We Were There When Odd Future Played Jimmy Fallon

February 17, 2011


We speed-walked up to 30 Rock yesterday to be in the room while Tyler, The Creator and Hodgy Beats of Odd Future taped their appearance on Jimmy Fallon. NBC played Blackalicious while we waited in our seats, a tourist in our row announced the trivia team she'd be on later was going to be called "The GED's." We didn't expect that Mos Def, who threw himself from the small VIP zone into the sound booth at Santos during Odd Future's show Tuesday night, would be there. He wore a sweet pocket square with black and white loafers and said "based" a bunch between verses while he performed "Umi Says" with the Roots. You better hold this moment so close to you. Did that air on TV?

The in-house warm-up comedian who explains the necessity of clap/laugh participation tried to make fun of the biggest Odd Future fans in the room, three rabid Supreme-swagged high schoolers from Littleville, Arkansas. They ended up making fun of him. Fallon interview with Forrest Whitaker organically evolved into a conversation about Justin Bieber. While Jimmy talked to third guest Felicia Day about fixing your hair with dryer sheets, Questlove stopped g-chatting on the laptop next to his drums to look at twitter. Hers, from what we could see.

At this point the Arkansas bros were freaking out: "GOLF WANG" volume high, frightened stares in their direction. Tyler and Hodgy came out in full-face ski masks. They didn't bring Syd, just a bunch of ceramic gnomes, Questlove and the hot tuba player from the Roots. Hodgy Beats may be the best rapper in the Odd Future crew (Domo Genesis is our favorite, though) but it's hard to stand next to Tyler. Even before camera's rolled, Tyler struggled with having his face obscured, nervously taking his mask on and off a couple of times. By the time Hodgy finally revealed his mouth during the performance of a totally re-written "Sandwitches," Tyler had already ripped off his sweatshirt and hysteric-ed the whole stage like he was at a Nation of Ulysses show.

It was over too soon then Tyler jumped onto Fallon's shoulders, which was probably planned. Not very funny actor Brandon T. Jackson wanted to incorporate himself into the scene badly. Mos Def yelled "SWAG" straight into America's living rooms then Tyler paused to dance with Felicia Day. We can't bear to imagine what he was thinking. Everyone younger than 25 lingered in the theater until a confused NBC page let Tyler and Hodgy bug out and say hi to them. We left and walked out into the real world, overheard two women having a conversation. They were talking about Never Say Never, singing Bieber to each other. Tyler and Questlove talked about JB backstage, Questlove made shadow-ruler Shawn Carter stay up and watch. See the tweets after the jump.


We Were There When Odd Future Played Jimmy Fallon