QuestLove made a guest appearance on Saturday Night Live this weekend to deliver a slap to Pete Davidson and host Timothee Chalamet. The music legend appeared in a skit about the evolution of hip hop music, along with Punkie Johnson playing Queen Latifah and Ego Nwodim playing the host. Meanwhile, Davidson and Chalamet played a pair of young SoundCloud rappers that QuestLove lost patience with.
The sketch was a parody of a XXL “Rap Roundtable,” with the old and new generations in rap music coming together to discuss “the culture.” While Latifah and QuestLove celebrated the way that hip hop has “taken over the world,” they were not entirely excited about how young white musicians like the ones Davidson and Chalamet were playing had adapted it. After they mumbled their way through a critical conversation, the two got up to begin performing their song, at which point QuestLove lost it.
Videos by PopCulture.com
QuestLove reached across the fake talk show set to slap Davidson with his hand. When Chalamet complained, QuestLove pulled his pick out of his afro and slapped Chalamet with it, to the delight of the audience. He sat back down muttering “I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” but Nwodim said: “No, you don’t need to be sorry, it’s okay. It’s what we all wanted to do.”
The sketch was a hit with the live audience and the viewers at home, judging by social media. Commenters said that they enjoyed the slaps vicariously, and took guesses a who Davidson and Chalamet were meant to represent. With their dyed hair, tattoos and references to emo bands of the early 2000s, they were right at home within the “SoundCloud rapper” genre.
QuestLove and his band The Roots have been the house band for The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon since 2009. The Saturday Night Live Band is considered an “associated act” due to their proximity in another NBC studio in New York, though QuestLove himself has never joined the SNL band. His other musical endeavors are wide-ranging, and he is often called onto critical talk shows like the one parodied on SNL this weekend.
This was one of several skits this weekend where Chalamet teamed up with Davidson. The two seemed to strike a good rhythm throughout the night, which made sense to viewers given their relatively close ages. All in all, the new episode was well-received. Another new episode premieres next Saturday at 11:30 p.m. ET on NBC.
