intense. for me and I think the

probably the natural like just the light from comedy just was so much more you can hide you can hide in comedy and I can hide and be a million things and then I also just think it's so fascinating to like be mixed and then just like

pretend to be other people you know because you're like it has so much to do with the time I was growing up like being mixed wasn't as cool as it is now you know like the cost of we show everyone on the show was considered black but like Lisa Bonnet was mixed

right you know like people didn't even say what mixed was and I think it was just easier to like just pretend to like be other people and it's just all undertwine but yes I think it's absolutely that and it's also like that rebellion from what your parents do you have to do something else

but it was also cool comedy was cool to them like my mom was like I think I remember my parents going to see like Richard Pryor concerts and there's some famous I got it Mr. Rudolph and the monkey? Yes. Is that what it's called?

Did he name, Ms. Rudolph? Did he name it after? I knew it. He was fucking with my dad, yeah. I knew it. I knew it. He had a character called Miss Rudolph that his mud bone character would have to give like a chicken's leg to, like an old soothsayer lady.

Like Miss Rudolph was always a name that I always heard. It was about my mom and he would fuck with my dad like when they would be. sitting there, but it was, I think... Because I even have some outtakes of Richard Pryor concerts where, like, your mom was always in the audience. I know. I don't... There's three concerts in which...

I know. That's what I heard, too. And I actually don't know them as well as you do. Because as a kid, I don't think they were exposing me to the recordings, but I knew about it, like, enough. I need to revisit Miss Rudolph and the monkey. Well, see, the tables have turned now, because now I think it's like, you're Maya Rudolph, and that's Maya Rudolph.

Rudolph's mother. Like, it's not even... Well, that's, again, back to millennials. I'm sure for you was like, you know, escaping the shadow of being Minnie Riperton's daughter as opposed to, you know. Well, you know what, though? That doesn't exist for me because I will say

growing up, I didn't feel like my mother was a household name. I feel like people who knew my mother knew my mother. Or they'd know that song. But I didn't feel... I wasn't Diana Ross's daughter. Like, it was a different thing. And so people in the know...

about that. How was that like for you? Like, did you know that your mother was... Yeah, yeah, like, was that ever... Or did you, or even, like, after you passed... Did you know, even, like, what your dad was doing, like, did you know that you were maybe a little more privileged or had, you know, then maybe other kids or whatever?

Not even with, like... Even our era were, like, tribe samples where, like, Minnie Riperton was, like, such a... Yeah, it was holy grail. I didn't. I mean, that was really fascinating. to me, like, starting college was when that tribe album came out that was literally, like, half of it was like my mother, you know, or songs that,

songs that I'd grown up listening to and had stopped listening to because it was too hard to put those records on. But it was just becoming cool that, like, my friend who was like the DJ in college would play, like, you know, those songs where I was like, are you playing my mom? You're playing my mother's music? And then I was like, wait a minute, that's why that's familiar to me. That's my mother, you know, where that's like the beginning. That's why you're in college.

Yes, exactly. And that was the stuff my dad and I would talk about, because sampling was so fascinating to him at the time and talking about that and what that had become in the industry because my dad's such an artist and was like... But you know what? That to me was such a prideful moment of like those cool people know my people. It took me a long time to realize.

To revisit the music. Well, yes, and also to realize. that people were out there. Plus, my last name is Rudolph. So until I really started acting, people didn't know that was my mom. And then the other part about my mom that's just so fascinating is like,

people are so, I don't know what it is. I don't know if it's because she was so young when she died and it was like, pre- YouTube we didn't have a look. Like, you were the first person I ever met. It was like, I have footage of like your mom on talk shows. And I was like, what? I didn't know that stuff.

I thought all that stuff was gone. And people, have always like used me to vent like their feelings about her. I'm like this weird funnel for like many,

like your mother was so like and it's so I get stopped on the street. Is it overwhelming? Yes, it's so deep. Yeah, it took me like seven years to even start to bring it up. Like I was just like, oh, big fan.

But that's different. And that's not, I mean, I true like I'll get the occasional just random adult you know, who will just be like, Your mother. Your mother meant so much.

She meant everything. It's like they're like, you know, and I, they just find me. And this was way before I was ever on the show or anything like that. Wow. But there's always been some layer of her that is otherworldly. I think because of that element of her voice being something else, something that feels sort of like non-human to a lot of people. people just associate her with like something else.

