-I wanted to see how well you guys know each other
in a new game, if you guys don't mind playing.
It's called "Know Your Roots."
Now, here's how it works, okay?
Don't touch anything, man.
One of you guys will wear these noise-canceling headphones
while the other one answers a question about you,
then you'll take the headphones off and we'll see
if your answers match. Make sense?
-Okay. -Is that an iPod?
-Yes. -[ Laughs ]
-I'm your grandpa, yeah.
Alright... -[ Laughs ]
-The first question is about you, so put these on...
-Okay. Okay. -...and I'll turn this jam on.
Take your in-ears out. -Oh. Jesus.
[ Indistinct music playing ]
-[ Laughs ] Alright, here we go.
-Can you hear what we're saying? Anything? [ Indistinct ]
-Quest, ready? -Okay.
-What's the most trouble Tariq got in growing up?
The most trouble. -[ Sighs heavily ]
These are what I think he'll say.
-Yes.
-Alright, one time he... [ Audience laughs ]
...he accidentally set the house on fire.
[ Audience ohh's, laughs ]
And he, like, did it and then --
It was upstairs, so he ran downstairs in a panic,
and everyone was like, "You guys smell something?"
Tariq was, like, eating his food like, "Nope."
[ Laughter ]
So, I think he'll say the time that he accidentally --
-Did the place burn down? -Oh, yeah.
[ Audience shouts, laughs ]
But that's how we met
'cause he had to move to his grandmom's crib.
[ Laughter ]
Serendipitous.
-Alright. -I hope that's the answer.
-Question was -- What was the most trouble
that you got into growing up? -Oh, uh...
Like, with the law?
[ Laughter ]
-Check, please!
[ Laughter ]
Uhhhhh, sure, sure. What does that mean?
-The law. -I mean, you know...
Most trouble -- I don't -- Wow.
I mean, I got in a lot of trouble growing up.
You know? -You were a bad kid?
-I wasn't a bad kid. I just, you know -- I just...
I just got in a lot of trouble. -Yeah, yeah, yeah.
-Um... -Not the law. Just...
-Um, well, I got suspended from school,
you know, quite a few times.
I think, you know, we probably met
during one of my suspensions.
Yeah, I was either going or coming.
-Yeah. But what did you do that was bad -- like in trouble?
-Um...probably like making out on school grounds or something.
I think it was something light that time, you know.
-Yeah, yeah, yeah. -Yeah, yeah.
Making out, lighting a house on fire...
-Ohhh!
[ Laughter ]
-How do you forget lighting a house on fire?!
What's wrong with you?! "Making out!"
-I didn't forget lighting the house on fire.
-Yeah, he did. -Okay, I did,
I burned down the house. Yes, I burned down the house.
[ Laughter ]
-The roof! The roof! The roof is on fire!
-But I didn't get in trouble for it.
I was a little kid, you know what I mean?
Like, if you come home, the house is on fire,
I mean, your concern as a parent is, "Did anyone get hurt?"
Right? So, I wasn't hurt,
no one else was hurt, so my mom was, you know,
probably super relieved. Yes, it was a bummer.
The house is gone.
[ Laughter ]
-Go to your nonexistent room! -My thought exactly.
Go to your room. -It's burnt down, mom! I can't!
-I didn't get in trouble. -Oh, my gosh.
Alright. Here we go. This is for --
Can you put this on, Quest, and press play on that jam?
-Okay.
-Alright, this is the last one. Ready?
What do you think was the strangest request
that Questlove has gotten while deejaying?
-Mm. Mm.
-I -- I made the mistake a couple times
of going up to Quest when he's deejaying.
You never talk to a deejay. -Yeah, he's really annoyed.
-You don't do it. They play what they want to play.
-Right. -But I was drunk,
and I was like, "Yo, can you play Randy Newman or something?"
And he was like, "Get out of here."
What would you think was the craziest request?
-Um...
I mean, you know...
One crazy was -- Okay, first of all,
just like you said, he doesn't accept requests.
