The Roots

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17 Feb 2025

Roots Picnic 2025 Headlined By D’Angelo, Lenny Kravitz, Meek Mill & More

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Source: Taylor Hill / Getty

Roots Picnic is back for 2025, and the headliners are once again top-notch. On Monday, February 17, the Roots and Live Nation announced that the headliners for the annual event include D’Angelo (wth the Roots), Lenny Kravitz, and Meek Mill along with GloRilla, Miguel, Tems, Latto and Kaytranada, and more.

Source: Live Nation / Live Nation

The two-day festival will go down back at The Mann in Fairmount Park in Philadelphia, PA on Saturday, May 31 and Sunday, June 1, 2025. In its continued spirit of collaboration, attendees will also get to see who’s who of musical talents that already includes Jeezy (who will be celebrating 20 years of his TM: 101 album), Pusha T and 2 Chainz (as part of J. Period’s Live Mixtape with Black Thought), Musiq Soulchild, Jagged Edge, Backyard Band featuring CeeLo Green, Crystal Waters (as part of DJ Rich Medina’s Black House Set), Laila! and more.

And as per usual, more performers will be announced in the coming months. The Roots Picnic first launched back in 2007 and has since firmly established itself as a yearly bucket list item for Hip-Hop and music heads. One particular moment to check for will be The Roots celebrating the 30th anniversary of their landmark Do You Want More?!!!??! album.

Presale tickets will be up for grabs starting on Tuesday, February 18 at 10 AM ET through Thursday, February 20 at 10 pm ET. General ticketing kicks off Friday, February 21 at 10 AM ET and all package deals such as weekend passes and VIP packages will be found RIGHT HERE.

See a full list of performers below:

PERFORMANCE LINEUP:

D’Angelo with The Roots

Lenny Kravitz

Meek Mill

GloRilla

Miguel

Tems

Latto

Kaytranada

Jeezy celebrating the 20th anniversary of his album Let’s Get It: Thug Motivation 101

J.Period Live Mixtape Featuring Black Thought, 2 Chainz, and Pusha T

Musiq Soulchild celebrating the 25th anniversary of his album Aijuswanaseing

The Roots celebrating the 30th anniversary of their album Do You Want More?!!!??!

Adam Blackstone featuring Jagged Edge

Baller Alert Presents Backyard Band featuring CeeLo Green

Rich Medina’s Black House Set featuring Crystal Waters and Cece Peniston

Kur

Elmiene

Lay Banks

Jermaine Dolly

Laila!

Funk Flex

Diamond Kuts

DJ Aktive

Peyton

Leeyuh Neptune

And more to be confirmed…

**Lineup subject to change

ROOTS PICNIC DAY PARTY LINEUP:

Trap Karaoke

DJ Aktive Presents Chill Vibes featuring Raheem Devaughn

Doo-Wop …That R&B Party

Girls Love Karaoke

Dear Summer Festival

Kirk Franklin’s Sunday School w/ DJ Mal-Ski

The Remedy feat Rich Medina & Cosmo Baker

Snacktime

All You Can Sing

Philly Black Pride

Interna$hional Bounce

All Spice World Dance

World Series of Spades

16 Feb 2025

Lil Wayne Recruits The Roots for Singles Medley on ‘SNL50’ Special

Lil Wayne has joined the eclectic roster of musical guests to share a career-spanning singles medley on Sunday night’s (Feb. 16) SNL50: The Anniversary Special.

Wayne was joined by The Roots and DJ T. Lewis for his performance, which opened with 2018 single Uproar, and saw Weezy run through other tunes from his Tha Carter series of albums, including his lone Billboard Hot 100 chart-topper as a solo artist “Lollipop”, followed by “6 Foot 7 Foot” and “Mrs. Officer”.

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The lion’s share of the set was devoted to closer “A Milli”, which currently serves as Wayne’s standard set-closer, almost 17 years since it was first released. His non-musical contributions to the SNL50 appearance were limited, with the musician closing out his set with a simple, “Thank you, happy 50th”.