There's like, I've just always gotten people stopping me about her in that way. I think it's because she's, she's spiritual. She's in that Stevie Wonder category. Yeah. Like, because your mom didn't really come from the gospel background of black music. So I would say that she's almost the Shade of her period because Shadee, you know, meant a lot to black people and white people. like but you know she didn't come from a gospel you know down home background at least the way that she projected herself there's like a class thing i was i was say it was very classic my mother

i mean my grand i'm sorry my aunt was a big mini ripton van and that was the first time i got uh i was introduced her music and this is like you know you talk about um how your parents that was the first time they usually talk about death like her death talk about it i remember my mom because my mom would play loving you, like, she would just play loving you. And I was remember here, I was like, mama, who is that? And she was like, there's many ribs. I'm like, oh, who is that?

And she would tell me, oh, this lady, you know, she died. And, you know, I looked in the album cover, and it was like, I think it's in the Benjamin's Paradise or she's with the Lion. I think that's the Lion cover is that one. And so my aunt would have all her records. And this is in the 80s. And so my aunt was like, she was very,

this is kind of like, she was like a black yuppie kind of. You know what I mean? She was teaching school. She had on apartment. And she had the first, like, answer machine. Like, that was the first time I ever saw an answer machine ever. And so she would play your mom's music all the time. And it was, just like what I'm here said, it was really, like, classy.

I just remember seeing her. And it wasn't, like, the disco stuff. Like, she didn't. Like, you remember, I mean, y'all was shot for a record. So, you know, if, like, you see an album cover. And you know. And it's, like, nine niggas in silver suits and shit. It's going to be whack as fuck.

You know what I mean? But, like, your mother was always just really. She just had her own thing. It's really classy, and I just always remember that. You ever see the lion attacking her video? Yes. You can see my dad coming in and make sure she's okay.

It was like a promo commercial, so it was actually a recreation of the... Because I think me and my brother were there for the photos shoot because I remember having ice cream and seeing the, like, the mother is sitting next to a lion. And we were like, look, but we were like far away.

And we were thinking like, can that lion see my ice cream? It was a different lion the second time they shot it. Oh. And this lion was in this, he's just kind of like, panic. I guess he had been declawed, so she wasn't hurt or anything. Oh. But yeah, you see the line like catching an attitude. And there's no sound, so if you can't tell if

anyone's screaming or not. It was like somebody's Super 8. Cows. Chills. So I hear that you are going to be spending a lot of time in New York City, hopefully, doing the Maya Marty project. Yes. Yes. What made you want to bring back the variety show format? This is what I do, and this is what Marty does. We, you know, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I like, what's that? Martin Short? Martin Short, yes. Or is the...

I thought it was Morgan Scorsese. It's Martin Short. That would be a very different show, although I would love to do that. I thought it was Martin. Martin. So, yeah, the show is... It's all the stuff that we love. It's music and comedy and performance-based and really just all the elements of Saturday Night Live that I love that are, you know, getting people together and being goofy and all that stuff.

But I think, like, just the stuff that I think probably is the imprint for all of us, which is people coming on and doing things that you didn't normally get to see them do. You know, I just did a thing with Emma Stone, and it was like a perfect example of, like, that's why I wanted to do the show. She and I sang a song together. And it's not something you would normally see her do. But those were like, those were the things that when you saw a variety show that you were like, wow, I didn't know that guy saying,

or I didn't know that person was that funny, or just like these extra delicious tidbits. Well, based on the super virulness of that particular clip that you did with Emma, first of all, how many, like, how many takes did you guys complete that it?

We only did it in, we only did it twice. Wow. Wow. I can't imagine having to do something over and over and over again. Can you explain to our listeners who may not have seen that, like what you guys did in that video? I saw these Swedish girls,

this band called Erato. These girls from Sweden sitting in their kitchen playing butter tubs. You know, the cup song, which I guess became famous. Anna Kendrick did. Oh, yeah, yeah. The movie, pitch perfect.

Yes. So it's the same rhythm, but they did it to the Robin song, Call Your Girlfriend. And they did these really beautiful harmonies. And I don't know why, but I was like, I feel like, I heard Emma can sing.

I wonder if she'd be into doing this. And so I sent it to her. And she immediately, she was like, wow, that sounds great. And then she immediately sent back a video of her practicing it. And she had, like, picked it up right away. And my daughter, my 10-year-old daughter, Pearl, was actually helping me out with it like the day before. My 10-year-old daughter and my 23-year-old cousin were, like, showing me how to do the cups. Because I loved the song.

And in my head, I was like, yeah, let's do it. And then when it came time to do it, I realized, like, I don't know how to do it. Right. Wow. But I didn't, we rehearsed a little bit. And it was one of those things like you can just tell when someone can harmonize. And she just, she was amazing. She just did it.

