One among hip-hop and R&B’s most iconic collectives may be making a comeback.
Questlove has teased the long-awaited return of the Soulquarians, the soul-steeped motion that he spearheaded within the late Nineties and early 2000s alongside the likes of D’Angelo and J Dilla.
Throughout a current episode of his podcast The Questlove Present, the longtime Roots drummer and award-winning filmmaker revealed plans for a stripped-down Soulquarians comeback that includes the few authentic members which are left together with himself, R&B legend Bilal and acclaimed producer/multi-instrumentalist James Poyser.
“James [Poyser], myself, Bilal — the fragments which are left of the Soulquarians… we spoke. The household’s going to get again collectively,” he mentioned.
Questlove added that for the reason that deaths of Prince and D’Angelo in 2016 and 2025, respectively, he feels stress to “see the mission by means of” of conserving considerate, analog-driven music alive.
“Now that [D’Angelo] just isn’t right here, I really feel that duty greater than ever,” he shared.
It’s unclear if different dwelling Soulquarians equivalent to Erykah Badu, Widespread, Q-Tip and Yasiin Bey (previously often known as Mos Def) might be concerned.
Headquartered at Jimi Hendrix’s famed Electrical Girl Studios in New York Metropolis, the unique Soulquarians motion birthed an entire wave of traditional hip-hop and R&B albums that stay massively influential to today.
Between 1999 and 2002, the lineup of like-minded, left-of-center creatives got here collectively to provide masterpieces like D’Angelo’s Voodoo, Erykah Badu’s Mama’s Gun and Widespread’s Like Water For Chocolate.
“In my head it was this utopian paradise I had all the time envisioned, the Native Tongues motion recreated,” Questlove wrote of the Soulquarians in his 2013 memoir Mo’ Meta Blues.
Nonetheless, issues started to collapse simply because the group was hitting its peak due to a 2000 VIBE journal article that sought to highlight the Soulquarians, however sadly backfired.
“I used to be in Chicago for a D’Angelo present … Somebody got here up and tapped me on the shoulder. ‘Ahmir, it’s Mos [Def]. He needs to speak to you,’” Quest recalled in Mo’ Meta Blues.
“[Mos said], ‘I’m not an Aquarian … Does that imply I’m not an actual Soulquarian?’ Later, Q-Tip referred to as. ‘Yo,’ he mentioned. ‘This text makes it appear to be I give you the results you want.’ Then Erykah referred to as, and she or he had an issue with the piece, too.”
He added: “Once I [checked out the story], I may see their level … It was at that second that I spotted that the paradise I had imagined wasn’t headed in a very good route.”
