Cee Lo, T.I., Mayer Hawthorne + Many More Rock Night 3 Of The Roots Jam Session 2015 [Photos + Recap]
Night 3 of The Roots Jam Session 2015 was the most star-studded affair yet, a sign that the Grammys 2015 are getting closer with every passing minute and the musical star-power accumulating in L.A. is reaching critical mass, preparing to go supernova on TV this weekend. Which made it all the more refreshing that the night started on a more offbeat note; Seth Herzog strips down to his adult Wonder Woman under-roos and makes jokes about his balls. You know, the usual Wednesday night shit. Then he comes back out and break dances to The Roots.
The music began for serious–Adrian Younge comes out with Laetitia Sadier, from Stereolab (who he’s working with on secret project with–stay tuned on what they’re cooking up in the, uh, basement) and Bilal plays vibraphone, it was cool, mellow, beautiful. Tarik AKA Black Thought then comes out and does amazing James Brown on “Express Yourself,” to get the crowd hype. Jeremy Ellis rocks with the Roots again. The energy was amazing last night–fully packed. Line around the block. Fools could not get in. Jurnee Bell was in the house, Thundercat, Karriem Riggins, Aisha Tyler and craziest of all to ’90s heads, Mr. Warren G! Mayer Hawthorne played (very cool) and K. Michelle‘s gospel-esque vocals were impressive–the crowd responded accordingly. Ed Sheeran was fresh! (Yes, we said it.) He sung, then RAPPED. Questlove was quite impressed, especially with the rapping and the crowd was into it. Then YG and Ty Dolla Sign came out repping the West Coast and L.A. hard and the crowd was all-caps LIVE at this point.
Next up was Afropop wunderkinds Nico & Vinz, super high-energy and semi-choreographed, the crowd loved it. Then, total surprise of the night to us all – T.I. and his wife Tiny show up! They were standing right behind me when Tarik calls “Tip” up to the stage (always extra confusing from a man who’s been known to pass the mic to Q-Tip on occasion) and T.I. rocked out, freestyled mostly with a bit of “what chu know about that” thrown in there. Black Thought rapped with him for a bit of back and forth. It was pretty great. Finally, for the finale, our boy Cee Lo came out in a flowing black mu-mu looking oh-so-disco with the sparkling sun glasses. He was full on flavor and vocally he hasn’t missed a beat. Last night, he was pure disco. He did covers, the show stopper was “Before I Let Go.” (Be ready for another break out video!) As with previous nights photo-god Mel D. Cole was on hand to make music history look historic. Check his amazing gallery above and see the setlist (although in the spirit of the Jam, The Roots and friends obviously didn’t exactly stick to this set list 100%). For the rest, follow Okayplayer on instagram.
