THE TONIGHT SHOW

Kamasi Washington Makes His Late-Night Debut With ‘The Garden Path’ On ‘Fallon’

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Last night, Kamasi Washington made his television debut on The Tonight Show, and his performance of “The Garden Path” lived up to the hype. Where most late-night performers bring at most a five-piece band (drums, bass, guitar, keys, and maybe a DJ), Kamasi brought an only slightly scaled-down version of his usual extravagant orchestras with him, utilizing what looks like every square inch of available space on the Tonight Show stage to play the sweeping, funky composition.

Kamasi himself stood in the center of the storm flanked by his backup singers, controlling the chaos with massive blasts from his sax.

Although “The Garden Path” is Washington’s first solo release since 2021’s “Sun-Kissed Child,” the jazz revivalist did find time over the past year to contribute to The Metallica Blacklist, a tribute album dedicated to the metal pioneers, with a horn-heavy cover of “My Friend Of Misery.”

Of his latest song, Kamasi said in a press release, “The world feels turned upside down. There’s so much push and pull in every direction, from everyone you meet—no one knows what to think, who to believe, or how to approach life right now. No matter how smart you are, it’s hard not to feel blind.”

Watch Kamasi Washington’s Tonight Show performance of “The Garden Path” above.

Watching Black Thought Speed-Rap One Of His Earliest Flows Will Remind You Just How Talented He Is

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Though plenty of hip-hop heads are more than familiar with exactly how talented Black Thought (aka Tariq Trotter) is, he’s always ready to remind everyone at the drop of a hat. Whenever the uninformed posters of the internet reveal their ignorance of his immense skill level, Black Thought fans always rush to defend his honor. It’s almost become a meme itself at this point, but not quite, because he really is that good! Just in case anyone was left with any doubts, Trotter recently returned to his old stomping grounds at The Tonight Show to discuss a project he briefly left the show to work on.

Trotter took a hiatus from The Roots and late night to help adapt John Ridley’s novel Black No More into a musical that will be playing in New York until February 27 (tickets here). So of course, Jimmy Fallon had his former coworker back on the show to actually talk about the musical and what Trotter experienced during the process of working in live theater. But it wouldn’t be a Black Thought appearance if there wasn’t also some off-the-cuff freestyling, right? After sharing some middle school memories, and with just a tiny bit of mild coaxing, Trotter unleashed a bout of speed-rapping — on command, no less — that’s so epic it really does put most MCs to shame. Kendrick better come with that rumored new single as soon as possible if he wants to stay in the running for greatest rapper alive, at least that’s how I feel when I watch Black Thought take the mic. Check it out above.

Earl Sweatshirt Brings His Moody Single ‘2010’ To ‘The Tonight Show’ Stage

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Earl Sweatshirt finally found his way to the Tonight Show stage Monday night to promote his new album Sick!, performing the not-quite-nostalgic single “2010.” Ironically, it was just after 2010 that Earl’s rabble-rousing crew Odd Future first made their own television debut on The Tonight Show (albeit minus Earl, who had been shipped off to boarding school in Samoa by his protective mother for his troublemaking activities), menacing host Jimmy Fallon and the audience in a performance Questlove was sure would get the show canceled altogether.

Fortunately, it wasn’t canceled, leaving the path clear for Earl to make his own appearance a little over a decade later. While his performance this time was much more self-contained, with just Earl, his DJ, and the projections on the screen behind him, Earl proves to be sufficient by himself to capture and hold the audience’s attention as he narrates the tumultuous time that led to his absence when Odd Future took over with their unique brand of anti-establishment chaos.

Watch Earl Sweatshirt’s Tonight Show performance of “2010” above and catch earl on the NBA Leather World Tour with Action Bronson and The Alchemist.

Sick! is out now via Warner Records.

Earl Sweatshirt is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Gunna Gets Extra Cozy To Perform ‘Empire’ On ‘The Tonight Show’

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Last night, Gunna stuck the landing on the impressive rollout of his new album DS4EVER. The Atlanta trap star gave his Drip Season a fitting sendoff, launching a campaign to make “Pushin P” the latest adult-bewildering slang, trying out new visual formats for his videos like “Life Of Sin,” dropping a deluxe edition with four new songs, and pulling in at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. With all those notches on his belt, he made one last stop at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York City to deliver a mellow performance of “Empire” on The Tonight Show.

Appearing on a fog-shrouded stage wearing an all-white ensemble and accompanied only by his guitarist — also dressed in all-white, the supremely laid-back Gunna rapped his verses from a comfy-looking chair flanked by a classy, candle-bearing side table. Completing the cozy look was a pair of bright yellow house slippers for a pop of color. The only things missing were a Snuggie, a cup of hot tea, and a fluffy blanket — who knew Gunna could do lo-fi self-care so well?

