I think the whole resistance to [the] political content [on the album] really has a lot to do with the fact that people actually thought that life was better in general in [the ‘90s]. I like where my life personally is right now in 2008, but not too many people are as lucky as to have a career or a job [like] I do that allows me to do the stuff that I do. The years get better [for me].

DX: So you’re saying there wasn’t like a particular catalyst for the more biting subject matter, it just kinda happened organically over time?
?uest: Um, no. Like you have to understand that the standard of Hip Hop that got you those early Roots records was based on a whole battle emcee style of thing. I mean, that’s why we put that “@ 15” skit on right before “75 Bars” [click to listen] to show you how close to Big Daddy Kane Tariq [Black Thought] really was. We’re sort of the last and the only people that sort of hold that flag up in 2008. I don’t hear Lil Wayne sounding like Kane. Or Soulja Boy sounding like Kane, or Lil Webbie…or anybody that’s pretty much in the ringtone game right now. And it’s just like, there’s moments of that type of [raw] rhyming on the record. I mean, that’s what “75 Bars” is about. It’s lyrical murder. But I also think that the thing that sort of justifies the fact that we’re able to still release records is that there’s some sort of evolution. And I think that the truth hurts, and people really need to know what’s going on in the world today.

DX: Hip Hoppers today [don’t seem to] feel a need to regain that socially-conscious backbone. You said that they’re just indifferent, [but] do you think though that maybe they just understand the difference between rhetoric and reality? That they understand Chuck was just [saying] “Fight The Power,” that didn’t necessarily in and of itself lead to any change?
?uest: That did lead to change. If it weren’t for Public Enemy I definitely wouldn’t have any type of knowledge of self, or sought to figure out the importance of African-American society. Public Enemy made that exciting and made you wanna search for your history.

I think a lot of the [current indifference] has a lot to do with the fact that [if] you [were] born in the ‘80s you [were] really born in the first “legally free decade” in the history of the United States of America. I would say the ‘70s, but that [was] sort of like the ending of…The late 1800s was Reconstruction, the early 1900s [was the] Jim Crow period, the mid-[1900s was the] [Civil Rights Era]… The ‘70s were sort of like the let down of [100] years. And the ‘80s kind of represents the beginning of the next phase of I guess the whole social standing of the United States. If you were born in [the ‘80s] you really aren’t that closely connected to any of those struggles. There’s no sense of struggle or sense of fight [within your generation]. If you were born in the ‘80s you pretty much [just] want 75 cents for a Slurpee and [are asking], “Where’s the remote control at?”

I don’t think that you have to go through life feeling like your life’s gonna be threatened if you sit on a certain seat on the bus or if you have a turkey sandwich at Woolworth's. But I also feel as though if you forget [that struggle] you get comfortable. Now, it’d be one thing if you could forget it and you get comfortable and you on the same level playing field, but clearly economically, socially, education-wise, blacks are not on the same level playing field. And so it’s like you can’t forget.

There are people I know right now in their twenties [who are] like, “Well man, racism’s over. That shit’s in the past.” And they don’t understand the institutionalized racism. They don’t understand why most of the inner cities’ classrooms look like they’re on the set of The Wire as opposed to the suburban schools or the higher echelon charter schools. There’s a whole double standard difference in entertainment and education, in jobs, social standing, [and] in housing that hasn’t changed. But there’s sort of this false pretense that everything’s better and things are better than they were. But until everyone’s on a level playing field I fail to see that.

DX: I think that there’s some hope that change will happen [this] November. Kind of a bad segue, but do you care to let us know who The Roots are formally endorsing for president?
?uest: I work for the Obama campaign. I call. I go door-to-door. I do pamphlets. If I’m needed to entertain, I do that. If I’m needed to talk to people, I do that. I pretty much been [actively involved] in his campaign since last December.

DX: Why him; why Obama?
?uest: Because I actually feel like he’s talking to me, not at me. As opposed to most politicians that do that sort of obligatory inner-city visit, shake your hand, have some collard greens at the local soul food restaurant and then you don’t hear from them again.

There’s actually hard evidence that proves that he walks it like he talks it. It really disturbs me that it took him and his campaign to get 200 plus prisoners out of Chicago jails that were falsely imprisoned because of him forcing the government to instill D.N.A. testing. Not to mention, his constant speaking out against the whole idea of industrializing prison, where private companies are allowed to come in and only pay prisoners 60 cents an hour [to make goods]. He [also] speaks on racial profiling, as far as driving while black, especially on the New Jersey Turnpike, where that happens a lot. He speaks on what we talk about in the song “Criminal,” about the whole idea of the double standard [of the] Rockefeller Laws, where certain people will get caught with crack cocaine and given harsher sentences, like five to 10 years, and certain individuals will do high-end [drugs] and get probation or rehab, a slap on the wrist. There’s a whole slew of [issues that Obama has addressed]. Continued on page 3 »