D'Angelo and Questlove Let Loose in Brooklyn

D'Angelo takes the stage at Brookyln Bowl in New York.Griffin Lotz for RollingStone.com

"My name is Questlove, so I know I get love," the Roots' cheerful drummer beckoned during his Brooklyn Bowl show with D'Angelo on Monday night. "But please, please, let him know that he is loved!" The sold-out crowd bellowed in response, as Quest's plea weighed more than the standard "make some noise!" chants heard at any rap show – love was the currency of the evening, and for R&B visionary and decade-long recluse D'Angelo, it was his also his crutch, his oxygen.

The story is well-documented: after his Grammy-nominated debut, Brown Sugar, seeped from every Land Cruiser and project window during the Summer of '95, and his follow-up, Voodoo, established him as a sex symbol and musical virtuoso, D'Angelo crumbled under the pressure of his own greatness. Tours collapsed, his physical appearance deteriorated and crippling depression drove him to drugs. Questlove hasn't been shy about the painful dynamics of their relationship: after shacking up in the studio with D'Angelo for months to craft Voodoo, a period he's described as their "college years," the two musicians became incredibly close, and Questlove acted as producer, manager and confidant during the singer's darkest period. The depth of this relationship showed onstage Monday, as the duo traded encouraging glances, quick whispers and deep laughs throughout their hour-plus set. "They're so cute together, I love it!" one female whispered to her homegirl toward the end of their set – for all the couples snuggling on the dancefloor, Questlove and D'Angelo's chemistry felt more intimate.

From the Archives: D'Angelo Is Holding Your Hand (2000)

Questlove performs with D'Angelo at Brooklyn Bowl.Griffin Lotz for RollingStone.com

With D'Angelo stationed behind a rack of thick Rhodes keyboards on one end of the stage and Questlove stomping kicks and pounding snares at the other, the duo recreated the loose, improvisational feel of the storied Voodoo jam sessions. D'Angelo arrived confident but reserved, slinking between his boards and seasoning his chords with tightly coiled vocal runs that felt even more pained than the material he'd recorded years prior. His voice was as round and smoky as we all remembered, and he was liberal with screams, bellows and falsettos – not one note was off. Between songs, he offered little more than "Thank you, Brooklyn," and "I love you," and a lone microphone rested atop a stand at center stage, but he never stepped near it. This wasn't a comeback concert; it was a workout between sparring partners.

D'Angelo performs with Questlove at Brooklyn Bowl.Griffin Lotz for RollingStone.com

Questlove is currently teaching a course at NYU that aims to contextualize classic albums with special attention to the oft-underrepresented black music canon. His lesson plan spilled to the stage on this night: the duo eschewed D'Angelo's flagship singles and instead riffed through covers of Bobby Womack, Sly and the Family Stone and a wrenching rendition of S.O.S Band's "Tell Me If You Still Care," during which D'Angelo led a sing-along that stretched to the back of the venue. Their set recalled that mid-Nineties moment of invigorating equilibrium in black music, where D'Angelo and his peers Erykah Badu, Maxwell and Lauryn Hill flipped hip-hop on its head with a dignified, complex reimagining of its soulful building blocks. D'Angelo pulled selectively from his own catalogue, touching on deep cuts like "The Root," "It's Alright" and "Africa" but leaning nowhere near his swan song, "Untitled (How Does It Feel)." His most telling number was "The Line," whose lyrics felt prophetic: "I've been gone, gone so long/Just wanna sing, sing my song/I know you've been hearing a lot of things about me," he sang with a smile. "I know, I've heard it all too clear."

D'Angelo performs with Questlove at Brooklyn Bowl.Griffin Lotz for RollingStone.com

After disappearing backstage and prompting a raucous call for an encore, Questlove and D'Angelo reemerged. "This is our last song, so you better enjoy it! If you don't make noise, you'll have to wait till 2042," Quest teased, and the duo launched into "Lady" and set the room ablaze. D'Angelo's chords dripped over the iconic bass line, and every ad-lib was in place ("My divine, my divine!"). But there was no triumphant 20-minute solo, no grandiose over-emphasis of the moment: after they wrapped, D'Angelo took a few moments to shake hands with adorers in the front row and humbly dipped toward the curtain before Questlove called him back. "D, is the album almost done?" he asked, and D'Angelo answered with a smirk: ". . .Yes." He then gave the crowd one more kiss goodnight, shuttled backstage, and collapsed into the arms of his team of supporters. He could finally breathe.

