Posted September 30, 2010 by shamz 17 comments

Video: A History of Rap – Jimmy Fallon, Justin Timberlake & The Roots

This might be the greatest thing I've seen on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon to date. In case any of y'all were doubting Jimmy's hip-hop cred, he shows his pass is still intact with this vid. Watch as Jimmy and Justin Timberlake give us A History of Rap from The Sugarhill Gang to the Beastie Boys, A Tribe Called Quest, Digital Underground, Dr. Dre, Biggie, Jay-Z and everything else in between, all with The Roots crew backing them up.

About the author

I like ink and alcohol.... and I listen to music every now and then. View Profile »

Comments

UHMinSoCal

I’m not mad at this. Word. Hip-hop ought to be fun.
promeneur

cool stuff
really doe…

white boy fantasy personified…
coolcalmcollect

Entertaining, it was funny.
Vrble1

What? No Common? LOL! That was hot!
owch

the soulja boy addition hurt
Pooz30

This made me smile.
Jazxxl

That was great, but I do think its interesting that older songs were recognized by their verses and new songs by their hooks. I think that says a little something about the music changing.
Grrravy

What owch and really doe said. I liked this in a 5 year old covering the beatles on youtube way. Good stuff.
Rev, DeeBeeKay

i was really opposed to this mostly because of fallon himself. but the roots really clicked the transitions from song to song that it made me forget about the other 2 just jumpin around…hey they should have done house of pain hahaha
DJ Crossfader

this was funny and entertaining yea it was a bit corny but music should be fun cats take it way to seriously nowdays i thought they did a good job at least until souljah boy came on lol
2

hip-hop 101?
Nappy G

This was disturbing to me on many levels. 1st of all,where was Black Thought in all this? Justin Timberlake actually can sing & has proven his “street cred” w/all his many collabos w/Timbaland,but Jimmy Fallon? REally? Ok,i get it…he’s the star of the show. So then they shoulda bagged JT & had Black Thought duet w/Fallon for some realness. But I don’t think BT would sell out our culture like that. Which brings me to the bigger point: Who was this funny to? Look at that audience when they go out into the crowd. Suburban middle-American ultra-mayonnaise,only 3 people of color in the whole crowd & I had to slow the clip down & REALLY look hard to find ‘em! This was actually a Spoof of how mainstream & dumbed-down ‘hiphop’ has become (Look at how these 2 white guys can remember a few rhymes!See how easy it is!Yayyy!),but at the same time it’s belittling the true history of hiphop that The Roots actually have been trying to keep alive all these years. It was so strange to see them giving credibility to Fallon & to his lame,unfunny nightly schtick. I respect brothas gettin their hustle on,but not at the expense of the few shreds of respectability that ‘hip-hop’ still has left. To me,it was pure wackness. Not funny,not fun…unless you’re in Fallon’s corny demographic. And I am (proudly) NOT! I say to Quest & The Roots:stay aware of how they’re using you. Don’t be pawns. Be players. You are too smart for that kinda mess.
jjj

i think people are taking this a little too seriously. it’s meant to be silly. not to be a work of art.
http://www.hogan.ws hogan,vendita scarpe hogan,hogan outlet

it was funny.
http://www.scarpe-hogan.eu scarpe hogan 2011 scarpe hogan interact scarpe hogan estive

crazy,i was really opposed to this mostly because of fallon himself.
http://www.scarpe-hogan.eu scarpe hogan 2011

This might be the greatest thing