Hip hop can be found in the strangest places. Take Jimmy Fallon, for example, a Saturday Night Live alum, who is replacing Conan O'Brien as the host to NBC's Late Show. When it came time to pick the house band, Fallon made the wise decision to select the Roots, and when the show kicks off tonight at 12:35 a.m., there are sure to be just as many people tuning in to see how funny Fallon is as there are people who want to see The Roots in such a controlled setting.
In a press conference, Questlove and Black Thought of the Roots broke down how it feels to be transitioning from their role as hip hop’s Grateful Dead to having a steady 9-5 and what that means for them and their music.
On Jimmy Fallon
Black Thought: I think Jimmy is going to be more of an everyday man kind of host. He’s going to be the sort of host that the laymen can sort of relate to, an accessible host.
On how The Roots got the job
Questlove: We were the musical supervisors for the Chappelle’s Show Season 2 and 3. And Dave’s partner, Neil Brennan was brought over as consultant and he sort of jokingly recommended The Roots as a house band. I guess of which the joke was sort of like, you know, I dare you to ask them even though they’re too busy to take it. But they just happened to catch us at a moment in which we were kind of pondering what our next move was going to be. And again after 16, 17 years of hopping from country to country sometimes you just need a fresh take on things.
On preparation for their new gig
Black Thought: I’ve been just paying closer attention to the late night shows that are on now. You know, just like in passing anything - any late night TV that I’ve kind of seen I’ve been just that much more observant to see how I could have an influence as it relates to this show.
Questlove: We had to get used to actual rehearsing. Seriously, we have never prepped so much for any project that we’ve ever done including our actual show. Which actually, you know, this will, at the end of the day, probably make this an even better machine once we return to the stage. But pretty much preparation starts with waking up at 6:00, 7:00 in the morning and pretty much getting home at, midnight and all that time is some sort of preparation for the show.
On inviting guests to sit in with the band
Questlove: As far as sitting in with us, [pianist] Robert Glasper who’s an artist on Blue Note, Esperanza Spalding, the jazz bassist, and Tal Wilkenfeld who plays bass with Jeff Beck. Those are the main three that I’ve been sort of talking about doing this with. But, I mean, there are a lot of musicians that we’d like to give the exposure to that wouldn’t necessarily get it on a late night television show.
On the kind of music they’ll be playing
Questlove: We are probably the most over prepared group in hip hop, probably in music. So we just like to make certain that we’re well covered. [former Late Night with Conan O’Brien drummer] Max Weinberg told me that for the first three weeks of the Conan show they only dealt with 15 songs. It’s just that in our case we like to show the wide range that we have so we pretty much made, you know, 20 rock songs, 20 disco songs, 20 solo songs, 20 hip hop songs, 20 jazz songs, you know, we’ve done 20 cheesy songs, cheesy 80s pop. It’s not a do or die situation because even now, even though I said 200 we’re probably realistically going to stick with - I guess we’re up to - we did about six more yesterday so I think we’re up to like 61. So probably by Monday we’ll have about 100 ready to go.
On backing musical guests
Questlove: I know in the first week we’ll be backing up Ludacris but I’m almost certain that we’ll be partaking of that at least once a week at a minimum.
On going back to touring
Questlove: We’re still touring but as it stands now, there’s probably 10 weeks of touring that we will do, spread throughout the year. And I’m certain that as time goes on we will have even more time on our hands to tour. But, I mean, we’re definitely still doing shows on the weekends. People in the States shouldn’t have anything to worry about. I don’t know if people in South Africa will see The Roots in any timely manner but we’re definitely booked, you know, for six weeks already.
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