Black Thought & El Michels Affair Bring Their “Glorious Game” With Kirby to ‘Fallon’

Black Thought, El Michels Affair, and Kirby recently appeared on The Tonight Show to perform their single “Glorious Game.”

The Roots frontman Black Thought joined El Michels Affair and R&B vocalist Kirby for their collaboration “Glorious Game” on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon this week. The song appears on Thought and El Michels' new album of the same name, which was released on April 14.

In a recent interview with The Fader, Thought, legal name Tariq Luqmaan Trotter, said he and El Michels kept the features on Glorious Game limited, although he promises a full slate of appearances on his upcoming projectStreams of Thought Vol. 4. Fully produced by 14KT, the album is set to feature Rick Ross, JID, Redman, Fabolous, Big K.R.I.T., Curren$y, and Yasiin Bey, on “Blaaaaack!,” a collaboration which Trotter says will “represent a seismic shift in the game.”

Kirby, an R&B singer-songwriter from Memphis, Tennessee, last appeared on the Swarm soundtrack, which included additional production from Donald Glover (aka Childish Gambino) and Michael Uzowuru. Select songs from the 6-track EP were prominently featured in the Amazon Prime show, which starred Dominique Fishback, with Kirby providing the vocals for fictional pop star Ni’Jah.

“That’s the really cool thing that I want to emphasize is that when a Black woman is given freedom to create what feels right to her, something really amazing can come out of it,” Kirby told Complex about working with Glover on their collaboration “Sticky.” “And working for Donald, that freedom continued. It was very liberal. He wasn’t coaching me as a character. He was like, “The verse is open, KIRBY. Go in.” So I respect him for giving me space to be creative and trusting me enough to share musical space with him.”

Watch the full “Glorious Game” performance below.