The Roots And Ice Cube, "Straight Outta Compton"

Ice Cube was on Jimmy Fallon’s show a couple weeks ago and before taping began, he joined the house band the Roots to warm up the audience with a live version of N.W.A’s 1988 classic, “Straight Outta Compton.” Drummer Questlove put a video of the performance up on his Twitvid account last night. It’s of a very different feel than the original. The Roots’ MC Black Thought and guitarist Kirk Douglas wear suits (!) as they handle Ren and Eazy-E’s verses, respectively. And the avoidance of profanity is jarring. (Black Thought raps that he’ll “find a good piece of mush/And go up in it,” which is far more offensive, actually, than the real word that goes there.) But still, as it’s own thing, musically, like Questlove says at the end, Damn, that shit was dope.