Questlove Talks Kanye West’s Success in Music: “This Is Where I Go to Die”

During a “Storytellers” talk at the Tribeca Film Festival on Tuesday, Questlove candidly opened up about the moment he realized Kanye West would surpass him.

Apparently, Questlove foreshadowed the trajectory of West’s success in music and questioned if Kanye’s beginning would be his personal end.

“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,’” Questlove said of the performance in 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.”⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

As Kanye gained notoriety with the release of his debut album, “The College Dropout” in 2004, Questlove thought: “This is where I go to die.” ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

The Roots’ frontman admitted that looking back, there was fault in his “overdramatic” thinking. He expressed appreciation for his “new lease on life,” a secured spot on The Tonight Show.