Spinning Profits: How Hip-Hop Is Cashing In On The DJ Boom

Questlove: One of the hip-hop acts cashing in on the DJ boom (photo: Cody Swanson for ABSOLUT Lunch Break)

It’s lunchtime at the Dream hotel’s penthouse lounge, but aside from the late summer sunlight filtering through the floor-to-ceiling windows, the scene seems positively nocturnal.

Questlove, the venerable drummer and frontman of the Roots, is stationed in the DJ booth, his trademark ‘fro erupting from the headband of an oversized pair of orange headphones. He’s readying himself to launch a...