Editor’s Note: This story was originally published in November 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.
Questlove has shared a playlist featuring his 100 favorite albums (it’s technically 99, considering he couldn’t include De La Soul’s De La Soul Is Dead because of the rap group’s battle with Tommy Boy Records). Now that De La Soul’s discography is finally available on streaming, Quest might need to update the playlist!
“These are ‘The Best Albums Of All Time’ more like ‘the literal soundtrack of my life’ albums I’ve gravitated towards and listened to like past 100 times each. Pretty much know them all by heart. I think they are interesting,” Quest wrote alongside the Spotify playlist, which encompasses 1,546 songs and is close to 112 hours long.
The playlist includes everyone from A Tribe Called Quest, Beastie Boys and Clipse to Erykah Badu, J Dilla and Wu-Tang Clan. It can be streamed above.
In recent news, Questlove shared how one of The Roots‘ favorite chefs from Philadelphia played a part in helping Things Fall Apart come to fruition. Terry, a chef at Philly jazz club Zanzibar Blue, was enlisted by the group and was asked to cook for them every Friday for 15 weeks.
“He’d come to my apartment around 5pm and just cook up a storm. Word got around and practically the whole musician community showed up,” Questlove recounted in an interview with the Guardian. “My house could comfortably hold maybe 18 people, but 60 or came. Not just any 60 people – Jill Scott, Mos Def, Common, De La Soul, Eve, Floetry… With great food, we enticed people to collaborate with us and as a result yielded our first Grammy.”
