Subscribe
HipHopWired Featured Video
CLOSE
CHANEL Tribeca Film Festival Artists Dinner in New York

Source: Ivan Nikolov/WENN.com / WENN

Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson has been one of most innovative musicians of his era, and even with his formidable talent, he too had moments of doubt. In a recent discussion at the Tribeca Film Festival, the talented Roots drummer and The Tonight Show band member told a tale of how Kanye West essentially surpassed him creatively.

Page Six writes:

During a discussion about his career trajectory during a “Storytellers” talk at the Tribeca Film Festival on Tuesday, Questlove revealed that he knew he was superseded when West entered the scene.

“I knew it wasn’t going to last forever and so there was this moment I describe in which we were sound checking Kanye’s moment for ‘Jesus Walks,’” the Roots drummer said of a performance for “Dave Chappelle’s Block Party.” “Kanye was the only figure in that particular film that wasn’t in the original nucleus of the fable … and so even at soundcheck, he had such an energy about him, a new energy about him, that just brought the audience alive. And then as I was drumming, I was like, ‘Oh no.’ It was like a sixth sense moment. Like, ‘I’m dead!’ Like, ‘This is it for me. Like I’m no longer the spiritual epicenter of this clique. He’s about to be.”

Of course, Questlove makes mention of his stint on Jimmy Fallon’s late-night television show and how it’s provided him and his bandmates a “new lease on life.”

Photo: WENN