Watch Gunna’s Tonight Show performance of “Empire” above.

DS4EVER is out now via 300 and Atlantic. You can stream it here.

Gunna is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Robert Glasper’s ‘Tonight Show’ Performance Included Guests Rapsody And DJ Jazzy Jeff

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After announcing the release date for his upcoming album, Black Radio III, and sharing its latest single, “Black Superhero,” Robert Glasper brought the new music to a national television audience with a star-studded appearance on The Tonight Show. Playing a medley of “In Tune” and “Black Superhero” (minus Big KRIT and Killer Mike, two of the three featured guests on the latter), Glasper invited guests Amir Sulaiman, BJ the Chicago Kid, DJ Jazzy Jeff, and Rapsody to perform with him.

After Sulaiman opens the set with a passionate spoken-word piece, BJ joins in to sing his verse and the chorus from “Black Superhero,” and Rapsody shows up to add her own verse to the song in place of the missing KRIT and Mike, all while DJ Jazzy Jeff adds his signature scratches and Glasper tickles the ivories. “All my superheroes Black,” Rapsody rhymes as she and BJ bop to the bluesy piano riff and old-school beatbox vibes. It’s a cool rendition of the new track, and should Black Radio III continue the trend that most of Glasper’s music has stuck to, it’ll be a shoo-in for another Progressive R&B Album nomination at the next Grammys.

Watch Robert Glasper’s Tonight Show performance of “In Tune/Black Superhero” above.

Cordae Delivers A Stripped-Down Performance Of ‘Sinister/Chronicles’ On ‘The Tonight Show’

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With just three more days to go until the release of his second album, From A Bird’s Eye View, Cordae stopped by The Tonight Show to give a stripped-down performance of two of the album’s tracks, the Hit-Boy-produced “Sinister” and the mellow but heartfelt “Chronicles.” Backed by just drums, guitar, and a lone horn, Cordae prowled the stage solo, spitting the venomous lyrics from “Sinister” before adopting a more inviting posture and singing his heart out on “Chronicles.” He also gave a lighthearted interview and met his hero, wrestler/actor John Cena.

From A Bird’s Eye View is the follow-up to Cordae’s 2019 debut album, The Lost Boy. While he also released the Just Until EP early last year, FABEV will be his first full-length album since then. The first glimpse of the new album actually came last year when Cordae freestyled over Drake’s “Way 2 Sexy” to tell fans they weren’t ready for his stylistic evolution. Then, just two days later, he released the album’s first single, “Super,” following up two months later with the official release of “Sinister” featuring Lil Wayne.

Then, after announcing the From A Bird’s Eye View Tour scheduled to kick off in December, he shared the “FABEV Freestyle” over Kendrick Lamar’s “The Heart Part 4” as a hype single and revealed the star-studded tracklist earlier this week. The album will reunite him with many of his past collaborators, including Eminem (with whom he worked on the “Killer” remix), Freddie Gibbs and Nas (who both appear on “Champagne Glasses” after the two younger artists helped Nas complete “Life Is Like A Dice Game” last year), and Stevie Wonder (Cordae rapped on “Can’t Put It In The Hands Of Fate” with a who’s-who of guests like Busta Rhymes, Chika, and Rapsody).

Watch Cordae’s Tonight Show performance above. From A Bird’s Eye View is out 1/7 via Atlantic. Get it here.

Big Sean And Hit-Boy Deliver An Elegant Performance Of ‘What A Life’ On ‘Fallon’

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Big Sean and Hit-Boy brought their What You Expect EP single “What A Life” to the Tonight Show stage on Thursday with a thrilling, elegant performance. Decked out in matching tailored suits and enjoying a luxurious meal in a stately lounge, the dynamic duo is presented with a mic for Sean and a beat machine atop a grand piano for Hit-Boy. While the performance begins while they’re still seated, they smoothly slide from their well-appointed booth to a makeshift stage in the center of the room, where Sean goes for broke and Hit shows off his finger drumming skills.

The new project, which finds the two frequent collaborators paired up for a full five tracks that demonstrate the breadth and depth of their chemistry, is also the first of Big Sean’s new label venture independent of his past association with Kanye West’s GOOD Music. The timing of its release turned out to be opportune as well, as Ye’s appearance on the Drink Champs podcast just days later found Sean’s onetime mentor throwing him under the bus by saying that signing Sean to GOOD was the “worst thing” he ever did. Sean laughed off his old boss’ digs, although he did point out that Ye still owes him millions from their initial deal.

Instead, Sean and Hit focused on the positive, following up with more videos from the EP, including “The One” and “Chaos,” showing that they’ll both be just fine without help from the mercurial Mr. West.

