Questlove has angered many hip-hop fans in recent days after tearing down the Kendrick Lamar-Drake feud while calling the genre “dead” and then going on to criticize 2Pac's scathing record “Hit 'Em Up.” And the hot facts keep on coming: The Roots drummer appeared on SiriumXM A song podcast last week and while discussing the evolution of rap diss tracks, he took a shot at “Hit 'Em Up” while dubbing it the “weakest musical smack.”
“I would really respect 2Pac's 'Hit 'Em Up' if his music track was better,” he said. “'Hit 'Em Up', to me, is off the hook not because of the misogynist… Man, you're rhyming for smooth jazz dinner music!” Luther Vandross could sing over that!”
He continued: “Well, when it came out, everybody was like, 'It's hard as sh–! Hey, he's killing it!' And I was like, “Dog, it's smooth jazz on Dennis Edwards. It does not count “. … This song, for me, is the weakest musical sensation. I can't make it with “Hit 'Em Up.”
Veteran journalist Elliott Wilson disagreed with Quest's sentiments. “Son! Questlove we love you but you have to stop,” she wrote.
Questlove got fed up with the vitriol and posted a PSA on Instagram on Tuesday (May 14) explaining that he was specifically talking about Dennis Edwards' “Don't Look Any Further” interlude on “Hit 'Em Up” and not taking shots at Pac.
“Let's be clear about the context I was talking about? lol woke up to “what did Dennis Edwards/Pac do to you?!” lyrics I'm talking about the musical setting of this record (“Hit Em Up”),” he questioned in his caption. “I'm still mostly not a record fan, mostly because, having lived through that time (the mid-'90s) I never saw any good results from the hip hop beef.”
While Quest shed light on the Drake-Kendrick beef, The fans were quick to remind the Philly native that the Roots aligned with Jay-Z during Jigga's feud with Nas. Quest played drums for of Jay Disconnected live album in 2001 where Hov performed his “Takeover” diss.
Looking back, the 53-year-old admitted that his role in Disconnected it wasn't “one of my brighter moments” and had “second thoughts” about the Jay-Nash feud.
“And yeah, no need to remind me about my role on Unplugged——-it wasn't one of my brightest moments and if I had to do it again, I'd have second thoughts about the 'Takeover' situation,” she wrote. . “I mean I know I'm old but I'm not trying to be a #Poundcake/RespectablePolitics Smurf here yelling 'Get Off My Lawn!!!' every 14 seconds.”
Find Questlove's full post below.
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/music/rb-hip-hop/questlove-jay-z-unplugged-album-feud-nas-1235682489/