“Folks at all times ask, ‘Why is Ahmir in every single place?’ And I simply inform them that the gateway to every little thing is at all times Okayplayer,” Questlove stated in an interview with Okayplayer for the location’s 25-year anniversary.
25 years after the Okayplayer boards formally got here into existence, we loved an exhilarating full-circle expertise in downtown Manhattan. Contemporary off filming an episode of The Tonight Present with Jimmy Fallon, the multi-faceted virtuoso, Questlove, sat down for an in-depth Okayplayer interview with rapper, DJ, podcast host, and day-one OKP boards member, Donwill.
The chat was lighthearted, nostalgic, academic, and chock stuffed with quotable anecdotes. Briefly, it was every little thing you’d count on from a dialog emanating immediately from the crucible of progressive hip-hop tradition. In case you actually give it some thought, the OKP boards have been social media earlier than social media and app tradition even existed. Music teams have been shaped on it, relationships, marriages, and enterprise affiliations have been created by way of it — to not point out an entire host of lurkers who used the boards as their vicarious connection to the tradition. It’s an outstanding artist-driven story that deserves its personal David Fincher biopic.
Try Half 1 of the Questlove interview, together with annotations beneath of key moments you’ll be able to’t miss.
The Okayplayer Origin Story that includes Questloveyoutu.be
00:45 — Questlove muses about how he might have invented social media.
2:17 — Questlove explains how an interlude on a Public Enemy album helped spark the thought for Okayplayer.
7:03 — Questlove mentions how he used insights from the Beastie Boys, Gap, and R.E.M. as inspiration to create a digital gathering place for music followers.
10:00 — Okayplayer co-founder, Angela Niseel, tells Questlove to not be a “rap cliché” and make investments cash in constructing a digital group somewhat than shopping for a Pathfinder.
13:20 — Rahzel from The Roots tells Questlove to suppose greater concerning the digital attain of Okayplayer and Questlove additionally shares how Frequent and D’Angelo have been initially turned off by the Okayplayer concept.
14:14 — Questlove describes the pivotal day when he really let somebody diss him on the OKP boards and Angela persuaded him to let the slight slide.
17:14 — Donwill and Questlove share a philosophical change about how the Okayplayer boards created an distinctive group of like-minded people
18:01 — Questlove and Donwill speak about well-known lurkers they encountered from the OKP boards.
20:20 — A dialogue about how far-reaching the tentacles of the boards are in tradition right this moment.