Amir Questlove–Thompson

You know, it's kind of like this brilliant deflection thing. Like his version of, hey. Hey, guys, what's that over there? You know, it may turn around and then like he's gone. Instead, he'll just say, here's an even funkier song to prove that I'm super black, you know, and that's that's kind of how he gets out these situations. He he has to performatively. Yeah.

For me, it's probably 41 of the most painful documented minutes in a creator's life. Like, this is clearly someone who is an unwilling participant. In his journey, like, I hear someone crying for help, but because the music is so awesome and so mind-blowing, you know, we wind up fetishizing his art and you don't see the pain of it. Or the fact that Black Pain is so... beautiful.

For me, it's probably 41 of the most painful documented minutes in a creator's life. Like, this is clearly someone who is an unwilling participant. In his journey, like, I hear someone crying for help, but because the music is so awesome and so mind-blowing, you know, we wind up fetishizing his art and you don't see the pain of it. Or the fact that Black Pain is so... beautiful.

For me, it's probably 41 of the most painful documented minutes in a creator's life. Like, this is clearly someone who is an unwilling participant. In his journey, like, I hear someone crying for help, but because the music is so awesome and so mind-blowing, you know, we wind up fetishizing his art and you don't see the pain of it. Or the fact that Black Pain is so... beautiful.

Like the sound of Aretha Franklin's voice, like, yeah, we'll say like, it's so soulful. So, but no, that Aretha Franklin's voice is, is the sound of a woman who never had a relationship with her own mother, whose mother rejected her. And when you hear her beautiful voice, that's, that's the sound of pain.

Like the sound of Aretha Franklin's voice, like, yeah, we'll say like, it's so soulful. So, but no, that Aretha Franklin's voice is, is the sound of a woman who never had a relationship with her own mother, whose mother rejected her. And when you hear her beautiful voice, that's, that's the sound of pain.

Like the sound of Aretha Franklin's voice, like, yeah, we'll say like, it's so soulful. So, but no, that Aretha Franklin's voice is, is the sound of a woman who never had a relationship with her own mother, whose mother rejected her. And when you hear her beautiful voice, that's, that's the sound of pain.

So somehow, you know, a lot of black music that we love, you know, the, the sound of Ray Charles's voice, the sound of Stevie Wonder's voice, the sound, what we're really getting off on is, is their pain, which I'm guilty of it, but you know, it's problematic and it's also a pleasure, you know, and I, I feel guilty that, Sometimes I get off on someone's pain.

So somehow, you know, a lot of black music that we love, you know, the, the sound of Ray Charles's voice, the sound of Stevie Wonder's voice, the sound, what we're really getting off on is, is their pain, which I'm guilty of it, but you know, it's problematic and it's also a pleasure, you know, and I, I feel guilty that, Sometimes I get off on someone's pain.

So somehow, you know, a lot of black music that we love, you know, the, the sound of Ray Charles's voice, the sound of Stevie Wonder's voice, the sound, what we're really getting off on is, is their pain, which I'm guilty of it, but you know, it's problematic and it's also a pleasure, you know, and I, I feel guilty that, Sometimes I get off on someone's pain.

We do, but see, here's the problem with that, though. One of my mentors who passed away, writer Greg Tate, he wrote a book called Everything But the Burden. And what that essentially means is that oftentimes black art, black pain is just so beautiful that oftentimes, you know, we'll take everything. We'll take the dancing. We'll take the fashion. We'll take the lingo. We'll take the singing.

We do, but see, here's the problem with that, though. One of my mentors who passed away, writer Greg Tate, he wrote a book called Everything But the Burden. And what that essentially means is that oftentimes black art, black pain is just so beautiful that oftentimes, you know, we'll take everything. We'll take the dancing. We'll take the fashion. We'll take the lingo. We'll take the singing.

We do, but see, here's the problem with that, though. One of my mentors who passed away, writer Greg Tate, he wrote a book called Everything But the Burden. And what that essentially means is that oftentimes black art, black pain is just so beautiful that oftentimes, you know, we'll take everything. We'll take the dancing. We'll take the fashion. We'll take the lingo. We'll take the singing.

We'll take everything but the burden and the pain that it takes to – reach that level of art. For me, one of the best examples, every time I DJ, there's a song by James Brown called It's a New Day. And probably three minutes into that song, James Brown does a level of screaming that is beyond just ad-libs.

We'll take everything but the burden and the pain that it takes to – reach that level of art. For me, one of the best examples, every time I DJ, there's a song by James Brown called It's a New Day. And probably three minutes into that song, James Brown does a level of screaming that is beyond just ad-libs.

We'll take everything but the burden and the pain that it takes to – reach that level of art. For me, one of the best examples, every time I DJ, there's a song by James Brown called It's a New Day. And probably three minutes into that song, James Brown does a level of screaming that is beyond just ad-libs.

Every time I DJ this song, it's so awesomely danceable and funky, but also so painful to hear because James Brown is a person that was an orphan that grew up in a brothel. His mother gave him away. His father gave him away. So that feeling of rejection he had all of his life, all that pain is coming out in this song. And that's kind of the thing. It's everything but the burden.

Every time I DJ this song, it's so awesomely danceable and funky, but also so painful to hear because James Brown is a person that was an orphan that grew up in a brothel. His mother gave him away. His father gave him away. So that feeling of rejection he had all of his life, all that pain is coming out in this song. And that's kind of the thing. It's everything but the burden.

Every time I DJ this song, it's so awesomely danceable and funky, but also so painful to hear because James Brown is a person that was an orphan that grew up in a brothel. His mother gave him away. His father gave him away. So that feeling of rejection he had all of his life, all that pain is coming out in this song. And that's kind of the thing. It's everything but the burden.

That's kind of the empathetic way that we wanted to paint this story that, you know, because people often just say like, wow, he he had everything and he was a genius. And then he chose drugs.