The Roots Breathe Some Life Into Late Night

A consensus highlight from the debut of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon is a bit they called "Slow Jamming the News". Basically The Roots and Jimmy do a nice syrupy parodic R&B version of some of the latest news headlines-- think Barry White meets Weekend Update. (Funny enough it's similar to a pitch I laid on Gawker one time, essentially "Emceeing the news" which might not have worked as well cause slow jams play better for humor than fast-raps, but still affirms my belief that a low-risk way to freshen up any stale typically-white stuff is via the integration of typically-black stuff. As long as the typically-Black stuff is done by actual Blacks and not "urban"-caucasians which i suspect is where McDonald's commercials or folks rapping about Doritos or whathaveyou go wrong.)

In any event it also signals the bringing on of The Roots as an inspired choice for the show's producers; regardless of your feelings on Fallon, the whole Late Night formula is in dire need of an overhaul and a hip hop band with some versatility offers a gateway to newer, different, better. It's also awesome to see Black Thought get to show his lighter side, something those who have seen The Roots in concert may know about but doesn't usually get translated to their albums/songs.

The assimilation will, in fact, be televised! At least late nights ...



image: via