?UESTLOVE REVIEW ON WWW.OKAYPLAYER.COM

TAKEN FROM WWW.OKAYPLAYER.COM

Wednesday April 10


once again, Ahmir Thompson:

i had a great opening sentence to start off my update for today. but my trusty cohort here, ms dawson the editor, ixnayed it.....so i will turn my opening sentence to her...hit it ro:

history was made, lived & loved 2nite.


now i could be a wiseass and play mr. crabtree (HOW WAS HISTORY MADE? WHAT LIVED? WHO LOVED??!?!?) but i'll play nice

nice my ass.

okay. so as i suspected, the lifebeat show at the beacon theater in nyc was gonna be a friggin nightmare. i arrived to alicia rehearsing her band through ODB's "brooklyn zoo". she runs a tight ship. jeflee might be right. i haven't seen many women take this much control of her career in this manner. i was lucky to snap this photo. cause soon after her great big bodyguards (to the tune of "top billin") came over to squash that shit real quick.


we were given 20 minutes to soundcheck. not enough time to get all our sound together. i realize that we are not in our environment. meeting alicia was slightly disappointing only cause while we were creating "double trouble" she was in the studio next to us making her then Columbia debut. we got mad cool (i even gave her glownuts--DLSID joke--).....i knew i was in trouble when she said "nice to meet you". i was like either the weight loss is getting bad or those 100+ hours of talking wasn't that profound.---but hey...mofo's curse me out all the time for forgetting who they are, so i'm not mad.

then the friggin' press junkets. "who are you guys?" "what do y'all do?" "why are you here?"

stupid questions.

we walked out like divas. i couldn't wait to get the show over so that i could do what i really wanted to do..which was go to the prince show at the lincoln center.

this is where ms. dawson is supposed to take over.....but it's 5am and she can't hack it so i will finish the story.


prince is the shit. that's all i gots to say. he executed the shit out of this band. john, greg, maceo, rhonda, and renato are all ace. everything that alan leeds said in his review was true, and more. (suspecting that new york was a tough crowd, he even threw some purple rain classics in there) i felt like i was watching parade era- prince all over again. "1+1+1=3" was so friggin dope. i had my own lil peanut gallery goin on: former bomb squader bill stepheny, chris "that motherf#$%$r don't know the words to 777-9311??!?!?!?! what is this world coming to?" rock (more on that later), tinyteanie, rosario, and my boy knox from the fader.

there were some weird moments: "family name" didn't go over too well with white cats in the audience; audience showed more enthusiasm for "the hits" than the new stuff. but what does the audience know? q-tip kinda stumbled his way through a freestyle of "bonita/relaxation"....he got caught out there cussin (guess he don't know prince's new steeze on cussin)--he repeated "fat ass thighs" like 4 times...prince joked that he is gonna mentor tip to "watch his mouth" next time. but it was lighthearted and it was all good. i was most impressed that he did all of his slow classics complete without a medley rush. he did a complete "adore", "do me baby", "starfish and coffee", "strange relationship" "condition of the heart" "diamonds and pearls" "i wanna be your lover" and ---damn about 8 more i'm missing? by the time the show was over we retreated to our hangout spot, the blue ribbon sushi spot, to meet with crew (cody chestnutt and fatima and 10 others who's names escape me) we were ! so stuffed that we almost caught ni#$ridus. but we pushed onto our next destination: the wwf club on broadway (think, it's called "world"?) he came onstage round 2something. this time larry graham got on board to rock the bass. doug e. led the crowd through his usual party antics, george clinton who performed at that club just hours before got onstage and did something.

and then it was my turn.


i always forget to breathe whenever i play with him. but it was cool. musiq had me come out with him and jam on sly's "if you want me to stay". he was nervous, but he held it down big time. as always i call the same person whenever some shit like this happens to me.

d.

he's still writing cuts with raphael and he reminded me who i just got offstage with: larry graham, prince, and maceo parker. even i was impressed. so impressed that i quit while i was ahead. and that's when he started to kick it.

