From The New York Daily News…
Questlove: I received hate messages, racial epithets after Michele Bachmann music diss on ‘Late Night’
Bandleader said he never thought song would cause so much reaction
By Kathryn Kattalia, New York Daily News
Questlove isn’t laughing anymore.
The bandleader who chose to play Fishbone’s “Lyin’ Ass Bitch” as Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachman took the stage on “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” last week says the joke wasn’t worth all the backlash.
The musician says he’s received a slew of hate messages and racial epithets from Bachmann supporters and Tea Party members since leading house band The Roots to play the snarky song that introduced the Minnesota Congresswoman onto the show.
“I’ve seen some really colorful epithets in the past four days,” he told Pitchfork.
“Blocking 3,500 tea party extremists in a three day period is no fun, especially when you’re a drummer dangerously close to carpal tunnel,” he went on. “In the end, was it worth it? Absolutely not.”
Questlove said he never thought the song would cause so much reaction.
“It wasn’t like a chess move where you have to think 12 steps ahead,” he said. “You’re just, like, ‘Fuck, all right, I’m gonna do it,’ in a kamikaze-type way. And I really didn’t think about how it could be perceived as a misogynist swipe — it didn’t hit me until my [Twitter\] timeline started showing up that it was seen that way.”
He added that the walk-on song wasn’t meant to come off as sexist.
“It deeply offended a lot of women’s groups and non-Bachmann supporters, and for that I’m deeply sorry,” he told Pitchfork. “I’m not parading like I’m the poster boy for the feminist movement, but those who truly know me know that that’s not me. I was really just going with her whole revisionist history angle, I wasn’t calling her out on being a woman.”
During the show, the musician had hinted at the joke to his followers.
“Aight late night walk on song devotees: you love it when we snark: this next one takes the cake. ask around cause i aint tweeting title,” he posted.
Last week, NBC senior vice president Dough Vaughn wrote a letter of apology to the presidential hopeful, calling the show’s choice to play the song “unfortunate” and “unacceptable.”
Fallon also took to Twitter to apologize for the walk-on debacle.
“I’m so sorry about the intro mess. I really hope she comes back,” he wrote.
