If there’s one performer whose vast knowledge of pop culture and music history needs desperately to be tapped in book form, it’s Questlove. The Roots drummer with the Muppety looks and sometimes oddly-punctuated name (when he goes by ?uestlove) who keeps time as part of the house band for Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, has an encyclopedic recall of funk, rock, jazz, and soul music. Already a kind of unofficial cultural studies professor, this semester he’s even been teaching a class at New York University called “Classic Albums,” which has been highlighting such ingenious LPs as Paul’s Boutique, Led Zeppelin IV, Off the Wall, Aretha Franklin’s Lady Soul, and Prince’s Dirty Mind.
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If you didn’t have $40,000 to pony up for NYU tuition, Questlove is giving you the next best thing: a memoir called Mo’ Meta Blues: The World According to Questlove, which promises to address topics in black music and popular culture as well as undoubtedly recount some of his more interesting experiences in the business.
The drummer has recently been the subject of profiles in The New Yorker and Rolling Stone, in which he talked about his proclivity, like any pop culture connoisseur, for making elaborate lists, including of his favorite albums. He’s been known to be surprisingly candid about his likes and dislikes, such as his long-burning crush on Alison Brie — though, really, who doesn’t have a crush on Alison Brie? — and contempt for Michele Bachmann. This may be a chance for him to clarify that whole controversy from Dec. 2011 when he instructed the Roots to play “Lyin’ Ass Bitch” as Bachmann’s entrance music during her appearance on Late Night.
Do you plan on picking up a copy of Mo’ Metal Blues when it’s released June 18?
Follow Christian Blauvelt on Twitter @Ctblauvelt
[Photo Credit: PNP/WENN]
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