777-9311.

man i was heated. i wanted to play that bad boy. but alas john blackwell showed me why he has his job. i met a drummer besides me who nailed that song tight (not even jellybean plays it right). it was all good until....

well...hey i love everybody (especially her body), but both chris and i cringed when she didn't sing the lyrics ("hey, what's your phone number?") she just ad-libbed her way through it. which was cool.....but....well...come on now "777"? man, we really are in a generation of cats that can't even learn what they heard this afternoon. not to worry i will give her a "prince wrote it" (my version of "wonder wrote it") so she will be straight. (fatima almost had a heart attack when ro couldn't recall "nasty girl"...even after singing the whole song!)

a good time was had by all. even joi observed the fun. it's so late now.....i'm sure i will remember this forever. one!

(...FROM SCOTTY IN DALLAS)

who is ?uestlove

very interesting insight from ?uestlove - especially the way he gently ribs Alicia keys throughout. It's true that she didn't know the lyrics to 777-9311; instead she just riffed vocally for 5 minutes and let the crowd in a call/ response chant (I can't remember exactly what it was). She did seem genuinely thrilled to be onstage with P though.

That is so cool.

Pstyle said:

I'll preface my comments by saying Questlove irritates the hell out of me and I think he's overrated.


scotmann said:[quote]TAKEN FROM WWW.OKAYPLAYER.COM

Wednesday April 10


once again, Ahmir Thompson:

scotmann said:

quest aint average at all. he isnt the greatest of all time obviously but he is one of the best of his generation. some orgers just wanna hate on anyone who dares to criticise their hero. anyone who knows hip hop and soul tradition should know that quest is good.

I hooked up my brother up for this entire night and he was at the afterparty as well. Alicia Keys def. displayed her youth...She really didn't know 777-9311, but I guess she is too young too have known that song back in the day...But after being at the Celebration and working with Prince, you'd think she'd learn some of the ol' skool jams...Maybe it's just me and a handful of other people but I don't really see what all the hype is about when it comes to her...She needs to prove herself and drop what I see is a def. attitude...That's just my thoughts on this young kitten...

SoulSeven said:

wishuhvn said:

SoulSeven said:

SoulSeven said:

Ifsixwuz9 said:

Ifsixwuz9 said:

I think you guys are missing one of the (if not THE) key (no pun intended) ingredients for Alicia's success: the CLIVE DAVIS factor.

wishuhvn said:[quote]. Alicia Keys def. displayed her youth...She really didn't know 777-9311, but I guess she is too young too have known that song back in the day...quote]

That's bull, I'm younger than Alicia and I know the words to 777-9311. Of course, I've been a Prince fan since the womb, so I guess I don't count now do I???

BTW, ?uestlove is the man!!!

for all of you hatin on ?uest, pull your head out of your asses....

Paris9748430 said:[quote]

wishuhvn said:

SoulSeven said:[quote]

Ifsixwuz9 said:

SoulSeven said:

{snipped}
I think she is getting hype now because she actually came out playing an instrument and singing rather than being a sex object. You don't see her half naked, ass in the air, boobs falling out her shirt like the rest. Even though she would probably sell more records that way.

i will cherish those visuals right there. thank you.

LadyCabDriver said:

SoulSeven said:

LadyCabDriver said:

Why are people hating on ?uestlove??? It's obvious he was overly pumped up about playing with his idol - Prince. In my opinion, ?uestlove pays much respect to Prince and all the other musicians on stage that night. I mean who else would go home and write a report at 5:00 a.m besides a true fan?

So he was a little disappointed that he didn't get to play 7779311... SO WHAT??? He just wanted to play on one of his favorite jams! Is that such a big deal? Furthermore, he gave props to Blackwell for nailing it.

I guess I just don't understand why some people are getting bent out of shape over what is obviously such a glowing review of ?uestlove's experience with Prince.

I guess some of his comments (like the one clearly in the post) don't come off as arrogant to you. Nevertheless, they are.

Supernova said:

abucah said:

Ifsixwuz9 said:

?uestlove, thats a bad brotha, I enjoyed the read. I'm sure he'll have other chances 2 display his funky drum chops with Prince.....If U never seen the brotha drum with The Roots or D'angelo live....go check it~

Supernova said: