GZAand Tom Morellohit up The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon Tuesday night for the live debut of their one-off collaboration The Mexican, the Wu-Tang Clan rappers cover of Babe Ruths1972 single(the British rock band, not the New York Yankee). For this rendition of the flamenco-flavored, Morricone-inspired cut, Tonight Show house band the Roots fill in for Unknown Mortal Orchestra, who appear on the studio versionthat was released last month.
Its a routine performance until the three-minute mark, when the Rage Against the Machine guitarist unleashes one of his trademark, acrobatic solos while a pair of break dancers the original The Mexican was interpolated by Afrika Bambaataas Planet Rock take center stage. The track, a b-boy staple for years, has long been a hip-hop favorite, having been sampled multipletimes.
After reuniting last year for their farewell album A Better Tomorrow, its been a busy few days for the individual members of the Wu as Ghostface Killah released his collaborative Sour Soul LP with BadBadNotGood, RZA debuted a 13-minute snippetof the Clans one-copy-only art piece Once Upon a Time in Shaolin and Raekwon appearedat Kanye Wests surprise London gigto perform C.R.E.A.M.
Meanwhile, GZA is reportedly still at work on a space-themed new album called Dark Matter, a project hes been occupied with for the past three years and that he discussed at length while chatting with scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and guest-lecturing at Harvard in 2012. Its just a journey of the universe. Dark matter, dark energy, the rapper told Rolling Stone at the time. Its just a beautiful story planets, black holes, comets.