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:

The drummer for the Roots. Prince met him through D'Angelo.

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:




No duh.



Shows how much he knows. NYC ain't special, he's been doing this in various cities on this tour.






See this is why this mofo bugs me. Give Blackwell his due without patting yourself on the freaking back you conceited ass! And for the life of me, I would like to see Questlove play just once on the calibur of John Blackwell. Everytime I've seen this guy he is playing the same tired ass beat.

scotmann said:

Oh, shut the bloody hell up! I guess because he wears an afro he thinks he's got old school chops. Umm, NO. ?uestlove is probably the MOST overrated drummer of his generation! He's average at best. Shut the bloody hell up! Just[pre:1:9fc29193d3]SHUT THE BLOODY HELL UP![/pre:1:9fc29193d3]

Geez. Sit your ass down, see how it's done! Says Johnny Bwell to the journeyman with the friggin'look at this, it's clever question mark at the front of his stage name!

You ain't all that. You're just a time keeper.

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:

Sorry, this "hero" stuff doesn't fly in my case. I didn't see anything that pointed to criticism of Prince in that post, and I've criticized Prince for many things probably more intensely than Thompson ever has.

He's just full of himself, which is obvious from that post.

It doesn't help that he's an average time keeper. If he's one of the best of his generation that doesn't say much for his generation - which underlines my point.

wishuhvn said:

i dont understand the hype either. if she wasnt as pretty as she is (and she is) i really doubt she would be embraced by som manypeople as she has been. her album is a pop soul album - she is NOT the saviour of soul as some people like to make out. the production is like nysnyc and britney and them! she has a nice voice but her songs have so much borrowed from other songs i think she has a lot of room to improve. shes talented but at this point in her career i cant see what everyone else says.

SoulSeven said:

This doesn't have jack to do with Prince. I'll assume that's the "hero" you are referring to. John Blackwell is a terrific drummer without Princes' endorsement. The point is that ?uest couldn't give another drummer a compliment without first patting himself on the back. That crap is irritating because a number of people have yet to see him do anything spectacular.

SoulSeven said:

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.

Ifsixwuz9 said:

i will cherish those visuals right there. thank you.

Ifsixwuz9 said:

thats fine if you have yet to see him do anything spectacular. but how can you dismiss him if you dont know much of his work?

ill admit he isnt THE greatest ever but i have seen quest do a lot of great things live and heard him play some excellent music on record too.

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:

alicia is still learning a lot. she still learning how to play the piano - people acting like shes a virtuso. she is compared to britney and them but thats just comparing yourself with the lowest.

SoulSeven said:[quote]

Ifsixwuz9 said:

perv :p

LadyCabDriver said:

Get yours out of ?uest's for a sec. From what I've seen and heard of him he ain't all that. If he does something to change my opinion I'll speak on it.

SoulSeven said:

The dude bugs me thats all. I'll admit, I'm not a Roots fan. I've seen a couple videos, and such. I think the concept of a hip hop band is cool. No beef with them or what they do. It's ?uest that comes off as a conceited jackass and for no apparant reason. I have the Nikka Costa album. The drumming is good but it's not the end all be all. I have the Voodoo album, sorry but I think it's really overrated. I was really disappointed with the outcome after all the hype.

And for all the people who criticize Prince fans for being well... too asskissy. I can say the same for the ?uestlove fans. I do drop into OKP.com everynow and then and some of those guys/gals practically genuflect everytime the guy comments on something or acknowledges one of them.

LadyCabDriver said:

Pull yours out of ?uestlove's first...

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:

Example please

abucah said:

I can answer that....its because some of these people dont listen to anything BUT Prince and for some reason they feel "threatened" by anyone that's not him....or in other words, they're asskissers....

Ifsixwuz9 said:

noone said it was the be and end all man. quest only drummed on a few tracks really on the nikka album and as for voodoo i think its an acquired taste. they were trying to do something different and not everyone was going to like it. its not for pop-tuned ears. in my mind though it was a modern masterpiece.

i think if you know hip hop and soul music traditions then you can appreciate what quest does a little more. and live hes fantastic. he could change his style/sound up a little more but thats his prerogative. he was more free as a drummer on the first two roots albums. hes been perfecting a more breakbeat-rooted style since then.

he can come off as self indulgent every now and then but its obvious that he respects john blackwell. and he is one of the best drummers in black music right now, and also one of the most in demand.

?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:

Exactly. It's not that he was pumped about playing with Prince or any of those other musicians. It's not about him not getting to play on 777-9311. It's about him coming off this way a lot in other situations.