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President Barack Obama Finally Collaborates With the Roots

President Obama on Fallon

Ahmir “Questlove” (or “?uestlove”) Thompson is such a dedicated supporter of President Barack Obama that the Roots drummer uses a picture of the two together as his Twitter avatar. Obama, for his part, has recently been known to show off his presidential pipes, singing “Sweet Home Chicago” with Mick Jagger after saving the music industry by crooning a few words from Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together” during an appearance at Harlem’s historic Apollo Theater. Somehow, though, the Late Night With Jimmy Fallon house band and the White House’s leading man have never collaborated on a song … until now.

Last night, the POTUS joined Fallon and the Roots for a little number they liked to call “Slow Jam the News.” Unfortunately, if wisely, Obama chose not to actually sing, instead reserving his gravitas and making a reasoned argument in favor of keeping interest rates low on subsidized student loans. Fallon hammed it up amusingly, huskily riffing on ’70s earnest R&B lover-man tropes while expounding on Obama’s cause, but he left the big applause lines to the Roots’ Black Thought.

A Kim and Kanye reference? OK, timely. Calling Republicans “Daddy saying, ‘No, no, no'” and telling Tim Tebow to find something else to do? Coming a bit closer to Lyin’ Ass Bitch” territory, not to mention counteracting Black Thought’s earlier “the right and left and should come together on this” line, which was the entire ostensible reason for bringing up Kardashian and West in the first place — Obama’s the guy who tried to knock down the barriers between “red America” and “blue America,” remember? But whatever: “POTUS with the mostest”? Pell yes.