Justin Timberlake and Jimmy Fallon: The History of Rap

When Jimmy Fallon first started his late night show, I had a feeling that he might just end up being one of the greats. Like, beyond Conan. It sounds crazy, but I think I should just put that out there now so I can say ‘I told you so’ 20 years from now.

This is great on a lot of levels, and is clearly a television show doing a bit that’s meant to go viral online. It’s also troubling. It reminds me of the fact that a lot of North American pop culture is really arts and culture from black folk that got taken and given a lighter face to sell to the wannabe-gangsta kids from the suburbs in order to take it big. This is literally two white guys telling/owning the history of rap, with THE ROOTS playing backup. 

As problematic as that is, it’s also part of what makes the clip funny. If it was Jaime Foxx and Will Smith, I might think it was cool but not surprising or particularly forward-able. So when all’s said and done, as long as we can recognize this as a well put-together promo for The Social Network (and a fan-freaking-tastic performance by Jimmy Fallon; performing right along with TImberlake is no small feat), we can all look back on this and laugh. But seriously it’s weird that The Roots are the background in this, even if their instrumentals were perfect.