You guys nailed that. That was great. Thank you. Well, I hope, even for selfish main reasons, I hope you guys get picked up and you become a fixture at the 30 Rock Building so we can do projects together. Yes, please. That would be awesome. That would be awesome. That would make me happy too.

Well, we thank you very much for joining us. Pleasure. Gentlemen. Ladies that are listening. Lady. Fellas. A lady. All five.

All two women. Dogs. Yeah. So we thank you very much. It's my pleasure. Ms. Maya. You made me feel knowledgeable about many things. We learned a lot.

We did. We learned a lot tonight. Ladies and gentlemen, wow. This concludes the Questlove Supreme experience. Any last words, boss bill? None. Just come back and check us out next week. We start at Wednesday.

Wednesday. 1 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, 10 a.m. Pacific standard time. I'll be listening. And we replay until Friday. And then after that you can check out our mixtape feature and more songs. And this is the only time you can hear it. Oh, no, no, you can't come back. So you got to hear it live.

So you got to listen, you know, between now and Friday afternoon or you are. Wow. You know, you might. Well, actually, you know what? They can listen to the, you know, highlights from the show on the mixtape. But it's nothing beats here in the full, the full show. Hey, M.P. Bill, man. What do we learn today?

I don't even know where to begin. Are you just waking up? Yeah. Okay, okay, okay. I'm waking up to the dawning of Prince knowledge, of which there was a lot today. Yeah, I kind of overdid it on the Prince Knowledge. I apologize, but, you know. It's only going to get worse.

Well, no, I think mine is probably the biggest prince nerd. Until we get probably Fred in here, as far as celebrities are concerned. Fred who? Fred Savage. Really? From one of years. One of years? No, Fred Armisen.

Oh. Oh, okay. Oh, okay. I mean, yeah. Oh, why not? Fred Savage. Kevin from the what that. Wow.

Yes, but, all right. So you learn about liquor. liquor houses today. Unpaid Bill. Yeah. Yeah. So maybe we shall I make a pilgrimage to Memphis. We'll go to Bill Street and go to...

Going forward, we should make pilgrimages to a lot of different places. And we speak off? Like south of the Mason-Dixon line, as we say. All right. We'll do that. We'll do the corn-licker experience. So, Sugar Steve. You.

What did you learn today, ma'am? I learned that Gainesville is the music capital of Florida. somehow. That's all you learn? I love Maya. I really love Maya. I love her, too. She's great.

Yeah. I think she's funny and interesting and talented. Yeah, she is. She's amazing. I love it. I wish we could ask her about her performance with DeAngelo on the Tonight Show of a... Ah, damn. I thought that was great.

Okay. That was awesome. Yeah, we'll ask about it. We'll just ask DeAngelo about it when he gets here. Yes, when he... Yes, but that just means we have to, you know, know, be on the air for another 10 years. Right, because if you schedule DeAngelo now, he'll show up 10 years now.

I guarantee we're going to have DeAngelo on before the year's out. Damn. Okay. Can we put money on that? I'm down to put money on that. I don't have any money. Yo. You're listening to Questup Supreme on Pandora?

And you are a witness? If I cannot get DeAngelo on this show by December 31st, 2016. Okay. I will give my four constituents here $2,000. That's $500 each person. Oh, okay. I thought it was going to be $2,000.

Yeah, it's really $10,000. Well, it'll be a ain't nothing to a boss base. But no, okay, I'll take $500. That's the motivation I need to make sure that the angel goes towards my room. By myself. Yeah, that will go some damn well. All right. So are you singing Missy right now?

No, I was doing the trading places guy. Now I can go to the movies by myself. Oh, okay. I'm sorry. I thought you were singing, Miss You by, written by the Glimerton twins. Very expensive to clear. Fantigolo.

Yes, so? Dog, man. Man, I learned today about Mighty Rudolph that singing, it's hard for her to sing her own voice, which I found fair interesting because I really love her voice. So she, you know, she says it was hard for her.

Like, she can do funny stuff kind of high, but, you know, singing in our own voices is, uh, it's kind of intense and painful. That's, and that was interesting to me, you know what I'm saying? But I've never, I've never heard of, I've never heard anyone talk about the process in that way. Well, when you sing, I mean, don't you sometimes channel, um, man, honestly, with my singing, it kind of just happened. So, um, I would say, I mean, for the years that I've been singing, like, seriously, I probably really just found my voice, my voice, probably, like,

two, three years ago with that. Just because for me, it was just, you know, and that's why I could relate to a lot of what she was saying, because on the Little Brother records, I was just singing hooks really just as placeholders, just to kind of, okay, let me just get this. Until someone else comes along. Yeah, somebody else come along.

