The Roots

The Roots ranked among hip-hop’s most productive ensembles while ranking equally among the boldest innovators in modern music, spanning their first recording in 1993 and their thematically ambitious projects throughout the 2010s. Although they embraced the unconventional model of a live-instrument rap collective—incorporating a sousaphonist into the lineup from 2007 onward—they never stopped experimenting, whether shaping their own songs or participating in an eclectic range of outside projects. Successive albums attained platinum and gold status, and the group collected several Grammy Awards. Once they secured a nightly national platform through their ongoing role with television host Jimmy Fallon, the band kept testing audiences with recordings that ignored stylistic limits.

Their dedication to live performance originated in 1987, when rapper Black Thought (Tariq Trotter) and drummer ?uestlove (Ahmir Khalib Thompson) met as students at the Philadelphia High School for Creative Performing Arts. Rehearsing at school, on sidewalks, and eventually at talent shows, with ?uestlove supplying live drums behind Black Thought’s lyrics, the two began earning income and soon added bassist Hub (Leonard Hubbard) and rapper Malik B. Transitioning from street corners to neighborhood clubs, the Roots quickly became a sought-after underground attraction in Philadelphia and New York. After being asked to represent American hip-hop at a German concert, the group prepared a set for sale at shows; that recording, Organix, appeared in May 1993 on Remedy Records. Industry attention followed, leading the Roots to field multiple offers before signing with DGC later that year.

Their debut major-label effort, Do You Want More?!!!??!, arrived in January 1995. Departing from standard hip-hop methods, the album was created entirely without samples or existing recordings. It reached just outside the Billboard 200’s Top 100 yet found stronger traction in alternative circles after the band performed on Lollapalooza’s second stage that summer. The group also appeared at Switzerland’s Montreux Jazz Festival. Two guests who had joined them on tour, human beatbox Rahzel the Godfather of Noyze—previously a performer with Grandmaster Flash and LL Cool J—and Scott Storch (later succeeded by Kamal Gray), joined the lineup permanently.

Early in 1996 the Roots issued the advance single “Clones” for their next album; it entered the rap Top Five and generated significant interest. Issued that September, Illadelph Halflife climbed to number 21 on the Billboard 200. Like its predecessor, the second album remained challenging for mainstream listeners, though the musicians incorporated a few concessions by sampling material captured during their own jam sessions. Their third album, Things Fall Apart, released in February 1999 on MCA, became their clearest critical and commercial breakthrough; it achieved platinum certification, while the Erykah Badu collaboration “You Got Me” reached the Top 40 and earned a Grammy for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group.

November 2002 brought the long-awaited Phrenology, released amid speculation about the band’s relationship with MCA. In 2004 the group launched the Okayplayer enterprise, encompassing a record label and a production-and-promotion firm, named after their existing website. That same year they staged a series of jam sessions intended to lend their forthcoming project a freer atmosphere. The resulting ten tracks appeared in July 2004 as The Tipping Point, issued through Geffen. A February 2005 concert recorded at Manhattan’s Webster Hall, featuring guests including Mobb Deep, Young Gunz, and Jean Grae, was released in both CD and DVD editions under the title The Roots Present. Two volumes of rarities, Home Grown! The Beginner’s Guide to Understanding the Roots, followed at year’s end.

A subsequent agreement with Def Jam produced a sequence of intense, often somber albums that began with Game Theory in August 2006 and continued with Rising Down in April 2008. In 2009 the ensemble broadened its visibility by becoming the house band for Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. The new commitment did not slow their output; during 2010 alone they delivered the incisive How I Got Over in June and, in September, Wake Up!, on which they accompanied John Legend through reinterpretations of socially conscious soul material such as Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes’ “Wake Up Everybody” and Donny Hathaway’s “Little Ghetto Boy.” Wake Up! received Grammy Awards for Best R&B Album and Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance. While continuing with Fallon, the Roots collaborated with Miami soul legend Betty Wright on November 2011’s Betty Wright: The Movie and, the following month, issued their thirteenth studio album, Undun, a narrative-driven concept record whose central character perishes in the opening track before the story unfolds in reverse.

Preparation for the next studio album paused when an unanticipated joint project with Elvis Costello took precedence in 2013. Conceived initially as reinterpretations of Costello’s catalog, Wise Up Ghost evolved into a complete collaboration and appeared to favorable notices on Blue Note in September 2013. Within six months the band accompanied Jimmy Fallon to his new late-night platform, the high-profile Tonight Show. Another concept album, the concise yet substantial …And Then You Shoot Your Cousin, arrived in May 2014. Rapper Malik B., a central presence on the Roots’ early recordings, died on July 29, 2020, at age 47. Leonard Hubbard, known as Hub, died on December 16, 2021, from multiple myeloma at age 62.