Will i am mel cole
Photo of will.i.am by Mel D. Cole for Okayplayer
Perhaps you, like us, are a closet Black Eyed Peas fan (the group, not the legume). Perhaps like us, your fanboy/girl behavior is 98% focused on the group's 1998 hit "Joints & Jam." Perhaps you wonder if will.i.am and his surefooted crew, who have since moved on to become a global megahit machine dropping boom-booms and pows with nary a jazz loop nor a freestyle step--will ever again perform your personal joint. Perhaps when you secretly dream about this hoped-for event, you picture--against all logic--that the performance would be backed by The Roots.
Well, if ya didn't know, it's Grammy season folks. And that means it's the most wonderful time of the year when musical mega-medley dreams come true. As they do every Grammy season, the mighty Roots crew kicked off their 9th annual Roots Jam Session Monday night with some familiar faces, namely Bilal and will.i.am, the latter of which got teased in yesterday's recap of the event. But now it's time to get with the full treatment of The Illa Fifth and Will-E's smooth live take of the pre-Fergie BEP classic "Joints & Jam," featuring a quick set of bars from Black Thought and Will delivering his half-croon on the hook, as I'm sure you've all been reeling for. It's a proper rehash of one of the earliest Okayplayer's earliest work with the hardest working band in the biz leading the set. You can watch The Roots & will.i.am serve up a massive helping of "Joints & Jam" live from the Roots Jam Session below, just be sure to keep it locked as we'll be bringing you all the goodies from the musical love fest over the next few days.
"For real, I just want to say I remember when y'all's shit just came out, "Distortion to Static" really changed my life, real shit. So like, then we started our group called the Black Eyes Peas, this was 20 years ago. And I never thought the day The Roots would be playing "Joints & Jam" so this is a dream come true."
