Here’s why you should pick it up:
1. Questlove knows every song. The musician recalls five-hour listening sessions, dating as far back as his youth in Philadelphia. Once he became a pro, he refined a sensibility that is generous and opinionated. So you believe him when, for instance, he talks about why Jay-Z’s collaboration with Dr. Dre failed (Jay-Z “sucked the air out of a room … Because of that he needed a musical backdrop that was bland. He needed butter so you could spread on it.”)
2. Questlove spills (some) tea. There are a few disappointing instances in which the man born as Ahmir Thompson alludes to gossip he won’t reveal, but not many. He recounts his maneuvers while begging stars to do the 2023 Grammy Awards’ “50 Years of Hip-Hop” (the book also marks that anniversary). And, even before recent evidence of Puff Daddy/P Diddy/Diddy’s horrible behavior, it’s clear Questlove didn’t like him as a musician or person. Of the hundreds of songs listed on “Actually Listen To,” none are by Diddy.
3. Questlove dives deep. He has thought hard about sounds most of us barely notice, so the book often feels like a peek into his busy brain. A big Wu-Tang Clan fan, he writes, “With the RZA’s productions for Wu-Tang, I developed an assumption that he hadn’t read the owner’s manual for whatever equipment he was using, both figuratively and literally, and the amateurishness of the execution was part of the charm.”
4. Questlove is full of entertaining surprises. When the book gets to Dre’s album “The Chronic,” Questlove admits he was suspicious of it but “I couldn’t entirely turn my back on the first single, ‘Nuthin’ but a ‘G’ Thang,’ because one of its samples (the hook) was taken from Congress Alley, a 1970s band started by two people named my parents.”
