What's up y'all this is Questlove, and we're about to see which of these rap hits gets
my cosign.
The name of the show is “Songs That Shook America.”
In short, we just take hip-hop classic songs and we dissect them.
I compare it to music's version of ESPN's 30 for 30.
I think the state of hip-hop is where it should be.
For me to expect the music of my era to sort of stay in one place, and not expand or grow
is actually quite foolish.
I feel as that every year unleashes a song that's a stop the world moment.
Who knows for 2019 maybe those Shaquille O'Neal disses might be.
I'm actually a fan of DaBaby and I'm trying to get him on the Roots picnic, so
even if I felt some sort of way I’d be like, “Thumbs up!”
No, I mess with DaBaby.
I was trying to get me a Billion Dollar Baby chain, also.
A lot of rappers rap about the regret of their family not seeing them bloom into where they are now.
That happened with Chris Rock, that happened with Pos of De La Soul.
With the song, I mess with it.
I like it.
Wow. “Chicken Noodle Soup’s” an oldie, but goodie, now.
BTS is their own universe, where it’s like, some pop dudes, some hip hop dudes, like everybody,
every demographic, and psychograph is represented in this group.
In the BTS universe would he be the Method Man,
Wait, I'm really impressed with the way that these cars are falling out of the sky, like wait.
I'm sorry.
I had to stop one second.
American culture is finally opening up to this.
I’m definitely like, “What took y’all so long?”
Because a lot of people really don’t, unless you travel the world like I have, you really
don’t know how big hip-hop culture is over there.
What's even crazier is like what I call quote real hip-hop culture is more prevalent in
other places, but the United States.
Wait, they’re from Philly?
No one has a beard!
They're all clean shaven.
All right they’re at the plateau.
To give people perspective.
This is the same place that Will and Jeff shot “Summertime.”
But it’s like, it's like polar opposites.
All right this first old guy question I'm going to ask.
You just straight up show Glocks now in your videos?
Philly has always had a street element to it.
It's kind of in the spirit of what “Protect Ya Neck” was.
Remember how amateurish “Protect Ya Neck” looked?
But yet, there's something gritty about it that kept you there?
The fact that this has 14 million views means that if he’s serious about his business
he has a future.
I love how she's turning on their heads.
Like normally in rap videos back in the ‘90s, it was dudes on the corner playing dice.
I had that moment once in my life touring with Cypress Hill.
Never again.
It was the quickest I ever lost 500 dollars playing dice in Japan.
When rap cats get bored on tour.
First thing they try to do is take all your per diem money away, and I was the perfect
sucker for that.
I think what Rapsody is doing here is she's putting sugar in a medicine.
You have to be smart and draw people in, so at the beginning of the video, the visuals,
the dice game, the style of it all, the colors, the edits are meant to draw you in.
The real message is now the sucker punch and this is the sucker punch.
I could tell this is going to be a doozy, because it's under three minutes.
Was he a viral TikTok star before he became a rapper.
I kinda like someone that can make fun of themselves.
And he says, “I’m corny.”
I mean, it's edited well.
There's great use of color.
Humor is an aspect.
You can't go wrong with puppets.
This is a powerful packed three minutes.
I don't know what I watched, but I definitely know that a couple 100 million people love it.
When Alicia's last album came out, she had Young M.A drop a verse at the top, back when
no one knew who she was.
But Swizz kept telling me like "Yo, just wait. Just wait.
This is the one.
This is the one," so I always had my eye on her.
Yeah, I love it, and especially what she did on her Funkmaster Flex freestyle.
My generation the beat got to come in the gate like bull through the wall.
This generation, there’s patience like no other.
They let...
I was about to say, the beat didn't even come in till a minute and one second.
What I admire is about her MC'ing is just her subtle nuance, and kind of quiet flow where you
really believe that every word she says is her experience, and that's authentic to me.
Like if I'm curating a concert, if we're thinking about who’s next for the Roots picnic.
If there's someone that I feel that should be on “The Tonight Show,” because often
I'm asked "Yo, who's next, who do you think?"
I'm always on the hunt for who's next.
When watching DaBaby video, the wedding scene stuck out because it's very rare that you
get to see that type of love and declaration in hip hop videos.
Every person in Philly I know has Sunni beards, and if this is the future then I might have
to get rid of this.
Well the message that I got from the Rapsody video was definitely towards the beginning
of the video.
The visuals were closer to that of what most ‘90s rap videos were about.
Okay so after watching all of these videos I will say the artist that gets my co-sign
is definitely Rapsody with the “Oprah” video.
She's come a long way, and I expect a lot of great things out of her, and this is just
the beginning.
What you have to understand is that hip hop is a derivative culture.
Even though music seems that it's linear, it's really a circular thing.
So whatever was in vogue 2008, 2009, 2010, that's pretty much going to happen all over
again.
Questlove's Mixtape Potluck is really a gathering of 50 of my friends bringing over dishes,
and telling you how they were prepared to a party, and I pair it with music.
Now that my generation are the proprietors of these food spaces.
It's often times that I'll hear “Enter the 36 Chambers” by Wu-Tang Clan.
Like that's the old school selection of the night, so imagine having course number three
to “Shame on a Nigga.”