Tonight ‘SNL’ kicked off hot with an opening monologue from Dave Chappelle, who is hosting the first episode of the show since Donald Trump was elected President of the United States. Following that was a sketch that featured Chappelle — and special guest Chris Rock — providing some of the levity we needed post-election.
But those two are not the only long-lost, beloved guests on the show tonight, A Tribe Called Quest are also featured on the program, and already broke hearts tonight with a performance of “We The People…” a song off their new album We Got It from Here… Thank You 4 Your Service that was completely dedicated to their recently lost member Phife Dawg, who died earlier this year from diabetes complications. During his verse on the track, a banner of Phife rolled down in honor of him. You can watch that below:
For their second performance of the night, the group did the opening song off their new record, “The Space Program,” joined by special guests Consequence and Busta Rhymes, who are heavily featured on the new record. “The Space Program” is a song that leans on Afrofuturism with a twist, pointing out that this is the only world we have, and it is incredibly prejudiced, but we have to keep working to change that. Given the events of this week, and the slew of hate crimes that have broken out in the wake of Trump winning the election, it is particularly relevant. Watch it above.