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This performance also marks Wayne’s fourth time appearing on a Saturday Night Live broadcast as a musical guest, having first made his debut back in 2008 as part of season 34 opening episode. Featuring Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps on hosting duties, Wayne performed “Got Money” and “Lollipop” during that initial appearance.

Two years later, he appeared with Eminem and also shared a solo performance of “6 Foot 7 Foot”, in an episode which saw Jeff Bridges as host. Wayne would return again in 2018 to appear in a Liev Schreiber-hosted episode where he performed “Can’t Be Broken” with Halsey and “Uproar” with Swizz Beatz.

Earlier this month, Lil Wayne confirmed that he would be releasing his highly-anticipated Tha Carter VI album on June 6, announcing the news as part of an ad for Cetaphil. The third, fourth and fifth installments of Tha Carter each topped the Billboard 200 and the Drake-assisted “She Will” has had a second life vaulting the 2011 track to top the TikTok Billboard Top 50 on the Feb. 8-dated tally.

SNL50: The Anniversary Special is airing Sunday night, following Friday’s SNL50: The Homecoming Concert on Friday night.

22 Jan 2025

The Roots To Hold 3-Night NYC Residency For ‘Do You Want More?!!!??!’ 30th Anniversary

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Source: Raymond Boyd / Getty

Good news OG Hip-Hoppers as The Roots are set to open up a residency in New York City for the 30th anniversary of their classic sophomore album Do You Want More?!!!??!.

Taking to Instagram to make the exciting announcement, Black Thought and Questlove informed fans that they would be doing a three-night residency at The Blue Note in New York City beginning March 13 and ending on March 15. Though Questlove specifically stated that they will not be doing the entire album during their residency (damn!), y’all can bet they’ll be pulling out some of the album’s standout cuts while “having fun” with the music fans have come to know and love over their illustrious career.

Man, if they could get Erykah Badu and Eve to perform on “You Got Me” that would be amazing.

Check out Black Thought and Questlove’s announcement, and let us know if you’ll be attending their residency come March in the comments section below.

10 Dec 2024

The Roots Announce “A Roots Picnic Experience: Class Of ‘95” With Lil’ Kim, Method Man, Redman & More

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The Roots have always shown reverence to Hip-Hop en route to becoming stalwarts of the culture themselves, and a newly announced event solidifies that stance. The Roots announced on Monday (Dec. 9) the “A Roots Picnic Experience: Class of ’95” with Lil’ Kim, Method Man, and Redman among the stacked lineup for the concert that kicks off next year.

Hosted by Live Nation Urban and the LA Phil, “A Roots Picnic Experience: Class of ’95” will be a one-night-only event taking place at the Hollywood Bowl venue in Los Angeles, Calif.

Along with the aforementioned acts, Bay area legend E-40, Cleveland’s Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Staten Island Wu-Tang Clan swordsman Raekwon, Compton funkster DJ Quik, Atlanta quartet Goodie Mob, Queens rapper and producer Havoc of Mobb Deep, and more will all take to the stage. The Roots will provide the backing sounds for each of the acts, and will be similar in scope to last year’s “Roots Picnic: Hip-Hop is the Love of My Life” event at Hollywood Bowl which was sold out.

Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, the drummer for The Roots, shared the following statement:

Well: 1995 was our true arrival. Nineteen eighty-seven was the Year of the Creative Adhesive, the year that tied together Tariq’s world and my world in high school, and 1991 was the Year of the Green Light, the year we gave ourselves permission to take our resources and passion and pursue our dream. But 1995? That was the Year It All Came Together, the year when our first major release, “Do You Want More?!!!??!” was sent into the world. Hip-hop was an entirely new ballgame back then, on an entirely new playing field. Those were the days when there were still things like mainstream terrestrial radio, bloated video budgets, and creativity at both the regional and the global levels. Those were the days that produced classic album after classic album, unleashing countless new ideas about art. Those were the days when the world was our oyster. This is the story of those days.”

The “Tariq” that Questlove mentions is no other than the legendary Black Thought, whose given name is Tariq Trotter.

