Many people have been talking about D’Angelo’s powerful performance on SNL last Saturday. He performed his new single, “The Charade” off of his Black Messiah album and there’s no question that D’Angelo and his band, Vanguard, deserve much respect for their performance, but many folks missed that the guy standing next to him killing it on electric guitar was the one and only Jesse Johnson (formerly of The Time)!

Jesse was on his incognito steeze, but his fire guitar riffs and his laid back swag were a dead giveaway. A lot of us probably missed him because he had the whole fur hat and sunglasses flow happening, but there’s no doubt it was Jesse and he even verified it on his Facebook page (facebook.com/JesseJohnsonfan). Check out their performance below.

D’Angelo’s band wore shirts that represented the controversial deaths of Eric Garner and Michael Brown, while D’Angelo performed standing in a taped outline of a deceased body on the ground (like what you would see on a police scene of a murder). It’s so refreshing to see him taking a stand for what he believes in and bringing it to a national platform like the SNL show. More artists need to follow his lead. They don’t necessarily have to stand for what he stands for, but they do need to stand for whatever they feel in their hearts are the right things to fight for. At least if more artists stood up for something, other than just “money, clothes and hoes” there would be far more substance in today’s music and ultimately more value placed on the youth within our society.

If need a reminder of how cold blooded Jesse was back in the day, you can check out a throwback video of him on the next page

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