The Roots team with Ice Cube to cover N.W.A.'s 'Straight Outta Compton' on Jimmy Fallon

There are a number of aspects of the above clip of the Roots, Ice Cube* and MC Ren covering N.W.A.'s epochal "Straight Outta Compton" that make it an instant classic. They did it as a warmup on Jimmy Fallon's show the other night, and ?uestlove of the Roots uploaded it.

First, well ... just listen to it: Tight, tough and spontaneous; as with most of the Roots' hip-hop adaptations, they transform what was once a purely studio creation into something organic and true. Second: Finally, the tuba takes its rightful place in the track. We knew something was missing. Turns out it was the tuba. Third: Ice Cube is perfect (and is that really MC Ren?) Fourth: They do the whole thing without uttering a single one of the thousand cuss words in the original; dodging that many bullets is a pretty amazing feat. Fifth: ?uestlove on the drums.

(And, no, you can't really hear the tuba. But that it's there in the shot bouncing around is more than enough.)

*Note: the original version of this post contained a typo in the first mention of Ice Cube's participation, which we corrected.

-- Randall Roberts

Comments

[mLo]

Do you know anything about hip hop? Rrright... thought so. Quit fakin' jacks... oh right, you wouldn't know what happens to suckas [sic] who fake jacks.

[Delicia Brown]

1. There is no Ice T in this video, unless he is one of the 14 people to walk through the shot. I think you should amend your artical.
2 that is not, in fact , Ren, that would be Black Thought of - you guessed it - The Roots (im really hoping that was not a real ?s on your part

[Ariel]

pure unadulterated perfection- like that raw sound hip hop used to have in the early 90's. Interesting too - Jimmy Fallon's goofy show has more cutting edge oomph when it comes to live music (thanks obv. to ?uestlove) than the entire past decade of music performances on SNL.

[Ron Oldmiller]

RIP EAZY E!

[hiphop?]

to those who don't believe it, that was ice cube. for one, it's his voice, and for two, he was a guest on the show.

and god no, that's not mc ren. is this really a music blog? for someone to have the audacity to announce a piece like this as an "instant classic", or to make claims about "the roots' adaptations", should, at the very least, demonstrate some knowledge about the world of music -- and that includes the ability to answer questions like "who is black thought?"

so yeah, totally agree wtih mLo . please hire someone who knows hip hop. thank you.

[Frank]

This is awesome. But who is covering Eazy E? One of the Roots??

[Grant]

Not to pile on with the corrections, because I'm glad you posted this, but you can hear the tuba. It's what's playing the low drone, and high horn climb on the break.

[e6c]

What do you mean you can't hear the tuba... what do you think the near constant horn sound is?

Awesome job.

[Matt Lodel]

To Delicia Brown.... There is no Ice T in this video because it's not all of N.W.A
it's just Ice Cube and The Roots

[Jason]

hey matt You wrote, "There is no Ice T in this video because it's not all of N.W.A
it's just Ice Cube and The Roots"

um Ice-T was never in NWA...

[wrongright]

"There is no Ice T in this video because it's not all of N.W.A
it's just Ice Cube and The Roots"

lol!! hahaha

Theres no Ice T in this video because we prefer iced coffee.

[Redg]

That would be Black Thought not MC ren

[Alex Scott]

That is Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter on Ren's verse and "Captain" Kirk Douglas (Roots guitarist) on Eazy's verse.

[Oscar]

MC Ren isn't there.