Tickets for “A Roots Picnic Experience: Class of ’95” will go on sale Wednesday (Dec. 11) at 10 AM PST at www.hollywoodbowl.com. Get your tickets fast as this one is certain to sell out quickly.

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Photo: Live Nation/Getty

20 Feb 2024

Lil Wayne, Nas & More On 2024 Roots Picnic Lineup

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Source: Taylor Hill / Getty

The lineup for The Roots Picnic’s 2024 edition is star-studded with feature performances by Lil Wayne, Nas, and more.

On Monday (February 19), The Roots and Live Nation Urban announced the full lineup for this year’s installment of their Roots Picnic festival in their hometown of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and it’s proving to be a blockbuster affair. Taking place on the weekend of June 1 & June 2, the lineup of artists spans generations of the listening public, kicking off with multiple Grammy Award-winning rapper Lil Wayne doing a headline set with The Roots featuring his greatest hits. Joining him on that set as special guests will be fellow New Orleans greats Trombone Shorty and PJ Morton.

Other artists appearing at The Roots Picnic this year will include Nas and Jill Scott as co-headliners. André 3000, fresh off of touring for his critically acclaimed instrumental album New Blue Sun, will perform the album live at the festival. In addition, recent Grammy Award-winner Victoria Monét will appear for the first time at The Roots Picnic. The rest of the lineup will feature the beloved J-Period Live Mixtape set starring Black Thought, Redman, and Method Man, a Backyard Go-Go Experience set with Hip-Hop legend Scarface and Amerie, Gunna, Sexyy Red, Tyla, Smino, Babyface, Robert Glasper with Yebba, Wale and more.

The 2024 Roots Picnic will be hosted at The Mann in Fairmount Park, and it will also bring back the Parkside Stage (formerly known as the Podcast Stage) where immersive experiences and live podcasts including Million Dollaz Worth of Game, the Juan Epstein Podcast, and World Series of Spades will take place in addition to others soon to be announced. There will also be a vendor village for attendees to partake in, in addition to a food court featuring restaurants that have been specially curated by The Roots for the festival.

Those who’ve attended The Roots Picnic in the past will have their chance to snag tickets on Tuesday (February 20) at 10 AM EST at a special presale. Tickets for the general public, including weekend tickets and VIP passes will be available on the festival’s website beginning on Friday (February 23).

12 Dec 2023

The Roots & Live Nation Urban Announce Roots Picnic: Hip-Hop is the Love of My Life For 2024

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The Roots and Live Nation Urban have announced a new event for next year that will be one of the hottest tickets around. The inaugural Roots Picnic: Hip-Hop is the Love of My Life event will take place next summer in Los Angeles and tickets go on sale this week.

The Roots have annually hosted the Roots Picnic in the band’s hometown of Philadelphia for years and is typically a star-studded affair with some of music’s best and brightest acts joining the band in delighting fans from all over.

For the Roots Picnic: Hip-Hop is the Love of My Life event, they’ll be joined by other musical giants such as Queen Latifah, Common, Digable Planets, Arrested Development, and other acts. The event will be held next June at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, Calif.

Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, the drummer for The Roots, shared a statement about the upcoming Roots Picnic.

“The first time we played Hollywood Bowl was way back in 2011, and there was nothing like it. We came back to headline in 2019, and we’ve been talking about doing something there since. This idea for Hip-Hop is the Love of My Life came up, and we knew there was no better spot,” Questlove said.

This announcement comes just after many of the guest performers for the event showed up and rocked the house for the airing of the A GRAMMY Salute to 50 Years of Hip-Hop last Sunday.

Tickets for Roots Picnic: Hip-Hop is the Love of My Life go on sale this Thursday at 10 AM local time PST. You can purchase the tickets here.

The Roots Picnic: Hip-Hop is the Love of My Life Lineup is below:

The Roots

Queen Latifah

Common

Digable Planets

Arrested Development

The Pharcyde

Black Sheep (Dres from Black Sheep)

& more to be announced

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Photo: Getty

21 Jul 2023

Run DMC & The Roots Added To 2023 Rock The Bells Festival

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Source: Johnny Nunez / Getty

The Rock The Bells Festival this year is getting more jam-packed with Hip-Hop’s greatest, as Run DMC and The Roots are now added to the lineup.

