Questlove Defends Rich Homie Quan's The Notorious B.I.G. Lyrical Flub

There’s been a wave of controversy this week surrounding Rich Homie Quan after he flubbed the lyrics to The Notorious B.I.G.’s track “Get Money” in a performance with Lil Kim at the VH1 Hip Hop Honors. Quan has responded with a sincere apology on Instagram, and now Questlove has also shared a contemplative response to the incident. In an extended message, Quest brings attention to the nature of modern media and the notion that “America is a disposable art society.” See the Instagram post below.

See a lot of y’all catchin feelings over the “Get Money” ball drop from #HipHopHonors. But check it….A lot of you “real hip hop heads” seem to magically think that the music of our prime is gonna just translate on dopeness alone. I mean EVERYbody should know this song right? It’s the Hood National Anthem. Even Big’s rival had to reference “Get Money” to clap back at him. So how it all fall apart? I don’t blame RHQ. I blame us. I don’t mean shame on radio & media programmers either for these diminished returns. I literally mean you and I. We are to blame. We watch what we eat (well “some of us ?) but won’t treat the music we consume like we do food. You need BALANCE! If you haven’t made a playlist for about 20-50 people in your lifetime (mixtape/spotify/tidal/apple/etc) then you failed hip hop culture. –not sayin you gotta be all deep making Dilla b side Japanese import levels of stuff. But something as simple as “La Di Da Di” can easily be forgotten in these days & times. YOU gotta pay it forward! America is a disposable art society that makes genius innovations only to toss out yesterday’s creations tomorrow. And the way we mass consume entertainment, it’s a wonder we can separate quality from trash. I’m not ranting just to rant. But y’all should at least know where we headed. Remember when y’all were praying “dear god PLEASE let these BET AWARD tributes be on point ??????” few weeks back? Welp. That’s the times we live in. We have no more singing groups or bands or crews w major record deals. (if you can barely count 10 fingers worth of worthy acts that give you the chills in 2016? You in trouble. The #CultOfPersonality stage of entertainment started in 96, & some 20 years later we got more famous people than we have those that effect us. I understand magnetism. I know entertainment geniuses that can barely hold a conversation let only your attention for 3 mins. I also know half trick ponies whose social media following outranks major city populations. Point is if you don’t BALANCE your intake & keep skipping salads for dessert “gettin money” finna be the LEAST of our problems. #Each1Teach1

A photo posted by Questlove Gomez (@questlove) on Jul 11, 2016 at 11:43pm PDT