Questlove Pays Tribute to Late Friend & Collaborator D'Angelo
Questlove Pays Tribute to Late Friend & Collaborator D’Angelo
On Thursday, Oct. 30, Questlove reflects on his friend, brother and musical collaborator D’Angelo.
In an article with Rolling Stone, in his own words, he recalls getting the news of the soul singer’s passing early Tuesday morning on Oct. 14.
“No call that early is good news. I braced myself. I knew … but I didn’t know. But I knew,” he said.
Questlove, musician and producer, and widely known as the drummer of The Roots, met D’Angelo in 1996 in L.A.
According to Questlove, he initially wasn’t interested in getting to know D’Angelo when he learned who he was years prior, as he brushed off most R&B artists during the time. But after the release of D’Angelo’s debut, Brown Sugar, he was impressed. To get back into the soul-singer’s good graces, during a tour performance in 1996, Questlove played an obscure drum pattern from a Prince song to get D’Angelo’s (who was sitting in the audience) attention.
“I felt like me and him were the only people in the whole place … I didn’t think anyone else knew what he was doing except me,” D’Angelo said in an interview with Okayplayer in 2013.
“D’Angelo, to me, was one of the last pure artists in Black music,” Questlove said in his article, “I know we sold the mysterious seriousness will, but the truth is— we were a silly bunch.
The two had a long partnership in the years to come, including the formation of the Soulquarians, a collective of several musicians that converged in Jimi Hendrix’s Electric Lady Studios between the mid-1990s and the early 2000s.
Questlove recalls shared stories between him and D’Angelo, who he favorably calls him “D,” of their complicated relationships with their fathers, pranks and jam sessions and collaborations throughout the years.
He said during the release of D’Angelo’s second album, Voodoo, that the singer’s “core never changed.”
But, Questlove recalls that the last weeks with D were some of “the best for our friendship.” He talked about being in hospital rooms with no music between them, but just talking about their lives and the changes over the last few years.
He said, “It was the healing I didn’t really see coming. We both dived into a new spiritual destination, embracing metaphysics … This was the most Zen hospital room of all time— crystals and candles, herbs, incense, oils, spices and tea … we both landed in this new space of peace and growth!”
Questlove Pays Tribute to Late Friend & Collaborator D’Angelo was originally published on foxync.com
