Last night Jimmy Fallon had a fun lineup that not only featured J. Cole, but a GWHH-fav. Aziz Ansari as the lead guest. I ended up catching the whole show to see both and to kick it off, I must say I was impressed by Cole's performance of Born Sinner's lead single "Power Trip". He delivered the rhymes with the same pace and clarity as in the studio and I'd imagine it was an easy-to-follow first listen for anyone who turned on Fallon and is not up on J. Cole's latest. Plus, did you catch his little acknowledgement to the late Chris Kelly in his Kris Kross reference? Job well-done with The Roots playing the music behind him and a recording of Miguel in place for the hook (shouts to yardie on the rip).
In other J. Cole news, he delivered an interesting quote to Billboard yesterday regarding the reasoning behind moving up his album to June 18th. The answer, as you correctly assumed, was to compete with Kanye. Very logical reasoning. He won't win #1, but he will get a lot of extra looks when Yeezus is next to Born Sinner on the shelves. How bout that for contrasting album title names? Ha!
“Instantly the lightbulb [turned on]… it got real. I made one phone call to somebody that would know, just to make sure first. As soon as I got it confirmed, I was like, ‘Yo…’ The idea hit me instantly: ‘You got to go to that date’. I’m not going to sit [here]… I worked too hard to come a week later after Kanye West drops an amazing album. It’d be like, ‘Oh and J.Cole dropped too, a week later.’ Nah. I’m going to go see him on that date. He’s the greatest. So it’s like, I’m a competitor by nature so it was instant, it wasn’t even a thought.”
“It’s a definite statement about how I feel about my album, which is confident. At the same time, let’s not forget this is Kanye West. He bets 100, 1,000, whatever the perfect is. His track record is flawless. I’m only expecting an incredible album from him. But I know what I have.”
- J. Cole
Here's the aforementioned Aziz getting over NYC late nights and telling relatable texting stories, hah!
Tonight, moments ago in fact, Kendrick Lamar performed live on Conan on the day of the release of his new album, good kid, m.a.a.d. city. Check out "Swimming Pools (Drank)" if you missed it above, and check back a little later as I'll likely add a rip of Aziz Ansari's interview with Conan #TonightsConanIsGreat
Drop a comment with your favorite track on the album!
Owned by famed chef David Chang, Momofuku is a group of restaurants all over the world. The name Momofuku, Japanese for lucky peach, indirectly pays homage to Momofuku Ando, the creator of instant ramen. Also, a cheeky mispronunciation of mother f*cker. David Changs famed asian bun/wraps called Bo ssam have a cult following of their own. A pack led by on Aziz Ansari. Check out his battle with hunger and the time consuming recipe here.
"Then slow cooked that beast in the oven for 6 hours. Basting it every hour in its own tasty juices. Round hour 5 we made up our sides. I even shucked oysters! (Not pictured, but gotta say shucking oysters is FUN (and scary and hard))."
"Oh damn. This was good. Kimchi puree? Ginger scallion sauce? Forget about it sahn."
The new tumblr Emceez Ansari has been on fire this month, photoshopping amazing Aziz Ansari facial expressions onto iconic rap albums. It doesn't take much explaining for you to see how hilarious the end result is. Enjoy the slideshow above, drop a comment with your favorite cover, and to top it all off, a RANDOM GIF SMASH!
