Questlove Roots Picnic 2019-0842
Photo Credit: Vickey Ford of Sneakshot for Okayplayer
Photo Credit: Vickey Ford of Sneakshot for Okayplayer
The series, which is executive produced by Questlove and Black Thought, debuts October 13.
Questlove has shared the list of rap songs that will be analyzed and discussed in his forthcoming AMC television series, Hip Hop: The Songs That Shook America.
The six songs that will be the focus of the series are: "Jesus Walks" by Kanye West, "Alright" by Kendrick Lamar, "Rock Box" by Run-DMC, "Elevators" by Outkast, "The Bridge" by MC Shan, and "Ladies First" by Queen Latifah.
The first episode will tackle "Jesus Walks," and a sneak preview of that episode is available to watch online.
Previously, a trailer for the forthcoming TV show featured Pharrellspeaking on the stigma around rap music, and how people who criticize it for its lyrical content don’t understand the source of where it comes from.
“There’s a certain group of people — ‘Why is it like that? Why they talking about this? Why they talking about that?’ Because we’ve been dealing with for a lot of time, and we’ve been dealing with this with a lot of pressure. That’s what makes this music,” Pharrell explains in the trailer.
“And you might not be able to understand because you ain’t have to deal with this time,” he continues. “…But if you wanna understand this music you gotta go back and really look at this history…people have a chip on their shoulder, yes people are upset, and that’s the kind of anger you’re hearing in this music.”
Hip Hop: The Songs That Shook America will focus "on a groundbreaking song pivotal to the evolution of American music and culture. Artists deconstruct their composition, revisit the impact the song had on them personally, and dissect the socio-economic and cultural conditions that inspired the landmark work and gave voice to a generation," according to previous descriptions about the series.
The show debuts on AMC on October 13.
