For a long time, my viewing of Saturday Night Live has been predicated on who the musical guest was.
I haven’t watched a single episode this season. Even though it pleases me that they have more African-Americans in the cast than ever before and there’s some pretty decent eye candy on the show these days, it all feels very amateur hour, and not very funny anymore. In the event that I’m even remotely interested in the musical guest, all I have to do is wait fifteen minutes and someone will post those performances online.
D’Angelo & The Vanguard’s Black Messiah is a genius record. I don’t think a complete album has hit me in such a visceral fashion since Childish Gambino’s Camp. It’s thoughtful, fiery, funny and funky. D and his band (featuring The Time’s legendary guitarist Jesse Johnson) delivered “Really Love” and a stunning version of “The Charade” (my favorite song on Black Messiah) that’s worth a watch. Best musical performance on SNL since I don’t know when.