\n<\/p>\n
Did anything come out of nowhere and surprise you?<\/strong><\/p>\n The Fear story was one that I wanted to know about forever. When I first got to 30 Rock in 2009 [when the Roots became the house band of \u201cLate Night With Jimmy Fallon\u201d], I purposely waited six months to figure out how I was going to infiltrate the \u201cS.N.L.\u201d ecosystem. Who am I going to be friends with so I can see how it works? And one of the first people that took to me was Hal Willner<\/a> [the longtime \u201cS.N.L.\u201d sketch music coordinator], I couldn\u2019t have chosen more wisely and all the stories he shared with me about Fear, Miles Davis, Captain Beefheart \u2014 before I was even a filmmaker, everything that he told me in the hallways of 30 Rock all those years, I definitely wanted to explore all those things.<\/p>\n Getting inside the Fear story, probably the most interesting was Eddie Murphy\u2019s take. I wasn\u2019t even going to ask him about Fear. We were going to wrap, and I was like, \u201cWait, were you there for that Fear performance?\u201d He\u2019s like, \u201cHell, yeah, I was there \u2014 I was onstage with them!\u201d and with a fine-toothed comb, we found him.<\/p>\n You unspool the show\u2019s hip-hop history backwards, back to the Funky 4 + 1 in 1980.<\/strong><\/p>\n I knew that \u201cS.N.L.\u201d was the first vehicle that showed what rap music was \u2014 the very first rap act on television was the Funky 4 + 1, five months before Kurtis Blow comes on \u201cSoul Train.\u201d Now, hip-hop\u2019s a part of us, whether we admit it or not, be it our sneaker choices, wearing T-shirts to a meeting, certain slang. There\u2019s no denying hip-hop\u2019s effect on our everyday fiber. I wanted to figure out a way to tell that story without just starting with, \u201cThe very first time that America heard or saw hip-hop was on this show.\u201d Telling it backwards was a way to creatively add a layer, and there was so much history to pack in.<\/p>\n We have to talk about the film\u2019s cold open \u2014 a high-speed, six-minute D.J. mix of \u201cS.N.L.\u201d music highlights.<\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s impossible for me to phone anything in, even if I wanted to. I just wanted to throw the ultimate D.J. gig and hook you in from the gate. It started off small, and it couldn\u2019t stop.<\/p>\n In the beginning, I was just going in five-year intervals \u2014 what\u2019s the three strongest moments between \u201975 and \u201980? \u2014 and do it that way. But I\u2019m so programmed as a D.J. it\u2019s physically impossible for me to gather a group of songs together and not start \u2014 that\u2019s my version of improvisation. And once you put, like, 17 songs together, you have a conversation with yourself: \u201cOK, are we really doing this?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n