For those of you who are too young to know, Patti Labelle is an iconic musician and actress, who has been in the business for over 50 years. She’s sold over 50 million albums, Rolling Stone named her one of the top 100 singers of all time, and she originated that song “Lady Marmalade” that you love so much when Christina Aguilera sings it on the Moulin Rouge album.
But she’s also known for apparently cooking the best soul food anyone has ever had in their lives. And that’s the important part of this story, wherein Patti LaBelle promised Questlove from The Roots an amazing soul food meal with fried chicken, sweet potatoes and vanilla pancakes. It’s the same promise — he would later learn — that Patti LaBelle had been making to Jazzy Jeff since the “Parents Just Don’t Understand” days.
But Questlove was determined to make Patti LaBelle follow through on that promise, and he became so obsessed with LaBelle’s food that he made some unwise decisions over the course of seven years to ensure that he got some of her fried chicken. The story includes this line: “”How do you call your label to tell them that their artist owes you residuals in fried chicken?”
I won’t spoil the story for you, but the twist in the end is absolutely brilliant.
Source: Storyville
