Been 5 years since Questlove's "Creative Quest" book was published. It didn't make too much noise from what I remember. It seems "a-ight" some okay stuff about Questlove's experiences and advice.

but...

The part about Questlove and D'Angelo debating the value of the Childish Gambino album "Awaken my love" seems kinda "touchy subject"

D'Angelo is pretty private and Quest is going in on analyzing D'Angelo's response (and detailing D'Angelo's response to "Awaken my love")

p 264 - 266

...From the second I put the new Childish Gambino record on, I was shocked. It was late at night, or what other people call early in the morning. I immediately called D'Angelo. "D," I said. "You have to hear this. It's the train."

He knew what I meant. Only a few other people would have. But now everyone can know. When I was young and I was taking the train around Philadelphia, I would have strange thoughts about the trains arriving at the platform....As I got older, I started to turn that into a metaphor for art. If the Roots put out an album right on the cutting edge of jazz and hip-hop, we could enjoy it for a moment. We were the only kid on the platform. But there was always another train about fifty yards behind us. We couldn't turn to make sure, because it could be the last thing we'd ever see. We had to keep going, keep making things, stay creative, stay challenged.

The reason I called D'Angelo was because of his own music. His own great music, I should say - Voodoo was a genuine masterpiece, and then he took some time (this is called artful understatement) to deliver Black Messiah, his follow-up. When it finally appeared at the end of 2014, it was everything everyone thought it would be. It did amazing things bringing old funk and soul into a new age, keeping the spirit of that music alive but also keeping it pushing forward. There was nothing like it. Or was there? D'Angelo thought he was the only one on the train track, and I was right there with him. In our heads, we were the only ones on that track. But when I heard the Childish Gambino record two years later, I knew we were wrong. We had been camping on the track so long, operating under that false belief, and suddenly I realized there was a twenty-ton locomotive coming at us....No artist of his size, of his prominence, was working with the same ingredients in the same way....But it was also a lesson in competition.

I had lot's of arguments about that record, that night and in the days to come, with D'Angelo. One interesting one, at least for the purposes of that discussion, originated with the idea of influence, and it returns to some of the concepts I discussed at the beginning of this chapter. D'Angelo asked me if I thought the record was derivative. Of course it was, and I said so. But I also asked him why he thought he had the right to soak everything up, from Smokey Robinson to Marvin Gaye to Curtis Mayfield to Prince, and remake it in his own image, while Childish Gambino didn't. It all came down to time frame. In D'Angelo's mind, he was drawing on oldies, but oldies that were acquired legitimately, on the radio, in his own record collection, whereas Childish Gambino was wearing them like fashion. In my mind, that's not a good argument. You don't pick where your inspiration comes from, or where your competition comes from. You are inspired by and compete with things that matter to you. Sometimes they come to you across the decades. And then there's the funny second implication in what D'Angelo was saying. He was suggesting that Childish Gambino was also, in some sense, copying him, that he was using the same set of moves to reach his audience. I told D'Angelo that I agreed with him - but he had to realize that he was an oldies act, too. That was something he didn't like to hear. But I asked him to look at the calendar. His debut album was more than twenty years old......

Poll question: Did Questlove cross the line with D'Angelo/Donald Glover revelations in the book?

Poll result (14 votes) Nah....just telling what happened (12 votes) Vote yeah, not supposed to reveal D critiquing another artist (2 votes) Vote

... D deserves it cuz it's a shitty argument lol.

I think given his friendship with D, he didnt right tis whole section of the book without also letting him know. (Of course thats an assumption)

I'd assumed he'd let him know ahead of time.

weekly....
D was right
Q was wrong

>but he had to realize that
>he was an oldies act, too. That was something he didn't like
>to hear. But I asked him to look at the calendar. His debut
>album was more than twenty years old......

Going on thirty years old at this point. And spot on considering D was pulling from influences that were 20-30 years old.

of course he’a gonna hate.

Any real artist is going to have some hate if he’s keeping it real.

>RE: woke that man up to tell him he’s old and washed
>of course he’a gonna hate.

>Any real artist is going to have some hate if he’s keeping
>it real.
>

Some are rare in that they don't, but I get D's point, I think it's a good one. A lot of Gambino's album was singing new songs over looped pieces of old instrumentals. They sounded great, but that actually is different from what D'Angelo did. I'd have to say I appreciate D's effort more, artistically. He was inspired to create both songs AND instrumentals. He carried on tradition of the Black Pool of Genius where Gambino just sampled it.

I kinda agree with both of them.
My initial reaction aligns with D'Angelo's perspective, but after looking at the bigger picture, I know that Quest was probably right.

