Questlove stopped by the Today show to discuss his latest book.
Time for a Change, a children’s science fiction novel, was co-written by Questlove and crime novelist S.A. Cosby. The second installment in the Rhythm of Time series, it follows a pair of time-traveling best friends named Rahim and Kasia. A critic for Kirkus called it “a smart sequel that’s filled with surprises and heart.” The book was published on Tuesday by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Questlove answered a question about what readers can expect from the new novel. “Basically, our characters, Rahim and Kasia, are now in the eighth grade, and they’re still on their adventure,” he said. “I’m obsessed with time travel. My premise was, What if I accidentally ran into one of my favorite groups through a time portal, and set off a chain of butterfly-wing events that changes them? But this one’s a little different. This time, they visit someone in Hawaii in 1978 before his life changes.”
Asked why he is interested in time travel, Questlove said, “In the pandemic, I learned through therapy that you can also heal the past. So oftentimes, I think because we’re immersed in hip-hop, hustle culture teaches us how to survive, but we’re never taught to dream. So I’m trying to get people…to embrace surrealism and things that are not down to earth—dreaming.”
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