-He does not. -Yeah, the fact that he let
anyone approach him while deejaying
means that it must be like you or, I don't know,
like Barack Obama or somebody.
So, I think when we had done a show at the White House,
at which he was deejaying the after-party,
he was trying to keep it real sort of clean
for most of the evening
because there was Paul McCartney,
Bruce Springsteen, you know what I mean.
There were -- You know, Lionel Richie was there.
So he was spinning sort of real mellow music,
and I think at one point, Obama or maybe --
I can't remember what -- either Michelle or Barack
came up to him and just requested
that he play some real stuff, you know what I mean?
Like, "Yo, could you play some trap music, some --
you know, something...
-Barack Obama asked for trap music?
-Yeah, because it's what his daughters and their crew
sort of wanted to hear. So, yeah,
I think that was the request. -Did he say no?
-No, he started playing it. Yeah.
And the part got live!
It was crazy.
[ Chuckling ] It was crazy.
Like, that's when the room went up.
-That's when he burned the house down?
Yeah -- Ah! [ Laughter and applause ]
-Quest -- -Wait a minute,
how long was this story that it was...
-No, no. [ Stammering ] Alright.
The question is -- What was the strangest request that you got
while deejaying?
Any gig. -Oh, no.
-I remember I asked you for a couple weird ones.
You don't like to be talked to. -Not counting
when people are like, "Can you please stop
playing music right now."
[ Laughter ]
Oh, wait a minute, I had a really humiliating moment
with Prince once. -Ohh...
-What happened with Prince?
-Uh...Okay, so, I was deejaying, and maybe like 20 minutes in,
I guess he didn't like what I was playing,
so in that sort of "Scrubs,"
"Parker Lewis Can't Lose" sound effect way,
Prince and his assistant was like, "[Whooshes] Play this."
And they gave me a DVD of "Finding Nemo."
-Oh, wow. Yeah. I remember that. -I remember that.
-And then, I was like, "Well, I don't have a DVD player."
And then they were like, "[Whooshes]
Here's a DVD player."
But the thing was, we were in a night-club atmosphere,
so think like sexy 2004 where it was like a sexy environment.
-So they shut all the music off and put on "Finding Nemo"?
-And then I was like, "Well, there's no monitors,"
and then suddenly, like, monitors came down.
And he -- So then I put "Finding Nemo" on,
thinking he just wanted to see the visuals of it
while I kept deejaying. Then he was like,
"No, no. Play the movie."
So... [ Laughter ]
-Turn the music off. I want to watch "Finding Nemo."
-We're in da club -- Like D-A, da club --
and they're like -- Pixar's "Finding Nemo"
played for two hours. Please tell me that's the story.
-That is not the story. -Aw, damn.
-The story was...
Do you remember Barack Obama?
-Oh, that's my second most-embarrassing -- yes.
-Dude, what happened?
-I didn't think that I should be playing
trap music at the White House.
[ Laughter ]
-He asked for it?
-Well, yeah. I was playing it safe.
I'm in the White House. I'm in the Hall of Presidents
and Taft and all those guys are, like, looking at me with...
-Barack Obama, he's like, "Hey, uh, uh, turn it up."
-Yeah.
[ Laughter ]
-He's basically telling me that I was doing a bad job.
Like, "Oh, you're doing fine with disco, but...
[stammering] look at them. They want to dance."
And then I put on trap music,
and then suddenly, it turned into, like,
the "Smells Like Teen Spirit" video.
[ Laughter ]
-We saw the portraits of all the presidents --
George Washington... -Yeah, shed a tear.
-One tear rolled down his cheek.
-The funniest moment was Stevie Wonder
actually responded, too.
Like, in his chair, suddenly he's like...
It was...like literally -- -Gone, yeah.
-Yeah.
-I want to say congrats on "Hip Hop" on AMC
and congrats on "Mixtape Potluck."
Thank you for being
the best house band in the whole wide world.
-Aw, come on. -Thank you.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-Questlove! Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter!
Questlove's "Mixtape Potluck" is available October 15th!
And "Hip Hop: The Songs That Shook America"
premieres Sunday on AMC.