Justin Timberlake, Jimmy Fallon and the history of rap

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While Justin Timberlake was promoting his movie ‘The Social Network’ on Jimmy Fallon‘s show Wednesday night, the guys got together with Fallon’s house band the Roots and performed a medley representing the history of rap.

Watch the video above to see what happens when boy band meets hip-hop.

In case you didn’t recognize them all -- some references go by in a flash -- the Wall Street Journal did: ‘Rapper’s Delight’ by the Sugar Hill Gang, ‘Peter Piper’ by Run-DMC, ‘Paul Revere’ by the Beastie Boys, ‘Award Tour’ by A Tribe Called Quest, ‘Humpty Dance’ by Digital Underground,

‘Nuthin’ But a G Thang’ by Snoop Dogg (featured on a song by Dr. Dre), ‘California Love’ by 2Pac featuring Dr. Dre, ‘Dream’ by Jay-Z, ‘Juicy’ by the Notorious B.I.G., ‘The Seed (2.0)’ by the Roots, ‘My Name Is’ by Eminem, ‘Work It’ by Missy Elliott, ‘Crank That (Soulja Boy)’ by Soulja Boy, ‘Live Your Life’ by T.I., ‘Gold Digger’ by Kanye West, crowned by an audience partipation take on ‘Empire State of Mind’ by Jay-Z and Alicia Keys, with another shot of the Sugar Hill Gang on top. (Now, there’s some debate over whether Jay-Z’s ‘Dream’ actually appears or is a duplicate of the ‘Juicy’ lyric -- we at MOG think it’s all ‘Juicy,’ but your mileage may vary.)

As Gold Derby noted, Fallon edged out Timberlake for that gig hosting the Emmy Awards -- but who’s the winner here?

-- Christie D’Zurilla