But nobody else came along. So it was like, well, fuck it. It was keeping. I was like, you're the Lauren Hill of that crew. Man, it was, I was just doing it just to get it down. So then once it happened. You put that evil on him, Ricky Bobby. Oh, no.

I show up to shit on time. It ain't going to work. Hey, go ahead. I ain't L, buggy, the L stand for late. No, I come on time to shit. I got cheering the feed

and I got shit to do. So, nah, man, I'm, no, but yeah, I never saw it that way. So,

a lot of times, I was just doing it just to kind of just hold that place. And then after the album came out, I was getting calls. He was like, yo,

give me a verse, but we want a hook too. I was like, y'all really, like, seriously? You really want a hook? He was like, yeah,

we want a hook. Oh, man, this is like the Wizard of a Vod. where you didn't know that you were already home. I did not know I was already home. Is that what happened with the Player Circle Joint? That's exactly what happened. Denon, at the time, he wanted to produce that track,

Donon Porter, who was... Porter, Isaacson? No, no, no, not. He's... He did P-I-M-P with 50 Cent. He's done, like, couple M records. Like, he's, like, Aftermath crew, and D-12, all that.

And so he hit me, he was like, look, man, I'm burned out. Just give me some hook ideas. I said, all right, cool. And so I did it, and it was a song for P. player circle back in 08, I want to say 08-09. And before he became two chains, he was Titty Boy. And

I did the joint. One of the most unfortunate names. Right, right. Yeah, but yeah, but he, we did the record. And so I just did a hook, like as a reference, and Eley heard it and was like, yo, I like this kid, keep him on it. And that was at work. So yeah, for singing for me, I never, I never, only until like a few years ago, maybe like two years ago, honestly,

I was like, you know what, I really can do this. And let me sing in my own voice rather than trying. to be DeAngelo or trying to be this person or this person. Steve Arrington. Or being Steve. It's Steve Arrington, the great Steve Arrington, with the most epic ad-libs of all the time. Oh, boy.

It's like Mel Blink. It's like Mel Blink. I believe that Mel Blink's in the spirit of Steve Arrington. I learned a lot today. I learned that I'll be really surprised if we're here next week. I'm playing. I'm playing. I'm playing.

I hope you all join us and, you know, we're only going to get better with time. We're going to be professionals by our 100th,000th episode. Yeah, we got to put in the mic a barbler. We're going to die together, guys. How's that feel?

I feel it, man. I'm pretty good. No, it's cool. I always wanted to die in a closet. With fried chicken and five other men, that would be just a great story to tell at my funeral.

That note, ladies and gentlemen. Until the next Questlove Supreme. This is Questlove, Fon Ticcolo Jones, Steve Jenkins, Bill Thompson. Wait, why did I give you my last name? Wow. Because we're related. Oh, okay. Because it rhymes with my last name?

Bill Jackson. Exactly. And we'll call her Maya Clayton. This is Questlove. Hope to see you. you next week. All right, goodbye. What's Love Supreme is a production of IHeartRadio.

This classic episode was produced by the team at Pandora. For more podcasts from IHeartRadio, visit the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. 2%. That's the number of people who take the stairs when there is also an escalator available. I'm Michael Easter. And on my podcast, 2%. I break down the science of mental toughness, fitness, and fitness.

and building resilience in our strange modern world. Put yourself through some hardships, and you will come out on the other side, a happier, more fulfilled, healthier person. Listen to 2%. That's TWA% on the I-HartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win.

A win is a win. I don't care which I'm saying. Yep, that's me, Clifford Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, my basketball and college football journey, or my career in sports media. Well, now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show.

This is a place for raw, unfills of conversations with athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. So let's get to it. Listen to The Clifford show on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes,

follow at Clifford and at TikTok podcast network on TikTok. On the Look Back at a podcast. For 1979, that was a big moment for me. 84 was big to me. I'm Sam J. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick a year, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it.

With our friends, fellow comedians, and favorite authors. Like Mark Lamont Hill on the 80s. It was a wild year. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. In 2023, Bachelor star Clayton Eckerd was accused of fathering twins. But the pregnancy appeared to be a hoax.

You doctored this particular test twice, Ms. Owens, correct? I doctored the test ones. It took an army of internet detectives to uncover a disturbing pattern. Two more men who'd been through the same thing. Greg, a lesbian. Michael Mancini. My mind was blown. I'm Stephanie Young.

This is Love Trapped. Laura, Scottsdale Police. As the season continues, Laura Owens finally faces consequences. Listen to a love trapped podcast on the Eyeheart. Art Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.