Questlove Pens Candid List Of 40 Reasons Prince Was Hip Hop

Questlove Pens Candid List Of 40 Reasons Prince Was Hip Hop

The Roots bandleader definitely could have kept going.

Published May 30, 2016

Questlove got his hands on a copy of the new issue of The Source Magazine, 99.9% due to Prince gracing the cover.

The Roots bandleader spoke in the recent weeks following the music legend’s untimely passing about how all sorts of tributes are going to continuously arise as we mourn and cope with his death, and how no one tribute will be perfect.

He raised an important point while defending Madonna, and recently decided to comment on the iconic hip hop publication’s interesting decision to put Prince on the cover as well. The issue hit newsstands on May 24th. 

In list form, sweet and short, Questlove details 40 reasons why Prince embodied hip hop. 

His reasons range from “overcame poverty” to “never wifed ‘em, mostly replaced ‘em,” to using “mad aliases” and making “dis records.”

Check out Questlove’s compelling argument Prince was hip hop in his post below.

1st i chuckled cause well...---ok it's been a min since I saw The Source but after I pondered ----yeah it made sense: 1) came from troubled home 2) limited access to music forces him to create his own world of music 3) Overcame Poverty 4) creates fictional background tales to keep the press guessing 5) lives by the DIY creed 6) takes fashion taboos & makes them mainstream and acceptable 7) cock blocks & steals yo lady on the low (ask Rick) 8) puts his crew on---get them deals & makes them stars 9) pretty much wrote the book on gettin some better than any of his contemporaries 10) had beef w his peers who hated on him 11) invented the remix (not disco edits, but reimagining the album version) 12) played mystery card---let us think what we wanted---gave the press middle finger 13) ghostwrote for everyone 14) used mad aliases 15) refused 2 b ordinary & eschewed the proper English language as a ways 2 communicate 16) knew the B side wins again and again 17) used the exotic honey to his advantage 18) used his music to give his views on the po po, politicians, gun control, war, god, squares & "the man" 19) turned a long music video into a revolution 20) best drum machine programmer ever 21) used synthesizers as a way of life 22) could make an entire album in less than a week 23) balled so hard in Paris & other parts of France---so he made a film about it. 24) cut his crew off and got a new crew. 25) went all hippie like it was nothing. 26) made dis records 27) never wifed em, mostly replaced em 28)started his own label 29) Parental Advisory was invented because of him 30) made a Black Album w a chip on shoulder to prove to black people he was still bad. 31) plays sports better than u 32) had mad songs in the stash 33) had an MTV mansion/compound long before anyone did 34) changed looks constantly 35)dropped music on the net in record time 36) looked out for his peeps on the low doing benefits and raising money like a modern day Robin Hood 37) tries taking on the man for his complete freedom 38) couldn't tell him NOTHING 39) always escaped into thin air 40) left us way too early #PrinceRogersNelson #HipHopPioneer. @TheSource.

A photo posted by Questlove Gomez (@questlove) on

Written by KC Orcutt

(Photos from left: Kevin Winter/Getty Images, Vince Bucci/Getty Images)

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