Questlove is back to talk about his new documentary about Sly Stone and his band the Family Stone. They created a new sound with their mix of pop, soul, funk, psychedelic music and irresistible beats. The film is called SLY LIVES! (aka The Burden of Black Genius) and it streams on Hulu beginning Feb. 13.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
Chapter 1: Who is Sly Stone and why is he significant?
This is Fresh Air. I'm Terry Gross. Today, Amir Questlove-Thompson is back to talk about the life and legacy of Sly Stone. Questlove's new documentary called Sly Lives, a.k.a. The Burden of Black Genius, is about the impact of Sly Stone and his band Sly and the Family Stone on music and culture. Sly got his start as a DJ and record producer in the early 1960s.
formed a multiracial band with his brother, sister, and other musicians, and went on to record hits like Everyday People, Dance to the Music, Family Affair, and Stand. Their music influenced Prince, George Clinton and Funkadelic, The Ohio Players, Earth, Wind & Fire, and many hip-hop artists. The film also covers the problems that came along with fame and drugs that took Sly down.
It premiered at Sundance last month and starts streaming on Hulu Thursday, February 13th. Questlove is the co-founder of the hip-hop band The Roots, which is the house band for The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.
If you feel as if you just heard him on our show, you did when we talked about his other new documentary focused on Saturday Night Live's music guests and music sketches over the past 50 years. That one's called Ladies and Gentlemen, 50 Years of SNL Music. Questlove's 2021 documentary Summer of Soul, featuring performances from the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, won an Oscar for Best Documentary.
So let's talk about your slide documentary. I really love this film. I want to start with a song, and it's their first big hit. It's Dance to the Music. It's so catchy, and I'd like you to point out what makes this song special in its moment, which was 1967 or 8?
This is 1968.
Okay. So what makes this song so special in its moment?
Sly will invent the alphabet for which most of pop and R&B or black music will write from for, you know, the next 60 years. Like, we're still writing from his dictionary to this day. And so, okay, we have a four-minute song to make. How many micro songs can we have in this particular song? In other words, a typical Sly the Family Stone song is— has a bunch of elements that will grab everybody.
Like, most songs will just have one specific hook. Like, this is the chorus. This is my hook. Okay, here are my lyrics. Instead, Sly will do a four-bar part that's, like, earworm. You know, like, that'll grab you, and then he'll do another four bars that will grab someone else. So, you know, lyrically and melodic-wise, his formula is also... The world's funkiest nursery rhyme music.
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Chapter 2: What is the documentary 'Sly Lives!' about?
Yeah, I mean, the thing is, is that one of the burdens, especially with Black success, is that you might lose yourself. And oftentimes, look, I'll be very honest with you. Even though my experience with Summer of Soul was one of the most magical, transformative moments of my life, there were many a time where
Besides the Oscar, there were 40 other awards that I won also in the circuit of film festivals. By the 20th, I would tell... My manager's there. I'm like, man, can we pull out of some of these things? There's a fear of winning because if you're too successful, then you're singled out. And being singled out for positive reasons or negative reasons is such a nightmare for most black people.
And yes, in this case... Why? Because... you're going to be separated. Like for a lot of black people, it's, you come up in the neighborhood, you, you know, your next door neighbors, you, you spend the night at your cousin's house. And then in the snap, suddenly, you know, I'm, I'm a Macaulay Calkins character staying at the four seasons hotel, like by myself in the lap of luxury.
And, um, that's an alienating feeling because you can't take everyone with you. You can't save everyone. Um, Um, you know, I grew up in a neighborhood in which I had between the two neighbors, you know, my grandmother's house and my house, like I had 30 plus friends and now it's just four of us. Like I'm one of four who's not dead or in jail. And so there's, there's a constant, like, why me?
Why was I chosen? My cousin was just as smart as I was. And that person plays drums better than me. Like, they should have been in this position. Like, there's an imposter syndrome thing that happens and just a feeling of guilt that one feels.
And, you know, the Panthers sort of approached Sly and was like, okay, well, you know, you're talking about these political subjects that we're about, so we want you to be our leader and fund our movement. And Sly fundamentally doesn't... necessarily agree like he's not that revolutionary, even though he has the ability to channel in the feeling of a revolutionary.
So what winds up happening is for every time the pressure is on Sly to prove his blackness, the more success he gets. He just winds up, his only answer is to create blacker music. So, you know, the pressure of everyday people leads to Stan. And then the pressure of Stan leads to basically the ribbon cutting of funk. The very first funk song, which is, thank you for letting me be myself again.
You know, it's kind of like this brilliant deflection thing. Like his version of, hey. Hey, guys, what's that over there? You know, it may turn around and then like he's gone. Instead, he'll just say, here's an even funkier song to prove that I'm super black, you know, and that's that's kind of how he gets out these situations. He he has to performatively. Yeah.
For me, it's probably 41 of the most painful documented minutes in a creator's life. Like, this is clearly someone who is an unwilling participant. In his journey, like, I hear someone crying for help, but because the music is so awesome and so mind-blowing, you know, we wind up fetishizing his art and you don't see the pain of it. Or the fact that Black Pain is so... beautiful.
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