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D'Angelo and Questlove Let Loose in Brooklyn

D'Angelo takes the stage at Brookyln Bowl in New York.Griffin Lotz for RollingStone.com

"My name is Questlove, so I know I get love," the Roots' cheerful drummer beckoned during his Brooklyn Bowl show with D'Angelo on Monday night. "But please, please, let him know that he is loved!" The sold-out crowd bellowed in response, as Quest's plea weighed more than the standard "make some noise!" chants heard at any rap show – love was the currency of the evening, and for R&B visionary and decade-long recluse D'Angelo, it was his also his crutch, his oxygen.

The story is well-documented: after his Grammy-nominated debut, Brown Sugar, seeped from every Land Cruiser and project window during the Summer of '95, and his follow-up, Voodoo, established him as a sex symbol and musical virtuoso, D'Angelo crumbled under the pressure of his own greatness. Tours collapsed, his physical appearance deteriorated and crippling depression drove him to drugs. Questlove hasn't been shy about the painful dynamics of their relationship: after shacking up in the studio with D'Angelo for months to craft Voodoo, a period he's described as their "college years," the two musicians became incredibly close, and Questlove acted as producer, manager and confidant during the singer's darkest period. The depth of this relationship showed onstage Monday, as the duo traded encouraging glances, quick whispers and deep laughs throughout their hour-plus set. "They're so cute together, I love it!" one female whispered to her homegirl toward the end of their set – for all the couples snuggling on the dancefloor, Questlove and D'Angelo's chemistry felt more intimate.

From the Archives: D'Angelo Is Holding Your Hand (2000)

Questlove performs with D'Angelo at Brooklyn Bowl.Griffin Lotz for RollingStone.com

With D'Angelo stationed behind a rack of thick Rhodes keyboards on one end of the stage and Questlove stomping kicks and pounding snares at the other, the duo recreated the loose, improvisational feel of the storied Voodoo jam sessions. D'Angelo arrived confident but reserved, slinking between his boards and seasoning his chords with tightly coiled vocal runs that felt even more pained than the material he'd recorded years prior. His voice was as round and smoky as we all remembered, and he was liberal with screams, bellows and falsettos – not one note was off. Between songs, he offered little more than "Thank you, Brooklyn," and "I love you," and a lone microphone rested atop a stand at center stage, but he never stepped near it. This wasn't a comeback concert; it was a workout between sparring partners.

D'Angelo performs with Questlove at Brooklyn Bowl.Griffin Lotz for RollingStone.com

Questlove is currently teaching a course at NYU that aims to contextualize classic albums with special attention to the oft-underrepresented black music canon. His lesson plan spilled to the stage on this night: the duo eschewed D'Angelo's flagship singles and instead riffed through covers of Bobby Womack, Sly and the Family Stone and a wrenching rendition of S.O.S Band's "Tell Me If You Still Care," during which D'Angelo led a sing-along that stretched to the back of the venue. Their set recalled that mid-Nineties moment of invigorating equilibrium in black music, where D'Angelo and his peers Erykah Badu, Maxwell and Lauryn Hill flipped hip-hop on its head with a dignified, complex reimagining of its soulful building blocks. D'Angelo pulled selectively from his own catalogue, touching on deep cuts like "The Root," "It's Alright" and "Africa" but leaning nowhere near his swan song, "Untitled (How Does It Feel)." His most telling number was "The Line," whose lyrics felt prophetic: "I've been gone, gone so long/Just wanna sing, sing my song/I know you've been hearing a lot of things about me," he sang with a smile. "I know, I've heard it all too clear."

D'Angelo performs with Questlove at Brooklyn Bowl.Griffin Lotz for RollingStone.com

After disappearing backstage and prompting a raucous call for an encore, Questlove and D'Angelo reemerged. "This is our last song, so you better enjoy it! If you don't make noise, you'll have to wait till 2042," Quest teased, and the duo launched into "Lady" and set the room ablaze. D'Angelo's chords dripped over the iconic bass line, and every ad-lib was in place ("My divine, my divine!"). But there was no triumphant 20-minute solo, no grandiose over-emphasis of the moment: after they wrapped, D'Angelo took a few moments to shake hands with adorers in the front row and humbly dipped toward the curtain before Questlove called him back. "D, is the album almost done?" he asked, and D'Angelo answered with a smirk: ". . .Yes." He then gave the crowd one more kiss goodnight, shuttled backstage, and collapsed into the arms of his team of supporters. He could finally breathe.

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

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Meet the Brooklyn Nets' Courtside Mixmaster

Nets DJ J. Period during a game at the Barclays Center.

Last fall, Questlove went to check out one of the Brooklyn Nets' first games at the new Barclays Center. What impressed him most wasn't the home team's 98-85 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers: "Gotta say," the Roots drummer tweeted that afternoon, "@BrooklynNets has THE best music soundbites in their game."

