When the Roots' Canadian tour dates coinciding with the Toronto G20 summit, the Philadelphia hip-hop crew's drummer, Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson, was more than a little thrown by the images flashing on Canadian news programs he was watching in Saskatoon.
"Aight Toronto....yall calm down yet? or yall still on yall anarchist smurfdom? don't have a bruh record shoppin and get rolled on," Questo tweeted before arriving to perform with the Roots at the Toronto Jazz Festival.
Prior to the band playing that show to a crowd at Nathan Phillips Square, where protestors and police collided just days earlier, Questlove questioned the focus of the G20 news coverage.
"They humanized the Starbucks. It was like Death of a Starbucks," Questlove told Exclaim! in an interview. "I was like, 'Are they really giving a memorial to a burning Starbucks?' The [reporters] talked to the manager; he was almost in tears: 'They rolled a garbage can through it...' I think they see Starbucks as big brother. I'd be curious to see an unbiased report because I was to believe that everyone here was jumping on top of cop cars, turning them over, and it was the end of Starbucks. It looked like Do the Right Thing from Spike Lee. I'd never seen anything like that in my life."
As previously reported, the Roots have more than a few projects on the go. Their album with John Legend, Wake Up!, is due out on September 21 via Sony Music. The Roots' How I Got Over is out now.
To read Exclaim!'s entire interview with Questlove, click here.
"Aight Toronto....yall calm down yet? or yall still on yall anarchist smurfdom? don't have a bruh record shoppin and get rolled on," Questo tweeted before arriving to perform with the Roots at the Toronto Jazz Festival.
Prior to the band playing that show to a crowd at Nathan Phillips Square, where protestors and police collided just days earlier, Questlove questioned the focus of the G20 news coverage.
"They humanized the Starbucks. It was like Death of a Starbucks," Questlove told Exclaim! in an interview. "I was like, 'Are they really giving a memorial to a burning Starbucks?' The [reporters] talked to the manager; he was almost in tears: 'They rolled a garbage can through it...' I think they see Starbucks as big brother. I'd be curious to see an unbiased report because I was to believe that everyone here was jumping on top of cop cars, turning them over, and it was the end of Starbucks. It looked like Do the Right Thing from Spike Lee. I'd never seen anything like that in my life."
As previously reported, the Roots have more than a few projects on the go. Their album with John Legend, Wake Up!, is due out on September 21 via Sony Music. The Roots' How I Got Over is out now.
To read Exclaim!'s entire interview with Questlove, click here.
