Michael K. Williams shares his Anthony Bourdain story and his Omar psych-up music on The Late Show

And while Williams feigned annoyance that those little Brooklyn kids had no idea who Omar Little was, he had a definite fan in Colbert. Asking his guest about his practice of playing himself into the right mindset for his characters with carefully chosen playlists, Colbert got Williams to reveal which artists matched up with the likes of Boardwalk Empire’s Chalky White (Nas), The Night Of’s Freddy Knight (Mary J. Blige and Biggie), and even those just right for a late-night talk show appearance. (Leon Bridges and Janelle Monáe’s Dirty Computer, as it turns out.) He didn’t get to the inner soundtrack for The Spoils Before Dying’s hilariously hard-boiled jazz cat Rock Banyon, sadly. For Omar Little, Williams claims he drew a connection to Lauryn Hill’s divisive MTV Unplugged No. 2.0, interestingly enough. (Williams admitted the ragged concert “wasn’t for everybody,” which lines up pretty well with Nathan Rabin’s My World Of Flops hybridized assessment, “Secret Fiascocess.”) Being the shining light in the world that he is, Williams even provided Colbert with his own pre-show theme, an Aretha Franklin medium cut that, as with his other choices, feels, incongruously, just right.