On Monday (July 17th), the festival announced the addition of the iconic group from Hollis, Queens, and the dynamic Hip-Hop band out of Philadelphia to the lineup. The Roots will back up LL Cool J and DJ Z-Trip during his set, akin to how they collaborated at the Grammy Awards earlier this year.

For Run DMC, their inclusion on the lineup brings them back to their home borough in celebration of the culture through the festival founded by fellow borough native LL Cool J. They also will be headliners at the “Hip Hop 50” concert event at Yankee Stadium on August 11th, considered to be their final show. The stellar lineup also features Rakim, Queen Latifah, Monie Love, De La Soul, MC Lyte, Yo-Yo, Redman & Method Man, Roxanne Shante’, Big Daddy Kane, Cold Crush Brothers, MC She Rock, Salt-N-Pepa and other special guests.

The news comes on the heels of Brooklyn’s own Boot Camp Clik announcing a partnership with Rock The Bells, led off by the group’s new single and video “Wotcha Call Strength”. It’s the first release by the collective in 16 years, done in honor of Hip-Hop’s 50th anniversary. There will also be an exclusive merch drop at the festival, and Boot Camp Clik will also be on the lineup of performers at Forest Hills Stadium in Queens on August 5th.

“In honor and celebration of Hip Hop 50, we felt that the BCC’s catalog of work, contributions, and legacy needed to be recognized properly,” Duck Down Records CEO Drew “Dru-Ha” Friedman said in a statement. “It’s too easy to sit back and say the Hip Hop community should verify you and painstaking to go out and have to remind people with words, so we felt there was no better way to make a statement than to drop a new record with all the original members (RIP to Sean Price).”

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27 Apr 2023

LL Cool J, The Roots Headline ‘THE F.O.R.C.E.’ Live Arena Tour

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Source: Kevin Winter / Getty

A new concert event, The F.O.R.C.E Live tour is in effect with LL Cool J featured as a headliner along with The Roots and DJ Jazzy Jeff.

Source: General / Live Nation

The F.O.R.C.E (Frequencies of Real Creative Energy) Live Tour is the first that the Hip-Hop icon is headlining in 30 years. Each of the 24 dates across the U.S. (with a stop in Toronto) on the tour will feature the two-time Grammy Award winner with The Roots, DJ Jazzy Jeff, and DJ Z-Trip, the same powerful tandem at the heart of their celebration of 50 years of Hip-Hop at this year’s Grammys. Rock The Bells is the major organizer of the tour event. “I’m excited to be on my first Arena tour in 30 years. It’s proof that our culture is more viable than ever. Get ready for some non-stop beats and rhymes. See you this summer!”, the rapper said in a press release.

The lineup for the tour is a hearty one, curated by LL Cool J himself. It features Salt-N-Pepa, Queen Latifah, Rakim, Common, MC Lyte, Method Man & Redman, Big Boi, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Ice T, Juvenile, Doug E. Fresh, Slick Rick, De La Soul, Goodie Mob, Jadakiss, Rick Ross, and more special guests. The F.O.R.C.E. Live tour, according to the press release will feature the lineup “unlike the traditional “opening act – headliner” format, the show will be a nonstop musical mash-up with artist performances interwoven within one continuous musical set backed by The Roots.” These same artists will also perform at the Rock The Bells Cruise slated for November.

The tour kicks off on June 25th at the TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts, and ends its run at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles, California on September 3rd. A ticket pre-sale for fans will be held by Live Nation on Thursday (April 27th) beginning at 10 A.M., with the general sale taking place on Friday (April 28th) through Ticketmaster. Tickets will also be available through StubHub once the general sale begins. To find out more, visit the website.

28 Mar 2023

Wife Of Late Roots Bassist Suing Questlove And Black Thought For Fraud

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The wife of the late great Leonard “Hub” Hubbard believes The Roots are not men of their word. She is suing Questlove and Black Thought for fraud.

