With everybody from Solange to Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Trinidad James to DJ Premier, Meek Mill to a (reunited) Naughty By Nature, and more, this year’s installment of The Roots annual summer picnic was probably one of the larger ones in recent memory. Check out their recap visual above.
Shot by Spike Jordan
The day before he ripped apart Hot 97′s Summer Jam XX stage, Meek was back in his hometown of Philly for the 6th Annual Roots Picnic, where he performed the two bangers.
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“Jenifa Taught Me”
The Native Tongues legends hit Jimmy Fallon’s late-late night stage to pre-game before their performance this weekend at the Great Googa Mooga food festival in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park.
Toronto’s k-os took the stage alongside The Roots to perform track-eight (which features Black Thought) off his Black On Blonde LP.
Speaking of k-os and Black On Blonde, check back here tomorrow as we’ll be sharing an exclusive break-down of each track, provided by the T-Dot representative himself.
The random conversations between Jimmy Fallon and various members of the audience become the inspiration for Black Thought and The Legendary Roots Crew’s impromptu jam sessions.
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Wednesday night, Bill Cosby visited Late Night With Jimmy Fallon again, and I witnessed one of the illest things on that show. The Roots performed Black Uhuru’s legendary hit, Sponji Reggae as Mr. Cosby’s intro music. I immediately caught the reference to the Cosby Show episode when Denise brought over her new man and the two were watching the music video for the aforementioned song, to a bewildered Cliff Huxtable. Mr. Cosby then proceeded to show Fallon how to walk the curb, and explained why he’s not a fan of reggae. Classic. The man’s genius comedic timing is still there. After the break, catch a performance of legend Shuggie Otis performing Inspiration Information (backed with the Roots) off the album of the same name, which will be re-released this year.
Backed by The Roots, Janelle Monae visited Late Night with Jimmy Fallon last night and paid tribute to Jimi Hendrix with a cover performance of his classic, “Little Wing.”
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Sitting down with Hard Knock TV before their performance at the Samsung Galaxy Sound Stage during SXSW Black Thought, Kirk Douglas and Mark Kelley divulge their thoughts on the first artists they listened to, Black Thought’s list of Top 5 MCs of all time, the new Roots album and more.
Sitting down with Uber Urban, Black Thought speaks on being apart of Late Night w/ Jimmy Fallon, getting into fashion (collaborating with Creative Recreation, etc), his autobiography with Maori Karmael Holmes and Jeff Chang, working with Tunde Adebimpe (of TV on the Radio) and Jim James (of My Morning Jacket) and how he’s still working on his (blues?) solo project, tentatively titled The Talented Mr. Trotter.
In light of #ThrowbackThursday, I’ve decided to bring back one of my favorite songs from The Roots of all time. In 1999, The Roots crew released their Eve (of Destruction) and Erykah Badu featured single single “You Got Me”. While penning the song, Philly’s Jill Scott recorded her own version before being replaced by Erykah on The Roots’ Things Fall Apart. Six year’s later the original Jill Scott version was released on 2001′s Home Grown! The Beginner s Guide to Understanding the Roots Volume 1. Take a listen to both versions and just try to pick a clear winner on whose was better. Don’t worry, I’ll wait…
During a pre-show jam session, Mef and The Roots performed the classic “Protect Ya Neck” for the crowd. Yeah, I’m going to need to go to one of these tapings preferably sooner than later.
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The legendary backing band has announced that no only will they drop a new album, & Then You Shoot Your Cousin, sometime this year (or next year), they have also collaborated with another legend, Elvis Costello, on a full-length project which they hope will see the light of day this year as well.
From a brief interview with Billboard:
The initial plan was to cut just a few tracks, but those sessions proved fruitful enough for the artists to keep going. Says Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, “we had 13 or 14 songs, but then we said, ‘Ooh! Wait a minute! Let’s replace four of these songs with four better songs! And now we have the tightest 12-14 song collection out of about 20 songs that we made.”
In the near future, Costello and the Roots plan to mix and master the as-yet-untitled LP with assistance from Roots engineer Steven Mandel, who is co-producing the project with them. It is unclear at deadline which label will release the album. “We kind of have the freedom to take it around, whether it’s to Elvis’ people or Def Jam’s people,” says Thompson. “I can just say that it is brilliant.”
Alongside music, the crew will hold their annual Picnic Festival on June 1st, headlined by the likes of Gary Clark Jr., Naughty By Nature, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Trinidad James, DJ Premier, Joey Bada$$, Sonnymoon and many more. Head down bottom for the flyer to the whole shebang.
