School of Cool #1: Questlove

In the first of a new series profiling our heroes, we kick-off with Questlove…

So who is he?
Even if you don’t know the name Questlove, you’ve probably heard his music. He’s a drummer, producer, journalist and DJ and first made his name as the drummer of The Roots, the Grammy winning rap group from Philadelphia who are known for playing their own instruments.

Impressive. What else do I need to know?
He’s worked with the likes of Jay-Z, Christina Aguilera and Joss Stone and is writing with Duffy for her next album.  And in something you wouldn’t expect a rap group to do, The Roots are currently the house band for American chat show Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, a bit like a much cooler (and musically talented) version of Jonathan Ross’s Four Poofs And A Piano. Oh, and Questlove’s got an awesomely big Afro and tweets a lot.

So he’s a cool guy, but why’s he a Global Cool guy?
The Roots were at the centre of an impressive bill for a recent concert in Washington DC in support of US organisation Earth Day.  Their Climate Rally featured The Roots (with Questlove on the drumstool, natch) playing with everyone’s favourite policeman, Sting, as well as with soul star John Legend. Also performing were hip New York band Passion Pit and reggae legend Jimmy Cliff.

Here are just a couple of highlights…

The Roots covering Sweet Child O’ Mine

The Roots & Sting doing Message In A Bottle

Show me more…
You can join Questlove’s 1.3 million Twitter followers at @questlove and check out more about The Roots at www.okayplayer.com.

Share

• 

No related posts.