Questlove recently had a happy moment thwarted by a nosy neighborhood “Karen.” The Roots co-founder took to Twitter to recount the experience, which happened while he was moving into his dream house.
“Walked in my brand new house & not even 60 secs later….got Karen’d,” he wrote on Sunday (Nov. 8).
The Grammy Award-winning artist explained how much moving into his “grow old” home meant to him and how frustrated he was by the Karen confrontation, who, in this case, was a white male neighbor.
“Today man. sheeeesh. I been living out of Kippling bags, room service, bus bunks, airplane lounges, studios, my 30rock HQs, & crash apts waiting for 28 years to get my 1st REAL ‘imma grow old here’ crib,” Questlove wrote. “So this has been an exciting time for this chapter in my life.”
He described the excitement of moving into his new home as “1st day of school outfit excitement” or “finally this album done excitement.”
“My first real house!!! after 3 decades drifting,” he added.
Questlove said he was just walking up to his newly bought home when he heard: “‘Scuse me do you live here?” The unidentified white man had two dogs with him, the artist noted, and questioned if he was the homeowner.
“I can’t explain this part. the world just stops,” he wrote. “I’ve been pulled over by cops on the way to 30 rock, ive been pulled over by Ice leaving roots gigs in cali, I’ve been held in rooms by DEA in airports…”
“… [and] most of the time I never share that stuff because — I guess the tiny violin in my head just dismisses it — but man there is NO feeling like this type of violation. and I’m certain this guy thought he was doing his due diligence. but that shit is triggering AF man. TRIGGERING.”
“It was fake passive aggressive politeness/nosey neighbor/audicity/aloofness — shit ruined my day so much I came back to my old apt just to let a week go by to let this anger go,” Questlove continued. “I dont even know why im posting this. im just tired of this shit. I am man. just tired.”
This year, several states have passed laws criminalizing racially motivated 911 calls in response to the growing awareness of discriminatory incidents and false police reports. Back in September, one man sued the city of Monona, Wisconsin after he was held at gunpoint by two cops who thought he was breaking into his own home.
See Questlove’s tweets about his recent experience below.