blackstar

I've been trying to give Jimmy Fallon a chance since he landed his own late night show, replacing Conan O'Brien as the host that takes care of all of us night owl's. Since his tenure on Saturday Night Live, Fallon has become the awkward actor that is best known for the moments of breaking out of character rather than his comedic skill in the thespian world. His talents as a late night host are still being tweaked with each nightly show, but his ability to pull in talent is uncanny, and has quickly made his show the number one spot for live musical exhibition. The fact that Fallon's house band is the legendary Roots Crew from Philadelphia adds to his indie street cred, but the collaboration with Questlove, Black Thought and crew with all of the guesting acts makes his show immediately worth a watch.

Recently, MC/actor extraordinaire Mos Def teamed up with his partner in crime Talib Kweli for a reunion of their highly acclaimed side project, BlackStar, during a one-off performance backed by both The Roots and the indie-queen tandem of Amber Coffman and Haley Dekle of the growing harmonious indie-weird Brooklyn group, The Dirty Projectors. Being a big fan of BlackStar, The Roots and The Dirty Projectors, this collaboration quickly stood out as a one-of-a-kind performance. While Kweli is featured as more of a back-up vocalist during a run-through of Mos Def's "History" from his most recent LP, The Ecstatic, it still stands out as one of our better Video Omelette's of the year. Give the video a watch:

Hopefully, one day soon, BlackStar will decide to do a nice full length tour that happens to stop somewhere close to me. I will be there with bells on.

We already know what all of the hipsters and folkies were up to this past weekend, but since most of you are undoubtedly asking yourselves: "What were all the hip-hop heads up to?", I thought that I would fill you in. Both Miami and New York City hosted a who's who of hip-hop allstars for the third edition of Rock The Bells. While both cities already featured stellar line-ups that included Nas, Mos Def, De La Soul, Method Man and Redman, and a re-united A Tribe Called Quest, along with whole host of others, New York brought a little something extra to the table by serving a few choice guest spots that no one was expecting.

Check them out after the jump