There's a part of me that hopes that every musical guest that goes on Jimmy Fallon will ditch their own backing musicians for the Roots. It's not like I expect stuff by N.E.R.D. or Akon, who performed last night, to be better with Black Thought and ?uestlove involved, it just would be cooler. Akon did the reggae-influenced "Be With You" from his Freedom LP with his own band, which included a hype man who could challenge Lil Jon for most monosyllabic words uttered in a single song. 

Freedom is out now.