‘Saturday Night Live’ music: A Tribe Called Quest tribute Phife Dawg, perform ‘We the People’

Tonight, “Saturday Night Live” gave you an episode that really was all about tapping into a different era — while also confronting the issues that are still going on right now. First, you had an amazing performance of the late Leonard Cohen’s song “Hallelujah” by Kate McKinnon as Hillary Clinton. Then, you had the best monologue arguably ever from Dave Chappelle.

For the music, we had one of the greatest hip-hop groups of all time in A Tribe Called Quest, someone who Chappelle seemed especially excited to have on the show with him. His introduction to them was full of all sorts of energy, and then they proceeded into a powerful new track entitled “We the People.” This was a song that was clearly about a message of activism and the dangerous spirit of the times, and we do think that this delivered on everything that they set out to do.

We imagine that there will be some blowback to this, given that there always is anytime that you come out on the show with something to say. For those of you who are longtime fans of the show, you probably caught the memorial to Malik Izaak Taylor a.k.a. Phife Dawg, who passed away earlier this year and was a founding member.

Second Performance – This was entitled “The Space Program,” and we feel like potentially the biggest surprise out of everything here is how lenient NBC was about censorship this week. We don’t mind, given that it’s after midnight and you would be stripping the group of what makes them real and organic otherwise. The first song had more power to it, but we probably preferred the musicality here.

What are your thoughts on these performances tonight? Leave your comment in the box below. If you want to see our review of tonight’s “SNL” episode featuring Dave Chappelle, be sure to head over to the link here. (Photo: NBC.)