Since the NBA season began in November, music supervisor J. Period – a mixtape DJ who's worked with Nas and Lauryn Hill – has been punctuating games with amped remixes of current rap hits. "Brooklyn is one of the meccas of hip-hop," he says. "The idea was that it should be a party."

100 Greatest Artists: Jay-Z

During games, Period sits on a platform with another DJ who actually triggers the tunes – custom remixes Period has made of 150 songs by everyone from the Notorious B.I.G. to James Brown, plus lots of Nets co-owner Jay-Z. When Nets star Joe Johnson races toward the basket, Period's remix of Kanye West's "Power" booms over the PA. Later, when the team returns to the court after a time-out, the DJ cues Jay-Z's "U Don't Know." "It's Brooklyn," says guard MarShon Brooks. "People get excited."

The crowd starts chanting "Brooooooook-lyn" after power forward Andray Blatche dunks – echoing the Nets' new theme song, John Forté's "Brooklyn: Something to Lean On." "For me, it had to be more than just a jingle," says Forté, a Brownsville native who rapped on the Fugees' 1996 smash The Score before serving seven years in prison on drug charges. "This had to be an anthem."

Tonight, the Nets beat the Hawks 94-89, but that's almost beside the point. "I've talked plenty of trash to Spike Lee," J. Period says of the Knicks superfan. "Even if we lose, our music is better."

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

Amazon MP3 Download Center

Read more »

Meet the Brooklyn Nets' Courtside Mixmaster

Nets DJ J. Period during a game at the Barclays Center.

Last fall, Questlove went to check out one of the Brooklyn Nets' first games at the new Barclays Center. What impressed him most wasn't the home team's 98-85 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers: "Gotta say," the Roots drummer tweeted that afternoon, "@BrooklynNets has THE best music soundbites in their game."

Since the NBA season began in November, music supervisor J. Period – a mixtape DJ who's worked with Nas and Lauryn Hill – has been punctuating games with amped remixes of current rap hits. "Brooklyn is one of the meccas of hip-hop," he says. "The idea was that it should be a party."

100 Greatest Artists: Jay-Z

During games, Period sits on a platform with another DJ who actually triggers the tunes – custom remixes Period has made of 150 songs by everyone from the Notorious B.I.G. to James Brown, plus lots of Nets co-owner Jay-Z. When Nets star Joe Johnson races toward the basket, Period's remix of Kanye West's "Power" booms over the PA. Later, when the team returns to the court after a time-out, the DJ cues Jay-Z's "U Don't Know." "It's Brooklyn," says guard MarShon Brooks. "People get excited."

The crowd starts chanting "Brooooooook-lyn" after power forward Andray Blatche dunks – echoing the Nets' new theme song, John Forté's "Brooklyn: Something to Lean On." "For me, it had to be more than just a jingle," says Forté, a Brownsville native who rapped on the Fugees' 1996 smash The Score before serving seven years in prison on drug charges. "This had to be an anthem."

Tonight, the Nets beat the Hawks 94-89, but that's almost beside the point. "I've talked plenty of trash to Spike Lee," J. Period says of the Knicks superfan. "Even if we lose, our music is better."

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

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Iceage Kick Off 'You're Nothing' Tour With Fierce Brooklyn Show

Iceage performs at 285 Kent in Brooklyn, New York.Griffin Lotz for RollingStone.com

On the first real winter day in New York, Danish punk band Iceage officially kicked off their tour at 285 Kent Avenue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The show (which followed a last-minute free gig at Wesleyan University) came less than three months after the band announced its move from small independent label What’s Your Rupture? to the much larger Matador Records, and the difference was apparent. By the time the band took the stage, the cavernous warehouse space was packed with sweaty bodies, perspiring from both the physical intensity and feverish romanticism of an Iceage performance.

The 285 Kent show was the first of two New York gigs on a 41-date tour in support of Iceage's new album, You're Nothing (due out February 19th), and the band dedicated nearly its entire set to the new material. The rest of the lineup, with New York hardcore staples Deformity opening, followed by the recently reformed Raspberry Bulbs and Nomad, work in a similar format to the headliners, with anxious bass-driven punk cloaked in reverbed vocals.

Iceage performs at 285 Kent in Brooklyn, New York.Griffin Lotz for RollingStone.com

As Iceage opened their set with "Ecstasy," the latest single from the upcoming album, frontman Elias Rønnenfelt commanded the stage with his unique blend of indifference and spirit. Thirty seconds into the song's distorted riffs, someone in the crowd launched a firework onto the stage, leaving a small trail of destruction as fleeting as its initial flame. This didn’t seem to bother Iceage in the slightest, as they kicked the attack back into the audience.

