Mo’ Meta Blues
The World According to Questlove
by Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, and Ben Greenman
Published By: Grand Central Publishing, 2013
Genre: Nonfiction | Biography & Memoir, Arts & Entertainment
Page Count: 288 (Paperback)
ISBN: 9781455501373
Publisher’s Description
A punch-drunk memoir in which Everyone’s Favorite Questlove tells his own story while tackling some of the lates, the greats, the fakes, the philosophers, the heavyweights, and the true originals of the music world. He digs deep into the album cuts of his life and unearths some pivotal moments in black art, hip hop, and pop culture.
Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson is many things: virtuoso drummer, producer, arranger, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon bandleader, DJ, composer, and tireless Tweeter. He is one of our most ubiquitous cultural tastemakers, and in this, his first book, he reveals his own formative experiences–from growing up in 1970s West Philly as the son of a 1950s doo-wop singer, to finding his own way through the music world and ultimately co-founding and rising up with the Roots, a.k.a., the last hip hop band on Earth. Mo’ Meta Blues also has some (many) random (or not) musings about the state of hip hop, the state of music criticism, the state of statements, as well as a plethora of run-ins with celebrities, idols, and fellow artists, from Stevie Wonder to KISS to D’Angelo to Jay-Z to Dave Chappelle to…you ever seen Prince roller-skate?!?
But Mo’ Meta Blues isn’t just a memoir. It’s a dialogue about the nature of memory and the idea of a post-modern black man saddled with some post-modern blues. It’s a book that questions what a book like Mo’ Meta Bluesreally is. It’s the side wind of a one-of-a-kind mind.
It’s a rare gift that gives as well as takes.
It’s a record that keeps going around and around.
About the Author
Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson is an American drummer, DJ, record producer, music journalist, author, and film producer. He is best known as the co-founder and drummer of the Grammy Award-winning hip hop band The Roots, which has served as the house band for Late Night with Jimmy Fallon since 2015. Thompson has also produced and collaborated with a wide range of artists, including D’Angelo, Erykah Badu, John Legend, and Jay-Z. He is a regular contributor to Rolling Stone and other music publications, and has written several books, including Mo’ Meta Blues: The World According to Questlove (2013) and Creative Control: The Fight for the Soul of Hip-Hop (2020).
Ben Greenman is an American writer, editor, and musician. He is best known for his work as an editor at The New Yorker, where he has been since 2004. He has also written for a variety of other publications, including Harper’s Magazine, The New York Times Magazine, and The Atlantic. Greenman is the author of several books, including Superbad (2007), Love and Death at the Observatory (2010), and The Ghosts of Our Fathers (2011). He is also a musician and has released several albums under the name Ben Greenman and the Greenmans.