Questlove sat down with GoWhere Hip Hop in Chicago this weekend to share how his work with John Legend on Obama’s presidential campaign in 2008 led to their new collaborative album, Wake Up! [out tomorrow], why being the house band on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon has been his “dream job” and the five hours of daily rehearsals that go into it; inspired by Malcolm Gladwell’s recent book, Outliers (2008), which supports the 10,000 hour formula to success. [Inspiring book, by the way].

“We’ve never rehearsed… All of our shows are mostly us going onstage and winging it… That’s normally how Roots shows go – but now that we’re on Fallon we have to sit in a room and create music for five hours every day; which basically just makes us stronger.”