NBC Must Approve The Roots Songs
NBC is crackin’ that whip over the backs of The Roots because they played the 1985 song by Fishbone ‘Lyin’ Ass Bitch’ during Michelle Bachmann’s appearance on the Nov. 22 episode of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.
Following Bachmann’s appearance, NBC issued a letter of apology saying that what took place on TV was “not only unfortunate but also unacceptable.”
NBC is now checking the songs Fallon’s house band perform. Questlove says he’s “gotta clear a lot of the song choices” with NBC, and admits that it “was kind of wrong for me to throw [NBC] under the bus without telling them what it was, so I understand from a business standpoint.”
“It’s still a comedy show, so they promise not to step on my toes or that type of thing, but they definitely want to know the title of the song, the subject matter of the song, can it be seen as an insult,” Questlove said.
Since the Bachmann mishap, Questlove has received racial hate mail from Bachmann fanatics.
“Blocking 3,500 Tea Party extremists [on Twitter] in a three-day period is no fun, especially when you’re a drummer dangerously close to carpal tunnel. In the end, was it worth it? Absolutely not,” Questlove said in an interview recently.
