Tariq Trotter aka Black Thought of The Roots returned to The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon (Thought and the Roots are bandleaders for the show) after a hiatus and showed once again why he is one of the most talented M.C.s in the genre. Black Thought discussed with Fallon the cause of his hiatus - helping adapt John Ridley’s novel Black No More into a musical that will be playing in New York through February 27th. In the musical, Thought portrays a mad scientist who invents a machine called the "Black no more device," which turns Black people white. The scientist thinks that the device is the answer to America’s race problem.

After a brief conversation about the musical and his work on it, Thought revealed that one of his earliest times rapping onstage was as a 4th grader in a talent show with a group called the Crash Crew that contained another Philly icon: Beanie Siegel. Thought then unleashed a “speed rhyme” from that very talent show (he was then named Double T) that was reminiscent of the popular "New Rap Language" style pioneered by Kool Moe Dee and The Treacherous 3. The rhyme was proof positive that Black thought was nice with the mic device even in his pre-teen years, and his flawless recall and delivery of a rhyme that is several decades old is a testament to his greatness.