NBC
It may be four days before Christmas (if that’s something you celebrate), but Cardi B is out here handing out precious gifts early. Not only did she become the first female rapper to have her first three singles hit the top ten of Billboard’s Hot 100, but yesterday she singlehandedly made The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon entertaining.
In an interview with Fallon, Cardi was just her delightful and goofy self, something that repeatedly confounded Fallon into speechlessness. Sometimes it’s hard to tell if the audience was laughing at or with Cardi B, but if anything, the woman is the master of spectacle, seems to be three steps ahead of the game, and is plain inescapable at this point.
Technically, Cardi B has been on the Tonight Show before—she appeared to perform “No Limit” with G-Eazy (complete with a lot of awkward censoring of its explicit content and a weird old-timey black and white filter). But this time around she was doing the Lorde’s work and befuddling Fallon into silence.
Image via screengrab
The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon is one of the hardest late night shows to watch because of Jimmy Fallon. His shtick is wearing thin; he seems tired, bored, and occasionally surly. No one’s watching his little show after he rumpled President Trump’s hair and maybe he wants a vacation. Watching a man drag his feet through a gig that reportedly pays him $13 to 15 million a year is boring, depressing, and BAD. Thats’s why watching Cardi B. toy with Jimmy for five minutes and change is such a delight.
Cardi was unabashedly herself and Jimmy didn’t quite know what to do with that. One imagines he’s heard “Bodak Yellow” at least once, all the way through, but from the way this interview goes, maybe he hasn’t? Even if he is an insufferable sycophant, he’s usually able to create a rapport with his guests; this time, he struggled. Is Cardi too much for Jimmy Fallon? Are her chirps, her trills, her extended “okurrrrrrrrrrs” anything he’s even experienced in real life? What’s so wonderful about this is that from Cardi’s first exaggerated shoulder shimmy about ten seconds in, you can tell: she’s got this. She’s in charge.
I know a five minute appearance on a late-night show isn’t a competition or a fight to the death, but I look at this and see the face of a woman who knows that she has already won.
Also fun: Erykah Badu and The Roots giving you an extended version of “On & On” followed by a cover of Fela Kuti’s “Sorrow Tears and Blood.” She’s wearing really incredible earrings, she looks fantastic and sounds phenomenal.
Nice of them to do this for Jimmy.
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