Here’s The Oran “Juice” Jones Video That Donald Glover Parodied On SNL
Donald Glover played double duty on Saturday Night Live this past weekend, acting as both host and musical guest. (He debuted a new Childish Gambino song, “This Is America,” during the show.) One of the many skits he participated in was “80s Music Video,” in which he plays a creepy stalker man named Raz P. Berry who lectures a woman (Cecily Strong) after finding her with another man (Kenan Thompson). It’s a funny bit and of itself, but it’s also a pointed reference to and parody of a real music video from 1986, from R&B singer Oran “Juice” Jones.
That video, for the Grammy-nominated song “The Rain,” plays out the same scenario as the skit, minus the case of mistaken identity. The second half of the song is an extended monologue from Jones in which he confronts his allegedly cheating girlfriend, and it includes a ton of ridiculous passages, like this:
You gotta get on out of here with that alley cat, coat-wearing, hush-puppy-wearing crumbcake I saw you with. ‘Cus you dismissed. That’s right. Silly rabbit, Trix are made for kids, don’t you know that? You without me like corn flake without the milk! It’s my world, you’re just a squirrel trying to get a nut.
The idea for the sketch dates back before Glover, though, as Strong points out in an Instagram post: “One time when I was in high school, [Markus Rutledge] showed me a really cool music video. It’s been on my dang mind for years. Just needed a cool as heck host to make it become a real damn scene.”
Compare the two below.