A biography for Black Thoughthasn’t been written yet.
“By the time I was, you know, 16 years old, I had done a lot of growing up.”
“We don't try to please everyone. Those older fans who expect something from The Roots are a tad more important to me than getting new fans.”
“Our plan for Passyunk Productions is to make an impact in the film & tv world by leveraging our collective resources, telling great stories and creating smart programming told from a unique perspective.”
“If hip-hop is dead, then let it rest in peace and let's move on to something else.”
“Lots of people are saying that I shut down mumble rap in one 10-minute setting. But that wasn't my intention, because mumble rap - if we go back - that's something I invented.”
“There's a lot of terms we come up with for the music that we're making because we want something that's going to be definitive. Often there is no word to encapsulate the emotion that the music represents.”
“I've become a functioning cog in the machine called The Roots, but in my youth I was comin' from a more braggadocious, egotistical perspective.”
“The Roots are well-respected and considered vanguards in the music.”
“The Tonight Show' afforded us the opportunity to work with The Muppets and other 'Sesame Street' characters, and we always had the desire to do something that spoke to young people.”
“I think at the end of the day the diversity has served as a major... that's what has determined the difference between The Roots and some of the other artists from our graduating class. I feel we followed the De La Soul, the Native Tongue blueprint.”
“The Evolution of Greatness' was an amazing experience, and it's something that we hope to have been a steppingstone for us to come back and not only do more NBA All-Star performances, but do halftime performances at events like the Super Bowl.”
“We record in the spirit of the Berry Gordy camp and Gamble & Huff, where people were writing up to a dozen quality songs within a day because the competition was that hard.”
“I miss being out on the road.”
“I'm tryin' to get some acting credibility, get some other work.”
“I do not seem like a funny guy.”
“I grew up in Mount Airy, a middle-class enclave in the Northwestern area of Philadelphia.”
“I don't sit down and write a song, and then slam down the phone like, 'We got another one!' and pop some champagne. It's like if someone's writing a novel: You write a series of drafts.”
“You can't expect every idea of yours to stick or even come to fruition, you have to make sacrifices for the greater good of the team.”
“It's weird what can trigger the beginning of a song or some bars. It can be a banging slice of apple pie or it can be smelling a certain perfume or something.”
“Passyunk Productions is our film & tv production company. The name comes from a street in Philly, Passyunk Avenue, where the concept of The Roots was born, as Ahmir and I started out busking on the corner of 5th & Passyunk back in the early '90s.”