(AllHipHop News) One man’s nightly talk show is another man’s recording studio. During Questlove and Black Thought’s interview on SiriusXM’s Hip Hop Nation, Questlove revealed how The Roots began working with Jimmy Fallon and how the show helped in ways not apparent to the public.
Back in March 2009, Questlove announced that The Roots were retiring from touring to be the house band for Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. According to Questlove, the idea for The Roots to be the house band for Jimmy Fallon was proposed five years ago by someone other than Jimmy Fallon:
At the time when I was working on The Chapelle Show, Neal Breannan [co-creator of The Chapelle Show] said he was thinking about directing The Jimmy Fallon Show. Kind of as a joke So, he said ‘why don’t [The Roots] be the band’, knowing that we couldn’t do it. But, he knew that we had connections to get other musicians.
Questlove stated that The Roots later considered the offer, because they had been touring for 17 years by 2009. After calling it “one of the best moves” the legendary band could have made at that point in their career, Questlove explains how working with Jimmy Fallon has not only made them better musicians but helped them record their latest album …& Then You Shoot Your Cousin.
We rehearse more now. We never rehearsed much as The Roots on the road. [Black Thought interjects– “we were too busy actually playing.] Yeah, doing a three hour set every night, in my opinion, sort of like rehearsing. But now it’s like, it’s made us better musicians. Our dressing room is our studio. We record there 24/7.
Check out Black Thought freestyle with Questlove on the turntables at Hip Hop Nation below: