If this doesn't say it all, don't know what does

Wyclef's Yele charity has recently drawn a firestorm of criticism, but he's not the only musical figure trying to mobilize folks and funds on behalf of Haiti. There's also an impressive number of benefit concerts and music events happening in the city over the next few weeks, plus a series of ongoing efforts from the likes of Lady Gaga to Clipse to Blink-182. Our exhaustive round-up of the ways artists are attempting to involve their fans, and the general public, in the relief effort, be it downloading a new song (or a great cover of an old one), buying a custom T-shirt, or sending that ever-so-simple text message. Did we miss something? Kindly leave it in the comments.

So if you're keeping track, there was yesterday's impromptu "Grindin'" remix in a Late Night rehearsal closet, the official-yet-web-only "Grindin'" in-studio (Jimmy calls it an "oldie but a goodie"), and now the official, broadcast version of the Clipse doing "Popular Demand" on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, with Black Thought filling in for Cam'ron. They may still be in there, working on something.

Almost definitely not the song the Clipse are going to perform on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon tonight, but here's a web-only type rehearsal take of Pusha and Mal jumping on the song anyway, as assisted by the Roots. Worth it for Questlove and Captain Kirk's falsetto chorus punctuation alone. Love it when half the musicians playing the song like it so much they can't help singing along. When it comes to "Grindin'", we can relate. (Also, sorry, consider this our daily Late Night blog post. Apparently Jimmy Fallon is our favorite artist of all time.) [@questlove, via Prefix]

People who have been fans of this band for years may never have heard either of these two guys sing into the microphone as much (or, uh, as tunefully) as they do here--it's pretty much the exact opposite of whatever bad PA yelling they do out at Brooklyn or the Mercury Lounge, etc. Fallon looks impressed, although then again, he always sort of does. Questlove would've preferred "I Quit Girls" but otherwise seems pretty thrilled. This was their television debut, according to Jimmy. Still can't believe they skipped "Young Hearts Spark Fire" but otherwise, they certainly looked like they belonged out there. Next up? A haircut, hopefully.

Illegal and indecipherable soundcheck video above via Questlove. Word is the song will be "Wet Hair"--fine, although if you had a shot at late night TV, wouldn't you take that shot and play "Young Hearts Spark Fire" with it? The duo will be over at HiFi tonight watching themselves on TV, should you want to ask them that question in real life. 10:30pm, viewing party, all are invited. We're either asking them that or something about Brian King's bonkers hair. For the record, these guys were playing to audiences of two in the far reaches of Brooklyn as recently as late 2008. 2010, very different!

Watching the live taping of the Jawbox episode of Late Night With Jimmy Fallon the other week, we were reminded of the utter weirdness of the late night TV variety show format. On TV, because Letterman et al have done it for so long and so well, it's come to seem normal, but make no mistake: these late night talk shows are basically just random sequences of insanely campy entertainment. With that in mind, please enjoy Jimmy Fallon and Horatio Sanz swapping out their old SNL buddies for Julian Casablancas (not his first time attempting this cover) and the Roots for the old Saturday Night Live holiday standard, "I Wish It Was Christmas Today." At the end, Sanz and Fallon do a nice job imitating Casablancas imitating them. TV is complicated.

An Early Christmas Gift From 'Late Night With Jimmy Fallon' [ArtsBeat]

"Good looking out man, word up"--always nice to thank your hosts. No surprise the Roots and Raekwon are a winning combination, especially on "Catalina," and even more especially with Black Thought guesting. I dunno, what's left to say? Best year for rap on television that's not BET or MTV ever? Something like that. [Rap Radar]

And thus, ten thousand Okayplayer readers are forced to reevaluate the basic premise of their lives. The occasion? Curtis Jackson bringing his abysmal new single "Baby By Me" to Jimmy Fallon's TV show, where he was stoically backed by the Roots. And indeed, onstage with rap's best live band, one might think one of the meanest and most disrespectful rappers of the last ten years was an innocuous boho coffeehouse-type--give or take his single's disgraceful pregnancy subtext, anyway. This is some futuristic alchemy indeed. Points as always to Jimmy Fallon's houseband for their unerringly mischevious choice of walk-on music. What'd 50 draw? "Money Power Respect" which, well, exactly. Videos of both (plus some really excellent Fallon jokes about 50's perfume line and "diamond-encrusted" watch) below:

Well, two Dirty Projectors, anyway. The Roots and Jimmy Fallon conscripted Amber Coffman and Haley Dekle last Wednesday to back Mos Def and Talib Kweli on "History," from Mos' most recent album. Always happy to see this show try something different. (And to reunite such potent creative partners.) But it's more than a bit dismaying to see the arrangement here replicate that lousy quality familiar from most DP songs, in which Coffman and Dekle sort of punch in and out as if they were robots (or, you know, figments of Longstreth's creative imagination). Rarely do a set of vocalists get so consistently typecast as pure, sound-producing instruments--it's as if Longstreth had lent Questlove his spare xylophone or something. Overreaction? Probably. It's not like they're singing against their will. But consider us a bit skeeved out, regardless.

Here we have the peculiar and awesome spectacle of a band that normally can't sell out even the Mercury Lounge playing to an audience of tens of thousands on national television. Hot Snakes and Jehu did a lot of things but they never did this. [h/t Prefix]