Why Redman and Method Man Performed on Jimmy Fallon Without the Roots

On Monday night, Method Man and Redman took their Blackout! 2 promotional tour to Jimmy Fallon, an evening that promised to join the rapidly growing pantheon of incredible rap performances on Fallon's show--the Roots backing veterans that went as far back or farther in the game than they did, guys notorious for bringing their own tremendous energy and charisma to live appearances finally joining with the hypest live band in rap. But when Red and Meth took the stage, they did "Ayo" with a DJ, and not the Roots, behind them. What happened?

Shortly after, a video popped up of an either really high or really exhausted Questlove backstage on Fallon's set asking, sadly, "Where's the love, Method Man?" and saying that his band had received a memo before Monday night explaining that the duo were bringing their own DJ. Questlove--a guy who really, really loves rap, and who knows what killer work the Roots are doing with it right now on television--was visibly hurt.

A day or two after the show, Red and Meth went on HOT97 and talked about what happened. Turns out it's a), a hilarious case of the two aging rappers basically being old-school enough to fret that performing with a live band meant that their song wasn't going to sound enough like "how it is," which Red apparently thought would damage their promotional efforts and, b), which is probably more interesting, Method Man can't rock with a live band. "I get drowned out," he says. So, uh, there you have it--a guy so out of it in life that he forgot to pay the bills on his car to the point where it got repossessed is worried about the ratio of signal to noise in a professionally engineered television appearance.

And that's how the Roots ended up with one less clip for the eventual Late Night with Jimmy Fallon highlight reel. [h/t illRoots]