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?uestlove talks about Obama and this Sunday's show in Northwest Philly
The Web site for the award-winning alternative weekly, the Philadelphia City Paper.
?uestlove talks about Obama and this Sunday's show in Northwest Philly
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| Michael T. Regan |
The Roots are playing at President Obama's Move America Forward Rally this Sunday, at the park next to Robert Fulton Elementary School (60 E. Haines St.) at 3 p.m. The point of the event is to get people stoked on the always-forgotten midterm elections. The Clog reached ?uestlove over the phone, and we learned that he still believes in O and is not making any Phillies predictions this year, among other things.
City Paper: You're big into doing walk-on music for people on the Jimmy Fallon show. Are you doing walk-on music for Obama this Sunday?
?uestlove: (laughs) We weren't asked to. What's hard is we're known for doing mammoth three-hour shows, but somehow we have to figure out how to turn our mammoth three-hour show into a very effective 30-minute show on Sunday. Someone's gonna have to get a solo cut.
CP: If you could do walk-on music for the President, though, what would it be?
?uestlove: There could be Eric B. & Rakim's "Follow the Leader." If he were to ever come on the show, there's an old song by Chicago called "Take Me Back to Chicago." It would be too easy to do "Hail to the Chief."
CP: You were really excited about Obama during the '08 election. Are you still?
?uestlove: Absolutely, simply because I actually understand the political process. I understand that being the president of the United States doesn't mean that it's a kingdom. It's not totalitarianism; it's not like how it is over in Korea where one person has their say and that's the law. In order for the presidency to effectively work, you need the right Senators and representatives. And unfortunately, you have a lot of revisionist people who are trying to rewrite what the facts are, and kind of mislead the unfortunately uneducated and unknowing public.
It's not a shame that it's come to this. I think that, as President, he definitely should be a man of the people, so it's OK if that means that both he and The Roots have to take time out of our schedules to remind people of the importance of making sure the right figures are in Washington. Especially after seeing Waiting for Superman, I believe in a better education system. I believe our health care system must be restructured, especially coming from Philadelphia. The fact that many representatives have sort of let it be known that they will vote "no" on anything he brings on the table, even if it is helping the country, just out of spite — those are people that you don't want running your country.
CP: Republicans have historically turned out more people than Democrats in midterm elections. How do you get liberals jazzed about them?
?uestlove: Yeah, that happened with Clinton's second term. We need to be just as — if not more — concerned with the results of this midterm election as we were in 2008. Young people, people who are not too informed, who they just see a newspaper headline here and there, and they're just quick to believe anything that's told to them — those are the people we need to reach so that the smoke can clear. Obama's constantly gonna have his hands tied behind his back, trying to clean a frat house that keeps getting destroyed and disrespected by people that want to come and spill their beer. I always use that metaphorical idea of one man cleaning up a weekend frat house party before Mom and Dad gets home, with 16 hours left.
It's important that people know that the event we're doing on Sunday is free and the President is speaking. And you know, you gotta get it from the horse's mouth because it's paramount that we speak on November 2. It is absolutely, positively imperative that that happens.
CP: Let's end on a light note. Got any Phillies predictions?
?uestlove: Every time I get into this position, I always jinx it. I jinxed it last year — I went very public with a bet with Jay-Z over who's going to take it, but I'm not going to get too excited about a perfect game as Game 1. I'm gonna take it one game at a time. I'm glad everyone's healthy. I'm very much in support. I have a Philadelphia Phillies base drum set tonight, so I'll be using that on the Fallon show for the next month to support my Phillies.
[...] ?uestlove talks about Obama and this Sunday's show in Northwest PhillyPhiladelphia Citypaper (blog)I have a Philadelphia Phillies base drum set tonight, so I'll be using that on the Fallon show for the next month to support my Phillies. by Authentic NFL …and more » [...]
[...] ?uestlove talks about Obama and this Sunday's show in Northwest PhillyPhiladelphia Citypaper (blog)I have a Philadelphia Phillies base drum set tonight, so I'll be using that on the Fallon show for the next month to support my Phillies. by Authentic NFL …and more » [...]
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[...] ?uestlove talks about Obama and this Sunday's show in Northwest PhillyPhiladelphia Citypaper (blog)I have a Philadelphia Phillies base drum set tonight, so I'll be using that on the Fallon show for the next month to support my Phillies. by Authentic NFL …and more » [...]
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