The Audacity of Dope

Watch this immediately.  There’s really nothing else that needs to be said.  RIP Dilla.

I’ve been having friendly debates with people recently about this upcoming monumental election, and the better ones have evolved into discussions about why you believe what you believe. I’ve found that a disappointingly large number of people will blindly support a candidate, either due to image or party affiliation. I’ve always fallen squarely on the ‘Democrat’ side of things, but that’s because the general beliefs of their party line up with mine most of the time. If you believe in the same things I do, and see the world the same way, chances are I’ll vote for you…regardless what party you schlep around in.

So with this election coming up, the most fundamental thing you can do is educate yourself. Find out what the candidates believe in, what their policies are, and what they want to do with this country. Then make your choice accordingly. Granted, you may believe that you’re choosing between “the lesser of two evils,” but that’s still an incredibly important decision…especially this time around.

?uestlove put up this little PSA to talk about a few of the reasons why he is voting for Barack Obama, and I encourage y’all to check it out. The topics he mentions are almost never discussed on any of the ‘talking heads’ news programs, but they’re all very important.

Decide what issues are most important to you in this election and then find out where the candidates stand on them. Hopefully, we’re all progressive people here and supporting Obama, but if not, it’s all good. We just disagree. But make sure we’re really disagreeing on issues and policies, not because your parents have always voted Republican…

The Roots and Erykah Badu came to Seattle last Thursday to perform at Marymoor Park. While there, J. Moore and I had a chance to hop aboard the Roots’ (dope as hell) tour bus and talk to their drummer/ringleader, the legendary ?uestlove. We recorded the whole interview (shout to Caitlin on the Flip Cam) for y’all to check out. It’s 5 parts on YouTube, but the conversation was so dope and extensive, I didn’t want to just put up clips.

?uest spoke about all sorts of topics, including their new Rising Down project, the lost Roots album, volunteering for Barack Obama’s campaign, working on albums from Al Green and Marvin Gaye, why Black Thought is continually underrated, the rumor of a sequel to Dave Chappelle’s Block Party, and more!

Check out the first video here, and the rest after the jump.

Part 1 of 5

Also, if you can’t watch the videos and just want to peep the audio, you can do that right here (ZShare link available here). Warning: the audio only quality is a bit janky…the Flip Cam’s microphone + a running tour bus = an audiophile’s nightmare.  I suggest watching the videos if you can.

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more ?uesto coming soon