Questlove

“When the Beastie Boys got their own Criterion Collection. All their videos were brilliant short films directed by Spike Jonze and sometimes ‘Nathanial Hörnblowér.’ This one alone, man. I was just like, “Wow… I want a Criterion Collection.”...”

“I gotta tell this story. So there’s a period in which Prince and I became cool... He says it’s one of his all-time favorite films called Black Orpheus. And he had about ten copies of Black Orpheus, which he would constantly have on loop. And eventually I got this. And of course I now know why he loves this. This won the Palme d’Or in 1959, I believe. And it’s probably one of the most beautifully shot films. Black Orpheus.”

“Gimme Shelter. Which is kind of the opposite of The Monterey Pop Festival. Part reality show, part… Dogme 95 almost. You don’t know what’s going to happen. You just gotta go with the moment. And be present, be a fly on the wall. And this is probably the greatest example. A concert’s thrown and… a murder occurs during the Rolling Stones’ Performance and it’s so chilling to watch the Stones watch the footage of the murder.”

“Do the Right Thing. When Spike Lee got the Criterion treatment, oh my God. And all the extras in it. Spike’s preserved the storyboards, the audition tapes, the day that everyone first meets, them building the sets, the pizzeria, them building it by hand. So you get to see, soup to nuts. It’s as if Spike knew that some ten years later, some twenty years later, that they would contextualize this and he kept everything.”

“Now, speaking of Spike Lee, imagine my surprise when a film that I’m in, Bamboozled, made Criterion status. Words will never describe the entire experience of us shooting this. Spike Lee explained to me the premise of Bamboozled. Now, mind you, it’s 1999, and this is one of the cases in which a satire is so over the top, exaggerated. And now that it’s 25 years later, everything in this movie has happened. Spike was so ahead of time that time eventually caught up to him.”

“The Monterey Pop Festival is probably one of the most brilliant, brilliant captures of concert footage. The most legendary story, of course, is the Jimi Hendrix Experience Performance where Hendrix famously does “Wild Thing” and then he puts his guitar on the floor and he destroys it and he sets it on fire. Also another Performance that really doesn’t get talked about is Otis Redding’s Performance.”