Questlove To Reunite The Soulquarians In Honor Of D’Angelo

Questlove says that the Soulquarians are getting back together for a reunion following the death of D’Angelo in October. He announced the move on a recent episode of his podcast, The Questlove Show.

“James [Poyser], myself, Bilal — the fragments that are left of the Soulquarians… we spoke. The family’s going to get back together,” he said, according to Okayplayer. “Now that [D’Angelo] is not here, I feel that responsibility more than ever.”

The Soulquarians were a rotating collective of artists in the late 1990s and early 2000s, but some of their most popular members included Common, Erykah Badu, Q-Tip, Talib Kweli, and Yasiin Bey. D’Angelo isn’t the only late member, either, with Roy Hargrove and J Dilla having also passed away.

“I have to say, the last weeks with him were probably the best for our friendship. Music was always the template for our communication. Now here we were in the hospital — no soundproof separation booths, no drums, no keys, no instruments, no musicians. Nothing but just the two of us talking. About where our lives had been in the past five years or so,” he wrote.

Questlove continued: “I’ll admit that the uncertain finality of it all was somewhat awkward for me. Is this visit gonna be my last visit? Is this concert gonna be the last one we watch together? Will this be the last J Dilla beat we lose our minds over? Man…since that day back in 1996, talking about our hometowns and high school and our churches and our fathers and how we escaped it all, we hadn’t talked all that deep.”