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Questlove Prince Tribute: Why Questlove Played ‘Finding Nemo’ To Honor Prince

By Jonathan Franks
Published on: 13:18 PST, Apr 22, 2016

Questlove played Finding Nemo during a recent engagement to pay tribute to Prince.

According to Us Weekly, the DJ and multi-instrumentalist played the popular family film during his set at the Brooklyn Bowl in New York City Thursday.

The mere concept of playing a popular Pixar movie to honor a recently deceased music legend may seem a little confusing and awkward to the average fan. That is, of course, unless you know the story behind Questlove’s connection to that particular movie thanks to Prince.

The story that connects Questlove, Prince, and Finding Nemo apparently took place nearly 12 years ago. Prince was performing on tour in Philadelphia back in 2004 and Questlove was asked to throw him an after-party at the last minute. The report further states that Prince apparently wanted to control the door and play pool at the party.

Questlove successfully found a venue for the after-party and also served as the event’s DJ. As Prince was intensely focused on his pool game, Questlove decided to play music by a Nigerian artist named Fela Kuti.

“Prince, he really wasn’t paying attention because he was pool sharking with deep concentration. He played like his entire horns section and his guitar before he got bored.”

However, according to Questlove, Prince did not hesitate to let him know personally that the selected tracks were not working for him at that event.

“Next thing I know he walked over to my booth and he was like, ‘Play something else,’ and I was flabbergasted.”

Instead of completely abandoning the Fela Kuti tune, Questlove simply played a more energetic song from the same artist, assuming that Prince may not have liked the specific song that was previously chosen.

However, that apparently was not the case. Instead of making a return trip to Questlove’s DJ booth, Prince had a package delivered to the longtime drummer for The Roots on his behalf.

“His assistant comes over and hands me a blank DVD case and says, ‘Play this,’ so when I opened the case I was really taken aback – Finding Nemo.”

At that moment, Questlove assumed that he still had a job as the gig’s DJ, so he continued to play his selected tracks, making an assumption that Prince did not want Finding Nemo to serve as the primary source of entertainment. Once again, though, he realized that he was sadly mistaken.

“Maybe they mean, like, background. So I put on the DVD and then she comes back again, ‘You can cut the music off.’… Wait, did I just get fired and replaced by a cartoon fish? Yeah, I did.”

Questlove apparently did not allow that particular incident to hinder his admiration and appreciation for Prince as a hero within the history of music. The 45-year-old musician has posted a number of different tweets and re-tweets online since the reports of Prince’s death were first confirmed Thursday.

Questlove is just one of the many different celebrities and talented musicians that have shared their stories and memories of the recently deceased Prince on social media this week. As previously reported by the Inquisitr, Prince was pronounced dead at 10:04 a.m. Thursday morning at the age of 57.

[Image Credit: Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images]

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