I grew up in somewhat of a war zone in West Philadelphia in 1985, '86. It wasn't as extreme as someone coming in the classroom and just unloading on a class, but I knew to take the scenic route to go to the grocery store to avoid certain elements.

Questlove

Categorized in : War Class Philadelphia

The only mofos in my circle are people that I can learn from. by Questlove

The only mofos in my circle are people that I can learn from.

circles i-can people

Hip-hop is an instant gratification, winners and losers circle, and often those who are losing give up after three or four, five years.

circles giving-up years

Resistance here doesn't mean revolution. It doesn't mean storming the barricades. Resistance means using art for the things that it does best, which is to create human portraits and communicate ideas and forge a climate where people of different races or classes are known to you because they make themselves known. In the simplest terms, art humanizes. It opens the circuit of empathy. And once that process happens, it's that much harder to think of people as part of a policy or a statistic. Art reverses the alienation that can creep into society.

mean art thinking

When you live your life through records, the records are a record... by Questlove

When you live your life through records, the records are a record of your life.

live-your-life records

Funk never dies. It is eternal. It just smells a little different... by Questlove

Funk never dies. It is eternal. It just smells a little different from time to time.

smell different littles

Time will tell. Time is always telling. Time never stops telling. by Questlove

Time will tell. Time is always telling. Time never stops telling.

time-will-tell

Part of me would just like to relax and have one job that pays me the amount I need to survive. And another part of me wants the creativity that comes out of struggle and frustration and fear. It's a never-ending cycle, which must be how I want it, on some level.

creativity struggle jobs

We have to get back to "we." It's important to get back to "we" n... by Questlove

We have to get back to "we." It's important to get back to "we" not just "I."

get-back important

Music has the power to stop time. But music also keeps time. by Questlove

Music has the power to stop time. But music also keeps time.

stop-time

Just because the laws were changed doesn't mean that the attitude... by Questlove

Just because the laws were changed doesn't mean that the attitudes have changed.

law attitude mean

How do you plan a rebirth? I'm not sure you do. You just stand in the darkness until you can't endure it any long, and then you move forward until you're standing in the light.

light long moving

I keep moving through time and time keeps moving through me. And through that process, life takes shape. The question is what shape it is. I'm not the first person to ask that question, or to see how absurd it is to think there's a real answer. Maybe life's a circle.

real moving thinking

My life's goal is to find a happy medium for sampling to be not only legal but for the right parties to benefit from it. There have to be sampling laws. The survival of hiphop is based on that.

party goal law

I really appreciate when people use their fame and their voice for more than just self-promotion, starting a dialogue about a topic or an issue much bigger than themselves.

issues voice self

Highlight reels are about that one person. After a barrage of highlight reels, you get the sense that you can do it without a team. But music thrived the most when groups were involved. People lose sight of that - that community makes the world run.

team sight running

I don't bask in the awards I've won, read my bank statements, I refuse. To me, that's how you start losing the hunger.

hunger awards losing

You can't live off of just greasy fatty foods and stayin' up till six in the mornin' just partyin'. You gotta take care of yourself.

fatty six care

To be hip-hop is much more than just rapping in the production. I... by Questlove

To be hip-hop is much more than just rapping in the production. It is more in the attitude.

rap hip-hop attitude

All we sell is the Greatest feeling on Earth by Questlove

All we sell is the Greatest feeling on Earth

sells earth feelings

And even though people like to furrow their brow like they suspect you're not being honest about yourself, the truth is that they worry that you're not serving their idea of you.

worry people ideas