Questlove is doubling down on his comments about Tupac’s 1996 diss track “Hit ‘Em Up.”
After appearing on the One Song podcast, the Roots drummers called the track weak and said it isn’t one of the “greatest disses in hip-hop history.”
“I would actually respect 2Pac’s ‘Hit ‘Em Up’ if his music tracking was better. … ‘Hit ‘Em Up,’ to me, is disqualified, not because of the misogynist—forget all that. It’s like, ‘Dude, you’re rhyming over smooth jazz dinner music,’” Quest said. “Luther Vandross could sing over this!”
He added, “People who are born in the latter part of the decade that I was born in—alright, I was born in the ’70s, news flash—their relationship with 2Pac is different than my relationship. And so thus, when this came out, they were like, ‘This is hard as shit! Yo, he killin’ it!’”
Love also explained he wasn’t a fan of the song and the interpolation of Dennis Edwards and Siedah Garrett’s song, “Don’t Look Any Further.” “And I was like, ‘Dog, he smooth jazzed up Dennis Edwards,” he said. “It doesn’t count. … That song, to me, is the weakest musical smack.”
However, Questlove went on social media after the interview to clarify his comments about the song. “So we are clear: I said I never liked the INTERPOLATION (when musicians replay a sample) of ‘Don’t Look Any Further’ on ‘Hit Em Up,’” he began. “I said nothing disparaging about Dennis Edwards or Pac—y’all turning this into a weird game of telephone. The INTERPOLATION is what I’m talking about. Don’t take my ish outta context.”
In the caption, he added, “I feel like my words were taken outta context from that interview so I’m making it clear that I was never a fan of that particular musical interpretation of ‘Don’t Look Any Further.’”