Either way, I don't think he crossed any lines. D'Angelo already knows how Quest gets down with all his geek outs and wordy revelations. If he didn't want him to share what he shares about their interactions, I'm sure all he has to do is say the word and it's done.'

Now, in terms of Glover.. I'm looking at that episode in season 4 of Atlanta that Earn is pursuing D'Angelo like some type of great white whale in a totally new light.

>Now, in terms of Glover.. I'm looking at that episode in
>season 4 of Atlanta that Earn is pursuing D'Angelo like some
>type of great white whale in a totally new light.

>Now, in terms of Glover.. I'm looking at that episode in
>season 4 of Atlanta that Earn is pursuing D'Angelo like some
>type of great white whale in a totally new light.
>
>

I think that is his greatest gift.

He said it a couple of times but here it is one version of him talking about it:

"From his Georgia home, Glover describes reality as a code that can be hacked. He unveils the secret to his success in surviving a matrix that extends far beyond Hollywood, entertainment, or even America. “I learn fast—I figured out the algorithm…When people become depressed and kill themselves, it’s because all they see is the algorithm, the loop.” The realization reportedly came to Glover at age 10, during a childhood that endured bullying and marginalization. “I realized, if I want to be good at , I have to be good at basketball. So I went home and shot baskets in our driveway for six hours, until my mother called me in. The next day, I was good enough that you wouldn’t notice I was bad. And I realized my superpower.” Tad Friend describes Glover’s basketball form 24 years later, as witnessed during a break on set. The skills developed, long beyond Gym class survival. Glover says, “It sounds like I’m sucking my own d*ck—‘Oh, he thinks he’s great at everything,’…But what if you had that power?”

Far beyond lay-ups and chest-passes, Glover applies that “superpower” to his flush creative portfolio. It is why he accepted a small role in Spider-Man: Homecoming, when many in his position might scoff before declining. “I learn so much. I learn how Marvel movies work, how to handle guest stars, how to make execs happy when they come on set,” Glover describes. “I gain some of your power. Only now I’m running out of places to learn, at least in America.”"


Like Donald Glover sees art as a problem to solve. He looks at the landscape, see's what's missing and delivers it. He has an insanely good ability of knowing what the crowd wants. He is kinda like Diddy at his prime like that. It's a great skill and I don't think that makes him less great, but the art is in his ability to mimic others. DG needs a host to feed off of (tha sounds bad but its not).

D'angelo is a Host. He is a source of creativity. I feel like Musiq Soulchild saw what D was doing and said let me do the same but make it more commercially friendly, something that can end up in a sprite ad.



D'angelo works best down in VA by himself whipping up stuff Sui Generis.

Donald Glover knows he need this Gilga arts collective whatever he is working on to suck in creative forces, polish them up for the world because he knows what people want, and put them out to the world under his banner. It's not a terrible thing, but I think of him more as a producer type than a pure artist.

But this may just be hate.




**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

its like starting a record label after being an artist

You get screwed over in the industry on your first deal..

then once you figure it out

you start doing the screwing.. lol.

I think "Awaken, My Love" really adds to what you're saying, because it's just him using old instrumentals to write songs that emulate the time period of the instrumentals. So much of what he does musically is derivative. I forget what Awards show he was on doing a Marvin Gaye impression. There's definitely a space in entertaiment for people who know what the people want tho.

I am shocked that Questlove was so impressed with his work when it seems he works mostly in covers and interpolations. Seems very souless in some regards. at least as compared to D'Angelo who is oozing soul.

I think that's why TV is such a great medium for him. He can get a room full of writers, pick their brains and assemble all these ideas under one artistic expression.


**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

My question is, does it resonate with people the way Voodoo/BS did? Is the impact there?


I haven't heard a single song from the album outside of the single, and thats odd to me. When an album really hits the people, you can't escape it, the people will make you hear it.


They mustve turned the power off at the train station.

Like the pop ubiquitous rises higher but disappears quickly and the soulful music with a base slow burn builds over time.


**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

Yea, I STILL can drop Redbone in an early set. It's still THAT good even if it "feels" like Bootsy.

I think Quest (& D) also neglect the impact that west coast Jazz/Funk/R&B scene was having in the same time period,

TPAB was only a year before Awaken, Thundercat and Flylo were deep in their bag along with The Internet dropped "Girl" a year before etc...

The DNA for an album like this was already in the water in LA

www.engadgethd.com - the other stuff i'm looking at

Otherwise it's a betrayal of a friend's confidence and that ain't cool.