Album Review: Iceage, 'New Brigade'

After years of touring, the young Copenhagen band have tightened up. Dan Kjaer Nielsen’s drumming felt especially cadenced as he played militaristic drum marches against the clever, subtle disco influences on "Ecstasy," adding to the track's interplay of self-doubt and sexual exploration. Next came "Everything Drifts," with Jakob Tvillig Pless launching into a distorted bass line, gaining momentum with each hit of Nielsen's snare and reaching the climax while Rønnenfelt crouched low to deliver the line "You come empowered, but power sparks fear." The audience transformed into a body of attentive faces, patient fists in the air, but they fully engaged only as the band launched into one of the set's few older hits, "White Rune," with Rønnenfelt crawling out into the crowd.  

Two years have passed since the band’s debut record, New Brigade, and the anxious post-punk clangor of guitars, drums and bass continues to choke the vocals, making their live songs hard to shout along to. Yet "Morals," arguably the catchiest song on You're Nothing, managed to command an audience chant of the chorus, "Where's your morals?" well ahead of the track's public release.

Even before they announced the new album, Iceage would often end sets with its title track, "You’re Nothing," an anthem that seems to encapsulate who they are: "Remove yourself / from patterns laid / all through a life / Look at yourself / That’s right, you’re nothing." Breaking free from the confines of a punk show by ignoring everything but the music, they ended "You’re Nothing" – and the night – the way they began: looking at the ground, standing strong, playing for themselves first. Iceage knows there’s no freedom without control, and they’ll make damn sure you know it, too.

Iceage performs at 285 Kent in Brooklyn, New York.Griffin Lotz for RollingStone.com To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

Amazon Music and MP3 Center

Read more »

Iceage Kick Off 'You're Nothing' Tour With Fierce Brooklyn Show

Iceage performs at 285 Kent in Brooklyn, New York.Griffin Lotz for RollingStone.com

On the first real winter day in New York, Danish punk band Iceage officially kicked off their tour at 285 Kent Avenue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The show (which followed a last-minute free gig at Wesleyan University) came less than three months after the band announced its move from small independent label What’s Your Rupture? to the much larger Matador Records, and the difference was apparent. By the time the band took the stage, the cavernous warehouse space was packed with sweaty bodies, perspiring from both the physical intensity and feverish romanticism of an Iceage performance.

The 285 Kent show was the first of two New York gigs on a 41-date tour in support of Iceage's new album, You're Nothing (due out February 19th), and the band dedicated nearly its entire set to the new material. The rest of the lineup, with New York hardcore staples Deformity opening, followed by the recently reformed Raspberry Bulbs and Nomad, work in a similar format to the headliners, with anxious bass-driven punk cloaked in reverbed vocals.

Iceage performs at 285 Kent in Brooklyn, New York.Griffin Lotz for RollingStone.com

As Iceage opened their set with "Ecstasy," the latest single from the upcoming album, frontman Elias Rønnenfelt commanded the stage with his unique blend of indifference and spirit. Thirty seconds into the song's distorted riffs, someone in the crowd launched a firework onto the stage, leaving a small trail of destruction as fleeting as its initial flame. This didn’t seem to bother Iceage in the slightest, as they kicked the attack back into the audience.

Album Review: Iceage, 'New Brigade'

After years of touring, the young Copenhagen band have tightened up. Dan Kjaer Nielsen’s drumming felt especially cadenced as he played militaristic drum marches against the clever, subtle disco influences on "Ecstasy," adding to the track's interplay of self-doubt and sexual exploration. Next came "Everything Drifts," with Jakob Tvillig Pless launching into a distorted bass line, gaining momentum with each hit of Nielsen's snare and reaching the climax while Rønnenfelt crouched low to deliver the line "You come empowered, but power sparks fear." The audience transformed into a body of attentive faces, patient fists in the air, but they fully engaged only as the band launched into one of the set's few older hits, "White Rune," with Rønnenfelt crawling out into the crowd.  

Two years have passed since the band’s debut record, New Brigade, and the anxious post-punk clangor of guitars, drums and bass continues to choke the vocals, making their live songs hard to shout along to. Yet "Morals," arguably the catchiest song on You're Nothing, managed to command an audience chant of the chorus, "Where's your morals?" well ahead of the track's public release.

Even before they announced the new album, Iceage would often end sets with its title track, "You’re Nothing," an anthem that seems to encapsulate who they are: "Remove yourself / from patterns laid / all through a life / Look at yourself / That’s right, you’re nothing." Breaking free from the confines of a punk show by ignoring everything but the music, they ended "You’re Nothing" – and the night – the way they began: looking at the ground, standing strong, playing for themselves first. Iceage knows there’s no freedom without control, and they’ll make damn sure you know it, too.

Iceage performs at 285 Kent in Brooklyn, New York.Griffin Lotz for RollingStone.com To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

Amazon MP3 Download Center

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