As spotted on The Philly Voice Stephanie Hubbard is alleging that the legendary band is withholding monies that she believes are due to the bassist. On December 16, 2021, Leonard Hubbard passed due to blood cancer. Prior to his death, he had claimed that the group was shortchanging him based on a contract he signed stating he was a co-owner of the band. Years later, it seems Mrs. Hubbard has continued to fight his fight.

On Thursday, March 23 she filed a lawsuit to the US District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. The documentation states that Ahmir Thompson (Questlove), Tarik Trotter (Black Thought), Shawn Gee (The Roots manager), and Munir Nuriddin (Roots employee) have been violating RICO laws since 2013 with regard to Hub’s earnings.

Specifically, by “forgery, wire fraud, bank fraud, mail fraud, and criminal copyright infringement”. Furthermore, she says all the original members founded Grand Negaz, Inc.; a corporate entity they all started to funnel all their music-related ventures. Additionally, she states Leonard also had a 25% stake in a company that handled The Roots’ publishing and a 33% stake in a company that deals with their touring bookings.

The estate’s lawyer Luke Lucas gave a statement to The Philadelphia Business Journal regarding the lawsuit. “I would hope that these guys would have enough respect and compassion for their former band member… to make sure that he receives compensation for what may have not been given to him in the past, and so that his widow can live a reasonable life,” he said.

The Roots have yet to formally comment on the allegations.

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Photo: EVA HAMBACH

20 Feb 2023

The Roots & Live Nation Announce 2023 “Roots Picnic Weekend”, Lauryn Hill & Diddy Headlining

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Source: Live Nation / Live Nation Urban

The Roots and Live Nation Urban announced the dates on Monday (Feb. 20) and it is jam-packed with events. The two-day festival proper will once again be held at the Mann in Fairmount Park in Philadelphia, PA on Saturday and Sunday, June 3 and 4).

Arguably the first guest name to grab your attention is Lauryn Hill, who will be celebrating the 25th anniversary of her landmark album, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. Ms. Hill will be performing the album in its entirety. Also at the top of the bill are Diddy & The Roots, Lil Uzi Vert and Dave Chappelle, who will be performing a stand-up set on Friday, June 2. Chappelle’s comedy set, with the Roots, will kick off the weekend at the Wells Fargo Center.

Other notable acts on deck include Eve returning to the stage during Black Thought’s Live Mixtape set and a State Property Reunion as well as Little Brother, Glorilla, City Girls and DJ Drama. There will also be a “Podcast Stage” that will feature live podcasts from Charlamagne Tha God, Off The Record with DJ Akademiks, Lip Service with Angela Yee, People’s Party with Talib Kweli, Questlove Supreme, and more.

If you’re getting tickets, a fan club presale launches starts Tuesday, February 21 at 12PM ET, while general on-sale ticketing starts on Wednesday, February 22 at 10AM ET. Weekend tickets and VIP packages can be found right here.

Check out the full lineup, so far, below.

Diddy w/ The Roots

Ms. Lauryn Hill

Lil Uzi Vert

Dave Chappelle w/ The Roots

Soulquarians Set featuring Roy Ayers & The Isley Bros

Black Thought Live Mixtape featuring Busta Rhymes & Eve

Ari Lennox

Lucky Daye

City Girls

Maverick City

Syd

Glorilla

DJ Drama

Uncle Waffles

Saucy Santana

DVSN

Kindred The Family Soul

Spinall

State Property Reunion (Freeway, Beanie Siegel, Young Gunz, Peedi Crakk, Oschino & Sparks)

Little Brother

Yussef Dayes Experience

Adam Blackstone w/ Coco Jones & Mary Mary

Baller Alert Presents Go Go: Backyard Band vs Rare Essence

Symba

Fridayy

Mike Phillips

Rocky

Dappa

Akin Inaj & Inutech

PODCAST STAGE:

Charlamagne Tha God

Off The Record with DJ Akademiks

Don’t Call Me White Girl

Lip Service with Angela Yee

Questlove Supreme

People’s Party with Talib Kweli

Pour Minds

Trap Nerds

The Office XIV

Love + Grit

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