Sometime between the ending of the Game 6 OT thriller and during Gregg Popovich's tear-inducing postgame press conference, Ice Cube was performing an all-time hip hop classic live with The Roots on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. Fortunately, we can watch the powerful and nostalgic performance above — really a chilling, must-see when you see Ice Cube's raw energy mixed with the soulful grooves provided by Questlove & Co. The Roots bring out the song's iconic notes with their usual jazzy twist, giving the song a fresh 2013 feel. Even Fallon himself set the tone with an extra level of genuine excitement than usual as he introduced Ice Cube. Not much else to say except, press play above.
Last night, Kelly Rowland wasted no time in pushing her new single with Wiz Khalifa "Gone", which she dropped earlier in the day, by performing it with Wiz and The Roots on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. This was my first impression of the song as Jodeci gave Kelly a glowing a review when we posted it yesterday. And it's an instant *Tibs Fav. I like the story and relatable emotions that Rowland expresses with Wiz adding the male perspective. The performance was nice as well, with The Roots' instrumentation acting as a great compliment too. Watch the performance above ICYMI last nite.
UPDATE: One more preview of Talk A Good Game, out June 18th, as Kelly reels in a featured verse from Pusha T and a smooth production from Pharrell. Her vocals boom on "Street Life" with Pusha doin his thing on the third verse. Press play on a radio rip below. Another solid *Tibs Fav.
Last night, I happened to catch this performance live on Jimmy Fallon as The-Dream was joined by the soulful Gary Clark Jr. for a performance of "Too Early" off his new IV Play album. I think the song may need to grow on me as there were only parts of the performance I liked. I especially liked Gary Clark Jr. and The Roots, per usual, playing in the back. Here's the performance above in case you missed it!
...Sorta. The staff at Jimmy Fallon had a lot of time on their hands as they mashed up lots of news reports from NBC anchor Brian Williams to rap the first verse of one of the most fun rap songs ever "Nuthin' But A G Thing". B-Will's gotta improve that flow a little! #FunnyMomentsInHipHop
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!
Here is a dope new weekend roundup of a variety of news and tidbits that happened amongst all the #YeezySeason mania that is going on, hah!
First off, up above, De La Soul performed live with The Roots on Jimmy Fallon. Above is the feel-good "A Rollerskating Jam Named Saturdays" and "Jenifa Taught Me" can be viewed here. De La's got a new album coming out (!) entitled You're Welcome, slated for this Fall.
An intriguing upcoming collab was announced — Mario & Nicki Minaj! Mario revealed the single on the way, produced by Polow Da Don, via a handwritten note from the heart (seen below). May 21st, you can expect to hear this.
The day before (i.e. tomorrow), T.I. will release his new single with Lil Wayne "Wit Me". You can catch the teaser trailer from last Friday here and peep the new single art below.
And below that, you'll notice the tracklist to Ludacris' upcoming mixtape, IDGAF. There's plenty of big-name features on the 10-track opus, set to be released May 24th. Whew! How bout that for some quick-hit news?!
Wait, one late addition: Action Bronson tweeted a collab project with Harry Fraud called Saab Stories will be impacting early June.
From Mario himself: "Somebody Else" f/ Nicki Minaj drops Tuesday, May 21st
T.I. "Wit Me" f/ Lil Wayne single and music video drops tomorrow, May 20th!
Ludacris 'IDGAF' mixtape dropping May 24th (front cover here)
Hittin' you guys with a couple of new late night TV performances. First, we rewind it to last night on Fallon with Talib Kweli as he performed the new single "Come Here". With Miguel on the single's hook but not available to join him on stage, Kweli calls in old friend/collaborator Bilal to handle the hook duties. It's always a soulful time with these two so be sure to peep this one above.
And tonight, Snoop Dogg (Lion? Still not sure which one to use...) had a father-daughter moment bringing on Cori B. to perform "No Guns Allowed" from his new album, Reincarnated, which is only slated to sell a tender 17-19K in its first week. If you missed Letterman tonight, watch below.
2013 is already a great year with this news. In fact, we previously posted Common's appearance on Carson Daly where he revealed an upcoming EP and mixtape, but in tonight's interview on Jimmy Fallon, in addition to promoting his upcoming movie LUV, the actor/rapper put some dates to those two upcoming projects of that latter occupation... AND the date for his next album.
NEW EP: this month.
NEW (and first ever) Mixtape: April
NEW album: September
I think this GIF (the first of 3 I got for you tonight, so scroll below) sums up my, and your, thoughts exactly.
Late night TV was in for a hip hop treat tonight in its first night of 2013. Big Boi was on Letterman (below) while Lupe Fiasco invaded Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, bringing with him Guy Sebastian for a performance of "Battle Scars". They were, of course, accompanied by The Roots for some background instrumentation, but Lupe & Guy definitely stood out in the forefront. Lupe spit word for word while Guy flipped his delivery to bring something fresh to all those used to his voice on the studio version. All in all, another dope performance of the high-charting single Food & Liquor II: The Great American Rap Album Pt. 1, in stores now.
And here's GIF 2 of 3 of the night... I been seeing and holding onto these that you guys are just going to get a bonanza of them tonight. Kansas Men's Basketball dancing in the locker room. Over/under on how many times you'll watch this: 10.
