Through all of the tributes, remembrances and grieving of Prince’s death, Questlove has been one of the more vocal artists detailing why Prince was such an important artist across all genres.
Between his letter in Rolling Stone to taking part (and defending) the tribute at the Billboard Awards, The Roots drummer took it a step further detailing why Prince was a pioneer of hip-hop on Instagram. Along with a tribute cover of Prince on The Source, Questlove said, after giving it some thought, it made sense why he’d cover a hip-hop magazine. Then he listed 40 reason of how Prince embodied hip-hop culture:
- came from troubled home
- limited access to music forces him to create his own world of music
- Overcame Poverty
- creates fictional background tales to keep the press guessing
- lives by the DIY creed
- takes fashion taboos & makes them mainstream and acceptable
- cock blocks & steals yo lady on the low (ask Rick)
- puts his crew on—get them deals & makes them stars
- pretty much wrote the book on gettin some better than any of his contemporaries
- had beef w his peers who hated on him
- invented the remix (not disco edits, but reimagining the album version)
- played mystery card—let us think what we wanted—gave the press middle finger
- ghostwrote for everyone
- used mad aliases
- refused 2 b ordinary & eschewed the proper English language as a ways 2 communicate
- knew the B side wins again and again
- used the exotic honey to his advantage
- used his music to give his views on the po po, politicians, gun control, war, god, squares & “the man”
- turned a long music video into a revolution
- best drum machine programmer ever
- used synthesizers as a way of life
- could make an entire album in less than a week
- balled so hard in Paris & other parts of France—so he made a film about it.
- cut his crew off and got a new crew.
- went all hippie like it was nothing.
- made dis records
- never wifed em, mostly replaced em
- started his own label
- Parental Advisory was invented because of him
- made a Black Album w a chip on shoulder to prove to black people he was still bad.
- plays sports better than u
- had mad songs in the stash
- had an MTV mansion/compound long before anyone did
- changed looks constantly
- dropped music on the net in record time
- looked out for his peeps on the low doing benefits and raising money like a modern day Robin Hood
- tries taking on the man for his complete freedom
- couldn’t tell him NOTHING
- always escaped into thin air
- left us way too early
And there ya have it. There’s probably another 40 reasons on top of that, too, but Questlove rounded it off there.