Sunday, March 01, 2009

The Roots: House Band for Jimmy Fallon's Late Night Talk Show (+ ?uestlove in Kufiya)

This really blows me away: The Roots as the house band for "Late Night With Jimmy Fallon," which opens tomorrow night (March 2) on NBC. Wow! Check it out, courtesy of the Wall Street Journal.

As if to confirm how cool The Roots really are, drummer ?uestlove (Ahmir Khalib Thompson) appears in a black-and-white kufiya in the video that accompanies the article, which shows the band getting ready for their appearance. (I'm not able to embed it, for some reason.) Or maybe we should deduce that the fact of ?uestlove wearing a kufiya makes it cool. (Thanks, Chris!)

The photo that accompanies the article, however, indicates that ?uestlove will be in a suit, and sans kufiya, on the show itself. At least on night one. I'm gonna try to stay up and tune in to check it out.

It should also be noted that according to a list of the Islamic affiliations of hip-hop artists compiled some years ago, Roots leader and co-founder (along with ?uestlove) Black Thought (Tariq Luqman Trotter) belongs to The Nation of Gods and Earths (the "Five-Percenters"). Malik B., who left the group in 2001, is a Sunni Muslim. (The list also mentions M.A.R.S. of the Roots as a Five-Percenter; I can't figure out who that is.)

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