21 Savage‘s epic Saturday Night Live debut featured a pair of ballerinas, a violinist, classically trained vocalist singing in Portuguese and appearances by Brent Faiyaz and Summer Walker.
The Atlanta rapper took the stage on Saturday (February 24) to perform “redrum” and a blend of “should’ve wore a bonnet” and “prove it,” all of which are on his new album American Dream.
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The first performance found two singers recreating the sample pulled from Brazilian singer Elza Laranjeira’s “Serenata Do Adeus,” which appears at the beginning of “redrum” and throughout the production.
The snippet performances of “bonnet” and “prove it” were highlighted by a Faiyaz and Summer Walker, respectively.
The SNL debut comes just weeks after 21 Savage graced the Grammy stage for the first time, performing “Top Of The World” alongside Burna Boy.
21’s appearance on Saturday was not without its share of controversy, thanks to comedian Shane Gillis as the host.
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The announcement earlier in February that Gillis would be hosting the popular sketch show drew a mixed response from fans, with reactions ranging from disappointment to excitement about the upcoming segment.
“I’m disappointed that SNL would hire someone [without] talent to appear on their show,” wrote one user. “If you listen to his podcast, or his stand up, you’ll see he has a track record of being funny. I just don’t think that has a place at SNL anymore, times have changed.”
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“So SNL invites a transphobe up to the stage last week, a presidential candidate who espouses anti-LGBTQ hate on tonight, and next week a guy who got fired from SNL for making racist Asian jokes,” a second comment reads. “This while you have one of the biggest breakout stars in years in Bowen Yang. I’ve loved SNL my whole life, but JFC Lorne, WTF are you doing? This is not f’ing ok.”
Others ran to Gillis’ defense claiming this is his moment. “A D1 football player, decorated veteran and an SNL legend without doing any of those 3… He deserves this [flexed arm emoji],” wrote another user.
“If you click on the angry people’s profile you will see by their profile and the way they look that they are definitely the type to be upset [crying, skull emojis],” a fourth comment reads.
In other 21 Savage news, the Atlanta rapper recently joined forces with Cardi B, and Nicki Minaj and artists like Bette Midler, Gloria Estefan, and Jason Isbell to get behind a proposed new law that would make AI-generated likeness of both their images and their voices off-limits.
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Billboard reported that a total of 300 artists from a variety of genres have banded together behind the No Artificial Intelligence Fake Replicas And Unauthorized Duplications Act (also known as the No AI FRAUD Act) currently making its way through the House of Representatives.
