After having Pete Rock kick off the “Black Fist Fridays” Throwback at Noon series, Mister Cee tapped Questlove to spin his favorite tunes this afternoon. He mixed it up with an incredible selection of classics from J. Dilla, Mos Def, Tribe, and all the oldies. Quest dedicated his set to Dilla, who he says was his mentor. (via MissInfo.tv) Warning! "The Light" medley may cause a temporary loss of consciousness. Watch out for that 50:47 mark.

Download: J Dilla Tribute Mix on Hot97 by Questlove

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?uest of The Roots deserves his fame. His music has been as smooth and outsized as his personality since day one, lending The Roots a consistency throughout two decades plus of musical excellence. Check out the perfect neo-soul on Illadelph Halflife’s “What They Do” where the drums hit hard enough to bolster the slow burn of the other instrumentation.  And, on the other side of his career there is the soulful funk of “Long Time,” the only upbeat song on Game Theory, wherein Bunny Sigler plays himself and Peedi Peedi drops an excellent verse.  All powered by a modern-day icon whose day job is Jimmy Fallon’s drummer. — Jonah Bromwich (via Passion of the Weiss)

MP3: What They Do? (feat. Raphael Sadeeq) by The Roots

Bonus Download:

MP3: Long Time (feat. Peedi Peedi & Bunny Sigler) by The Roots

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Oh yeah! Official announcement of a new album from The Roots called undun. Pretty heavy stuff included in the LP. A conceptual actually, an "existential re-telling of the short life of Redford Stephens (1974-1999)." Basically, the album "seeks to illustrate the intersection of free will and prescribed destiny as it plays out 'on the corner." 

So who is Redford Stephens? No idea on my part but according to drummer, ?uestlove, he is someone who was not born a criminal but grows up to be a misunderstood one anyway? Confusing, I know. Here is more on the concept.

Says ?uestlove:

"undun is the story of this kid who becomes criminal, but he wasn't born criminal." He adds, "He's not the nouveau exotic primitive bug-eyed gunrunner like Tupac's character Bishop in Juice... he's actually thoughtful and is neither victim nor hero. Just some kid who begins to order his world in a way that makes the most sense to him at a given moment ... at the end of the day ... isn't that what we all do?"

Very interesting... Can't wait to get my hands on the LP and experience it in full. It gets released on the 6th of December via Island Def Jam Recordings. I got for you the first single off the album featuring Big K.R.I.T. with "Make My." Sit tight for the official which will be released on the 1st of November on iTunes.

 

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