On the latest episode of their Broken Record podcast, Malcolm Gladwell and Rick Rubin sit down with the one and only Questlove. In the two-part interview, Quest discusses working on D’Angelo’s Voodoo and the genius of Michael Jackson’s Off the Wall, the evolution of his drumming style and his tenure on the The Tonight Show, and much more.
Read more after the jump…
The highlight, however, is when Questlove talks about that time he DJed for Obama at The White House. It’s a story you might have heard before in his books or in other interviews, but this is by far his funniest account.
“So two hours into it, he taps me on the shoulder, ‘You’re doing a good job! I love the Donna Summer and the old school hip-hop and the jazz. But look at them, they wanna have fun too!’ And he’s pointing to his kids. They’re having a sit-in. They’re looking at me like, ‘Nah, none of this shit works.’
“Suddenly, that night became Animal House, the most debaucherous… [Obama’s] coming up to me like, ‘Do you have French Montana?’ And I’m like, ‘Sir! I don’t have the clean versions of that.’ He’s like, ‘We’re all adults here. Play it!’ I’m like, ‘Sir, I’m not gonna play ‘Pop that pussy, bitch, what ya twerkin wit.’”
Listen to the interview below.
Related: Pharrell, Questlove & Rick Rubin Appear In Trailer For Apple Music’s ‘808’ Documentary