Watch Big Sean and Hit-Boy’s late-night performance of “What A Life” above.

Finneas Confronts Questlove About Allegedly Flipping Him Off During His First ‘Tonight Show’ Appearance

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At this point in their careers, both Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas have been on The Tonight Show on numerous occasions. Their first time on the show, though, was back in March 2018, when Finneas joined Eilish to perform “Bellyache.” That was a major moment in both of their careers, but ever since then, something about it hasn’t sat right with Finneas: He’s pretty sure Questlove flipped him off during the show. On last night’s Tonight Show, Finneas went ahead and addressed that with Fallon and The Roots’ drummer.

At the end of the interview, Fallon set Finneas up to tell the story and Finneas noted, “I came for some answers tonight, if that’s OK.” Finneas went on to give some background about the performance and the lead-up to it. He spoke about how Fallon kindly greeted him and and Eilish backstage and about how despite his nerves, he felt the performance went well. He then described Fallon and The Roots sending the show to commercial after the performance, saying, “I’m clapping, I’m looking over, and you guys do your crescendo at the end. I’m just smiling and clapping and looking at Quest, and Quest put his sticks in one hand, and he pointed right at me, and he flipped me the bird.”

At this point, a shocked and confused Questlove chimed in with, “Wait, what?”

Finneas continued, “And then they all left. They all left and I was standing there clapping and Questlove, who I had never met, had just flipped me the bird, and everybody left.”

Questlove then flashed a peace sign and asked, “You sure I didn’t do this?” Finneas quipped, “It was not peace or love.” He continued, “So I’m shocked, and then your producer goes, ‘We’re going to just do the song one more time.’ I think they aired the second take and I look like I’ve seen a ghost.”

He then sought a response from Questlove by prompting, “I’m just curious.” Questlove had no clue what to say, so he just shrugged and made some confused grunts. Everybody was laughing throughout this whole story, though, so it seems some sort of friendly misunderstanding was at play here.

Watch Finneas’ interview above. He also performed “Only A Lifetime” on the show, so check that out below.

Chloe Bailey Puts A Classical Twist On Her ‘Have Mercy’ Performance For ‘Fallon’

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You’ve probably heard the phrase “from ashy to classy.” Last night on The Tonight Show, emerging pop-R&B superstar Chloe Bailey went “from classy to ass-cheeks” with her performance of the big booty anthem, “Have Mercy.” Backed by a string orchestra, the multitalented singer presented the trap-leaning jam as a classical sonata at first, draped in a flowing white gown with a fuzzy top. But then, she yanked off the gown’s train, showing off the sultry single’s subject, and strutted over to her drum machine, where she rebuilt the signature “Have Mercy” beat from the pre-loaded samples.

From there, she put on a virtuoso display of both vocals and her other — ahem — assets as the strings embellished the thumping drums and New Orleans bounce samples that make up the seductive solo song. As it was network television, Chloe didn’t get too frisky, but the suggestive turns and dips she did were just enough to elicit some enthusiastic responses from the crowd.

Since debuting “Have Mercy” last month, Chloe has performed the song at the MTV VMAs and seen it covered by Prairie View A&M University’s marching band, marking its growing popularity. The singer said her solo debut album is “90 percent done,” so it’s likely we’ll be hearing more from her in the near future.

Watch Chloe’s classical performance of “Have Mercy” on The Tonight Show above.

G-Eazy And Demi Lovato Confront Their Reflections For A Haunting Peformance Of ‘Breakdown’

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G-Eazy’s got a new album, These Things Happen Too, out and to mark the release, the Bay Area star hit the Tonight Show stage with pop singer Demi Lovato to perform the haunting “Breakdown” from the new project. The performance, which takes place on a two-sided stage adorned with mirrors, finds the duo confronting their controversies as images of the various headlines written about them flash on the screens behind them.

Between them, the two have accumulated enough headlines to wallpaper a museum wing. Most recently, G-Eazy was in the news for a fight outside a hotel bar and filing a restraining order against an alleged stalker. Meanwhile, Demi Lovato recently came out as non-binary, drawing criticism from conservative corners of the internet.

However, both stars also have their fair share of good news, as well. G-Eazy recently started a wellness brand, FlowerShop, giving an interview to Uproxx’s Dane Rivera about the new brand, and has strung together an impressive list of features in 2021, including on EST Gee’s “At Will.” Meanwhile, Lovato recently helped to honor queer icon Elton John at the 2021 iHeartRadio Music Awards, so both seem to be doing alright, even despite their respective mishaps.

Watch G-Eazy’s Tonight Show performance of “Breakdown” with Demi Lovato above.