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)
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.
Even though I'm a couple nights late, I'd be remiss not to show this late night TV performance some love. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis performed "Thrift Shop" with help from The Roots on Jimmy Fallon. This one's a straight jam session - look how much fun everyone is having playing and enjoying the music. Love the energy.
In this quick interview above with Hip Hollywood, Questlove simply states that, "you’re gonna get a new Roots album late 2013."
Great news for fans of the band, who should expect to see them continuing their late night gig with Jimmy Fallon leading up to another album's release. I hope it's along the concept lines of undun.
Joey Bada$$ made his television performance debut the other night on Live with Jimmy Fallon as he performed "Waves" with The Roots. Watch and see above as Fallon is certainly becoming a staple for rappers on the cusp of stardom to perform on. Looking forward to who Fallon and The Roots co-sign next.
With some assistance from Jimmy Fallon house band The Roots, Kendrick Lamar performs his current single "Swimming Pools (Drank)" for the NBC viewing audience earlier tonight. Watch the performance above in case you missed it and be on the lookout for good kid, m.a.a.d. city on October 22nd.
