Robert Glasper delivered an all-star performance of “Black Superhero” on last night’s episode of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. You can watch the footage below.
The Grammy Award-winning musician appeared as the musical guest on the NBC chat show in support of his upcoming album Black Radio III, which is set for release on February 25 via Loma Vista Recordings.
Poet Amir Sulaiman appeared alongside Glasper for a powerful live airing of the record’s spoken-word prelude, “In Tune”, before Rapsody, BJ The Chicago Kid and DJ Jazzy Jeff took to the stage to contribute to “Black Superhero”. As Rolling Stone notes, the special set was put together to mark Martin Luther King Day in the US yesterday, January 17.
Sharing ‘In Tune’ on Twitter ahead of the Fallon performance, Glasper wrote: “Martin Luther King wasn’t just the conductor of the black civil rights movement he created a model that other movements across the world replicated. He’s one of our superheroes because he showed us what’s possible when we stand united…when we’re in tune.”
The 13-track Black Radio III follows on from 2012’s Black Radio and 2013’s Black Radio I. The first instalment won Best R&B Album at the 55th Annual Grammy Awards in 2013. Black Radio III was first previewed back in 2020 with “Better Than I Imagined” featuring H.E.R. and Meshell Ndegeocello.
Elsewhere on the album are collaborations with the likes of Q-Tip, Jennifer Hudson, Yebba, Common, Ty Dolla $ign, Esperanza Spalding and Ant Clemons. The studio version of ‘Black Superhero’, meanwhile, features Killer Mike, BJ The Chicago Kid and Big K.R.I.T..
Robert Glasper’s most recent studio album, F_k Yo Feelings, arrived in 2019. Elsewhere, the musician is again up for two trophies at this year’s Grammy Awards, for Best Traditional R&B Performance (“Born Again” with Leon Bridges) and Best Progressive R&B Album for Dinner Party: Dessert, a project released under the supergroup Dinner Party.
