British-Gambian rapper Pa Salieu has crossed the Atlantic to make his US TV debut with a performance of “Frontline” on Fallon.
The 23-year-old MC gained international attention for his 2020 mixtape Send Them to Coventry, which built a musical bridge between UK drill and Afrobeats. He’s got a fresh take on two genres on the rise, and as his Tonight Show appearance revealed, he sells his music with a wonderfully theatrical presentation.
He began “Frontline” with a recreation of his Send Them to Coventry cover art, which shows him as a kind of felled Godzilla, lying in city streets and using a building as a pillow. From there, he treated the Tonight Show stage as a set for a one-shot music video, strolling through a Gambian market, leaning through the windows of a car, enlisting the help of some adorably puzzled pit bulls, and rapping next to what appears to be a giant red shower loofah with swords. Check out “Frontline” below.
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