by SCOTT C

As someone who’s had the opportunity to meet many a dynamic and energetic personality over the years, I learned a long time ago that you’ll have more luck interacting with high-falootin’ celebrity types if you just be yourself. There was that one time I met Mikhail Baryshnikov and was left completely dumbfounded and speechless on account of his height (or lack thereof), but for the most part I’ve had pretty good luck just being me.

So last Friday, when the opportunity arose to play alongside the Roots’ backbone and music aficionado ?uestlove, I just assumed from past conversations with him, and his calm, cool and collected demeanour in interviews and public appearances, that it was going to be a night to remember. I arrived shortly after 11 p.m., with a hand-picked bag of hot shit to drop on the people, followed very closely by Toronto’s DJ Nana, who walked in around 11:30 p.m., amped and ready to get to it. Nana and I had been meaning to hook up for a long time, but this was actually our very first meeting, and I was excited to find that he was oozing good vibes and all about the music. After building for a few minutes, we decided he would start the night as a few people started to trickle in. Shortly before midnight, in walked ?uestlove, his hype man Yahmean and the promoter. The few people who were already there whipped into a mild little frenzy of camera-phone pics, and jostling for a good look at the big man, who was of course sporting his trademark Afro pic right in the back of his big ol’ hairdo.

Nana and I got introduced as the other DJs on the bill, at which point ?uestlove announced that he wanted to start playing right away. Nana looked at me, and played one more record before reluctantly ending his mere 20-minute set, while ?uestlove quietly prepared to take over. And that was that. Neither Nana nor I spoke to ?uestlove or Yahmean, or touched the turntables again, for the rest of the night. Now, I know he’d just come from playing a show at Metropolis with the Roots, but that’s no excuse to just elbow your way in and shut out the additional DJs. There was more than enough time for all of us to play and we couldn’t believe that he would go and straight up hog the decks without even looking us in the eye. Needless to say, it was a little difficult for me to enjoy myself as much as I wanted to for the rest of the night, despite a rockin’ party set from ?uestlove that included classic hip hop, breaks, Nirvana and Harry Belafonte. Bastard. Maybe he didn’t feel like hanging out, signing autographs and talkin’ shit with the people while me and Nana played, or maybe he just wanted the whole night to himself. Either way, I knew it was going to be a night to remember.

I DON’T SOUND BITTER, DO I? fathead@videotron.ca

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