Questlove’s New Book ‘The Rhyme of Time’ Was Written To His 9-Year-Old Self

Questlove is celebrating the release of another book, The Rhyme of Time.

The host of Questlove Supreme stopped by The View to discuss his teen new novel, a book that he says was written for a 9-year-old Questlove.

“I want Black nerds to see themselves as well,” the director of Summer of Soul shared.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDTtq_br5_w

According to Penguin Random House, the book’s publisher, The Rhyme of Time follows the life of Rahim Reynolds, a 7th-grader who enjoys experimenting with gadgets made by his friend, Kasia. When Kasia makes a cellphone that Rahim falls in love with, neither Rahim nor Kasia knows the phone has a special battery that interacts with a government satellite.

Questlove and S.A. Crosby, the co-author of Questlove’s book, spoke with NPR about their collaboration.

“In my mind, I’m so obsessed with time travel, but I’m one of those nerds that—yeah, I’m sorry. It took me till the pandemic to watch Star Wars, the complete series, and things that nerds are supposed to know already—like, nerd 101 stuff. I just thought that I can’t write a book about time travel and stuff. Like, I don’t even know what the terms to use…”

Crosby added, “There aren’t really any rules about time travel. It’s how far you want to go with it as a creative person, you know? It’s like—you know, to quote Star Wars, nobody knows how lightsabers work. They just know they’re cool. You know, it’s not a Stephen Hawking dissertation. You just got to make it make sense.”

Rhyme of Time is also in conversation with Black Nerd Problems, a collection of essays penned by William Evans and Omar Holmon. Questlove’s 2021 effort, Music is History, finds the drummer linking blaxploitation films to the reshaping of Black identity.

The Rhyme of Time can be purchased here.