Black Thought of The Roots is arguably one of the greatest MCs of all time in hip-hop but his skills on the mic have often been overlooked by the masses. His group member Questlove recently stopped by Talib Kweli’s podcast “The People’s Party” and explained that Black Thought was “too good for his own good.”
“That rule in The 48 Laws Of Power where you’re not supposed to outshine the teacher, I definitely know there’s some of that going on as well,” The Roots drummer explained. “Often with our peers. I think Jay told me once…When Jay heard Tariq’s verse on ‘I Will Not Apologize,’ Jay had this wide-open thing like ‘finally! Ya’ll listened to me.’ Tariq does such a simple rhythmic pattern there, and that’s one of the rare times which he spoon-feeds you a simple rhyme pattern that your brain can follow. Normally it’s like Crazy Taxi and trying to use flyswatter on a fly you can’t kill.”
Questlove then went on to discuss a meeting he had with Jay-Z about helping Black Thought get on more features with popular artists when he ran Def Jam and the Roc Nation boss hinted that no one wanted to be outshined by the Philly rapper.
“I was kind of asking, to Jay, can’t you use your influence to get him on more features. And he was just like – the logic of that thinking is, people will want to co-sign something new. He tells me, the problem with Thought is it’s one thing where a super-established artist pulls a move. He was sort of suggesting the ‘Renegade’ situation. That Nas line ‘Eminem murdered you on your own s—.’ That did a lot to establish emcees at the time,” continued Questlove.
“It’s one thing to get sonned by an established person, but the days of letting Busta to [take over the song] and throwing him an alley-hoop [like on ‘Scenario’] are far and few between. Jay told me in no certain terms that no rapper can afford to look bad in front of him, so it’s almost why we gotta blackball him,” added Questlove.
Check the video on the following page as Questlove explains why his partner keeps intentionally getting overlooked.
