One could argue the actual comedic value of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, but it’s almost impossible to deny his show’s ability to book some of the best musical guests on nighttime television. His house band is The Roots and the music alone could make sitting in the audience completely worth faking a laugh during Fallon’s “Letters Home” bit. Friday’s show was insane.
As if Ice Cube spontaneously performing “It Was A Good Day” from the guest couch wasn’t enough, there’s this:
Per Prefix Mag, Roots drummer Ahmir Thompson (aka Questlove) posted an MP3 of Ice Cube joining the band to warm up with live version “Stright Outta Compton” from N.W.A.’s classic 1988 album of the same name. By the looks of a recent tweet, it seems like even Thompson was surprised.
“Dude,” he said “When Cube gave us the green light, we ran with it.”
The song starts out over Damon Bryson (aka Tuba Gooding Jr.) literally tooting his horn before Ice Cube blasts into his verse. It’s easy to forget Cube’s role as daddy on Are We There Yet?, when he spits lines like “When I’m called off I got a sawed off/ Squeeze the trigger and bodies are hauled off.” Damn, Cube. Take it easy.
To make things even better Black Thought kills MC Ren’s verse before Roots guitarist “Captain” Kirk Douglas floored everyone on stage by taking on the late Eazy-E’s legendary verse, prompting Black Thought to exclaim “I can’t believe he did that!”
“Kirk warned no one he was taking Eazy’s verse,” said Thompson. At the end of the song Black Thought can he heard saying, “I’m so proud of you Kirk. Eazy-Kirk!”
Listen in on the madness by streaming the song on Questlove’s SwiftFM page, then check out Jimmy Fallon peeing his pants while singing every word (check out the 8:08 mark) of “It Was A Good Day”.
Image via NBC.com
