2001 Questlove Was Hesitant To Work With JAY-Z In Fear Of Looking Like A ‘Sellout’

2001: Questlove Was Hesitant To Work With JAY-Z In Fear Of Looking Like A ‘Sellout’ During a recent episode of Mark Ronson’s “FADER Uncovered Podcast” series, Questlove revealed that he worried about working with JAY-Z out of fear of looking like a “sellout.” “In 2001, there was still this Hip Hop apartheid, church and state separation thing between artists. Backpackers didn’t take kindly to commercial rappers. Commercial rappers looked at us like broke haters,” Questlove explained.  Quest noted that JAY-Z’s Blueprint, which came out on September 11th, was a “self-soothing” album that got many people through a tough time.  Quest hit up Dream Hampton to let her know how much he liked the album but begged her not to tell JAY, to which she refused and told him anyway.  Today there seems to be no such thing as a sellout or is there? What is considered a “sellout” in current terms?