Justin Timberlake Prefaces “Cry Me A River” Performance With “No Disrespect,” Nirvana Lyrics

The Justin Timberlake brand is not in a great place these days. Memories of Man Of The Woods linger. Recent high-profile efforts, like the *NSYNC reunion song “Better Place” and the Timbaland/Nelly Furtado team-up “Keep Going Up!,” have not captured the world’s imagination. And Timberlake does not come across very well in his ex Britney Spears’ new memoir, in which she says that he asked her to have an abortion and said “fo’ shizzle” to Ginuwine. After that, it must be awkward to sing “Cry Me A River.”

“Cry Me A River,” Timberlake’s wildly petty pop masterpiece, is all about his breakup with Britney Spears. Last night, Timberlake performed at the invite-only opening of a new luxury hotel called the Fontainebleau Las Vegas, entertaining a crowd that included celebrities like Tom Brady, Cher, and his wife Jessica Biel. (Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul were both there? Kim Kardashian and Kendall Jenner sat with Ivanka Trump? That’s what People reports, anyway. Celebrity life seems weird as hell.) During his set, Timberlake performed “Cry Me A River” for the first time since the publication of Spears’ book The Woman In Me. As the song kicked in, he offered a slight disclaimer.

Timberlake sang “Cry Me A River” immediately after his Jay-Z collab “Holy Grail,” which he did without Jay-Z. On that song’s hook, Timberlake interpolates Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” and I guess he tried to carry that hook through into “Cry Me A River.” As the song started, Timberlake said, “No disrespect.” Then he started singing: “And we all just entertainers/ And we’re stupid and contagious.”

I don’t know if that’s going to be enough to keep the stink off of Timberlake, but it works for me! “Cry Me A River”! Whoo!

Timberlake played Bill Gates’ jam too: