Questlove has heard the future, and it’s Willow Smith. The Roots drummer and bandleader was effusive in his praise for her new track “Big Feelings.”
Quest jumped on Instagram on Friday (April 12), just one day after the song was released, to sing its, and Willow’s praises.
He applauded Smith for “allowing herself to evolve into this artist,” for “doing all the things artists over the years have told me they wanted to do but were afraid to. He also had kind words for the song’s lyrics, saying that it was brave to go to a “vulnerable place that we might think will get us ridiculed.”
Among the key elements of the song he praised were its “odd time signatures” (“verse is in 7, pre & bridge in 4, chorus alternates between 6 & 4 w added bars & moments of 7 & 5 at the end of each hook,” clarified producer and co-writer Chris Greatti) and progressive song structure, the latter of which he likened to ’70s British prog rock titans Gentle Giant.
Questlove concluded: “I am saying if you are gonna allow yourself the space to challenge yourself to get into some other ish ——and you clearly see the wave happening in which all these artists who allowed themselves to evolve in the pandemic.
“(that’s key people: in 2020 you decided to either be honest with yourself and evolve or you made a decision to remain stuck—-there was no middle ground)———Willow is no exception production/musicianship/songwriting/lyrics/singing ——-and the journey is still happening. imagine what magic will occur 10 years from now in her 30s?”
Questlove praises Willow Smith’s artistic evolution on “vulnerable” Single “Big Feelings” pic.twitter.com/QJZln98pt7
— HipHopDX (@HipHopDX) April 12, 2024
Smith was ecstatic about Questlove’s praise.
“My gratitude is <infinite>,” she wrote in a post of her own. “we are all reflections of the divine love animating everything in this universe & we should aspire to become cleaner and cleaner mirrors to reflect that force / thank you for these words @questlove.”
“Big Feelings” was written by Smith, Greatti, and keyboardist Zach Tenorio. Greatti, Tenorio, and the song’s drummer Asher Bank are childhood pals who, Greatti said on IG, “have all been friends since we were 12, back when we were pint-sized geeks ripping King Crimson together in New Brunswick, NJ.”
See Tenorio breaking down the song’s main riff, below.
Bank, as a drummer, was particularly blown away by Questlove’s comments.
“@questlove approves a song I tracked drums on. I can now die peacefully,” he wrote on his Instagram Story.
“Big Feelings” is off of Willow’s upcoming album empathogen, which is due out on May 3. Smith gave some sense of the album’s inspiration in a social media post announcing the single.
In a video, while the instrumental track for “Big Feelings” is playing, the camera moves to a poster of Frank Zappa, along with a quote from “father of electronic music” Edgar Varése.
Willow’s avant-garde leanings aren’t likely to get in the way of empathogen being a hit. She has a well-established track record, as a milestone she reached earlier this year makes clear.
In February, Willow became the first in her musical family to hit one billion streams.
Willow Smith Makes History As She Receives RIAA’s First-Ever NFT Plaque
Taking to Instagram with a screenshot of the numbers for Willow’s song “…Wait a Minute!” on February 7, her father Will Smith wrote, “@willowsmith is the first person in the family to have a song with a BILLION streams!!”
The track was released in 2015 as the second single off her debut album, Ardipithecus.
When a fan in Will’s comments questioned whether his smash “Summertime” had hit one billion streams, the superstar responded, “not even close.”
At the time, “Summertime” and its remixes had around 137 million streams on Spotify, spread across the song’s appearances on studio albums and compilations.
