You, you got what I need.

July 20, 2011 1:12 AM

The History of Rap - Part 2 - w/Jimmy Fallon, Justin Timberlake, The Roots. (SLYT)

Official video link. (15 second ad)

Tracklist: (some links NSFW)

0:14 - Kurtis Blow - The Breaks
0:23 - Grandmaster Flash - The Message
0:36 - N.W.A. - Express Yourself
0:43 - Public Enemy - Bring the Noise
0:47 - Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock - It Takes 2
1:03 - Salt and Pepa - Push It
1:18 - Vanilla Ice - Ice Ice Baby
1:28 - Black Sheep - The Choice is Yours
1:37 - Cypress Hill - Insane in the Membrane
1:47 - DJ Kool - Let Me Clear My Throat
2:04 - DMX - Party Up (Up in Here)
2:13 - Nelly - Hot in Herre
2:28 - 50 Cent - In Da Club
2:45 - Outkast - Hey Ya
2:59 - Lil Wayne - A Milli
3:05 - DJ Khaled - All I Do Is Win
3:17 - Cali Swag District - Teach Me How To Dougie
3:33 - Rick Ross - B.M.F.
3:55 - Biz Markie - Just a Friend

Previously: The History of Rap - Part 1

posted by sharkfu (26 comments total)

The history of rap you say?
posted by chrchr at 1:26 AM on July 20, 2011

That was fun. I'd have missed it otherwise. Thanks.
posted by crunchland at 4:33 AM on July 20, 2011

What fun! I would have missed these too, thanks for the post.

(Though I'm a wee bit peeved that they forgot Christmas in Hollis -- I remember when it came out, and was then popularized by "Die Hard." One of rap's first forays into suburbia.)
posted by flyingsquirrel at 5:02 AM on July 20, 2011

Edan wrote the definitive history of golden era hip hop.

Annotated
posted by to sir with millipedes at 5:26 AM on July 20, 2011 [2 favorites]

I'm at the combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell.
posted by erniepan at 6:05 AM on July 20, 2011

I like Jimmy Fallon, the Roots are fantastic, and his show has produced some great musical moments. I can't watch the show. The first ten minutes are some of the most awkward on TV. His open banter is just awful.
posted by graventy at 6:16 AM on July 20, 2011

You never could have told me when I was watching that Biz Markie video on B.E.T. in my sister's room (cause she got the good tv) that something like 25 years later an audience full of white people would be going bananas and singing along. No way.
posted by cashman at 6:28 AM on July 20, 2011

I'm not sure how a guy mostly famous for cracking up at his own jokes wound up hanging around with JT and having The Roots as a house band(!), but there are occasional bits of gold. This was awesome.
posted by Ghostride The Whip at 6:41 AM on July 20, 2011 [1 favorite]

It's not by any stretch of the imagination SLYT, sharkfu.

But it is a great post.
posted by IAmBroom at 6:52 AM on July 20, 2011

I'm not sure how a guy mostly famous for cracking up at his own jokes wound up hanging around with JT and having The Roots as a house band(!), but there are occasional bits of gold. This was awesome.

He recounts that very story in his interview on Marc Maron's podcast...
posted by starman at 7:02 AM on July 20, 2011

I admit I'm a total Fallon partisan, but one thing I've learned about him -- and I was always as annoyed as anyone by his breaking during sketches -- is that it's not a matter of laughing at his own jokes. It's a matter of laughing at EVERYONE's jokes. The reason he makes a really endearing late-night host is that he's hopelessly, endlessly, joyfully game. He loves a good story, he cracks up easily, and he's just as glad to be totally at the mercy of somebody else's sense of humor as he is showing off his own.

I totally agree that the cracking up was annoying as all hell on SNL, but the very same personality trait -- having a transparently awesome time ALWAYS -- serves him really, really well on his own show.
posted by Linda_Holmes at 7:05 AM on July 20, 2011 [5 favorites]

So many happy white people.
posted by macadamiaranch at 7:20 AM on July 20, 2011 [1 favorite]

The link from the original Mefi thread didn't work for me. So I found Part 1, here.
posted by oddman at 7:21 AM on July 20, 2011 [1 favorite]

Nice post.

More history
posted by caddis at 7:29 AM on July 20, 2011

The thing that makes these bits work is how obvious it is that the two of them are having a great time doing goofy stuff together. It's infectiously joyful.

Although when they broke into Hot in Herre, I was reminded of a time in college when they were doing repairs right outside my window and a guy with a very thick Swedish accent said, "What's that song the kids have now?" and then proceeded to treat his coworkers (and me) to what was basically the Swedish Chef's version of just the chorus to Hot in Herre, intermittently interrupted by clangs from his hammer hitting concrete. This performance turned into a (devastatingly effective) de facto alarm clock as he proceeded to repeat it every single morning for the next two weeks.
posted by Copronymus at 7:43 AM on July 20, 2011 [3 favorites]

This gets a middle aged white mans stamp of approval.
posted by incandissonance at 7:46 AM on July 20, 2011 [1 favorite]

People who can watch the good bits of Fallon's show, and still say they dislike Jimmy Fallon are joyless curmudgeons

(which is a much more PG version of what I originally typed there)
posted by DigDoug at 7:52 AM on July 20, 2011 [2 favorites]

The thing that makes these bits work is how obvious it is that the two of them are having a great time doing goofy stuff together. It's infectiously joyful.

Exactly what I came here to say. I'm warming to Fallon's show, but every time Timberlake comes on the show they have so much fun together that I can't help smiling and laughing. Those almost child-like expressions of "we're having a blast!" on their faces are just too hard to resist.
posted by zombieflanders at 8:48 AM on July 20, 2011 [1 favorite]

I have to recommend to anyone interested in more of the history of hip hop to look into obtaining mp3s of Ego Trip's Greatest Hip Hop Singles 1979-1998. I'm not sure if it's Ego Trip or someone else compiling the tracks, but I've recently downloaded up to 1985 and there's already 300 or so songs. It's pretty amazing, even the ones you haven't heard sound familiar because they've been sampled hundreds of times over 30 years.
posted by Hoopo at 9:36 AM on July 20, 2011 [3 favorites]

Try this link instead.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/259803/late-night-with-jimmy-fallon-history-of-rap-part-2
posted by 4midori at 10:07 AM on July 20, 2011 [1 favorite]

So many happy white people.


How awful! White people don't deserve happiness!
posted by FeralHat at 10:42 AM on July 20, 2011 [1 favorite]

I'm waiting for the third installment, which will heavily feature songs by rapping Ewoks.
posted by ericbop at 10:48 AM on July 20, 2011

Good old Hulu: "Sorry, currently our video library can only be watched from within the United States"
posted by John Shaft at 2:58 PM on July 20, 2011

That was fun :)

Also see: Stephen Colbert singing "Friday" with The Roots.
posted by zarq at 8:35 PM on July 20, 2011

Of course, if you wanna go truly old school, there's this.
posted by ShutterBun at 12:34 AM on July 21, 2011

Replacement link for History of Rap Part 2 and Part 1, since YouTube took down the other links.

When these go down, you'll just have to google them.

You can take away my video, but you can never take away my free-e-e-e-e-e-dom!!!
posted by IAmBroom at 4:55 PM on July 23, 2011