OK, it is official. ?uestlove is not one person. He clearly has a team of Saddam Hussein/”Devil’s Double”-style clones, sometimes appearing in multiple place simultaneously just to handle all the things that are slated in his daily line-up, let alone special projects. How else do you explain that during the same period of time in which ?uesto lead The Roots through the launch of undun, he also started a cooking company, held down bandleader duties for Late Night with Jimmy Fallon every single day AND was also secretly doing the same for VH1 Divas Celebrate Soul (which airs tonight)? Hell, when the time came (today) to unveil The Roots’ role as house band for the VH1 project featuring Mary J. Blige, Erykah Badu, Kelly Clarkson, Chaka Khan, Jennifer Hudson, Mavis Staples, Florence + The Machine, Boyz II Men, Jill Scott, Estelle, Wanda Jackson, Jessie J, Travie McCoy, Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings he even put on a journalist’s hat and wrote the article himself. Read our favorite quote and get the full post on HuffPo (and watch more Q&A from ?uest & Black Thought on the VH1 project and their other activities on the Morning Buzz).
The best definition of soul that I ever heard came from Funkadelic. During Funkadelic’s first appearance on PBS back in 1971, the great George Clinton declared, “Soul is a hamhock in your cornflakes.” George proclaimed this wisdom while fronting this fantastic, crazy-looking band on their first big syndicated television appearance. For me, the hamhock represented plantation-era food somehow now being integrated right into Middle America, straight into the land of cornflakes. I still stick to Funkadelic’s excellent theory.
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