The Roots Give Up their Day Jobs for Jimmy Fallon

A post by "Blake the Megalomaniac" To see more posts click here

Here are five places I’d expect to see the consensus best band in hiphop, better known as The Roots performing: Madison Square Garden, Barack Obama’s house (no I don’t mean that to be racially insensitive), The Moon, Dave Chappelle’s Show, or Halftime of a Superbowl. Personally, I think they’d be a superb birthday present for urban and suburban teenagers, who are mature enough to appreciate their eclectic sound. Maybe a welcome surprise for a father’s 40th birthday. Even though the man might not know, at all, who the Roots are it’s a mortal lock that there is something in their discography he’d take a liking to. The point being the Roots are critically acclaimed, Grammy-winning musicians that at least on some levels have mass appeal. There are a minimum 5 places I could think of off the top of my head where I’d suspect them to be and 100 more places I could name if I thought about it, the least of which would be a permanent gig as ‘Late Night with Jimmy Fallon’s’ house band.

Like you, I wasn’t immune to NBC’s media blitz for ‘Late Night with Jimmy Fallon’.  I was immune to The Roots being Jimmy’s house band.

Giving O’Brien Leno’s gig before Leno was to retire was in step with protocol.  But when Leno decided he wasn’t ready to retire (after infinity years), it was a sick move by NBC to re-up with Leno and create a timeslot for him as the “early late show,” in theory changing the landscape of late night.  Enter Jimmy Fallon also attempting to change the landscape of late night.  When pressing NBC brass to bring on The Roots Fallon pleaded:

“Number one, you will raise the bar of what a house band is, because you’re the Roots and you’re amazing. … Number two, I don’t know who to compare you to. You can play with Tony Bennett and on a separate occasion play with Jay-Z and it works. … Third, you live in Philly, so it’s an hour on the Acela train.”

Sounds convincing to me, now if I could only stay up late enough to see the show.  For more on The Roots story that broke months ago (we’re not very timely, I know) the AP has it and so does The Rap Up.

udothedishes…