The Roots: Still Pushing Hip-Hop Music and Staying Up 'Late' With Jimmy Fallon

The Roots, Philadelphia's greatest hip-hop group, has been known to make an unorthodox career move – or two.


So, when group members decided to take a full-time gig as the house band for 'Late Night With Jimmy Fallon,' a resounding 'WTF?' came from their loyal fans. People wondered whether they would sell out and play catchy show tunes or hold true to the renegade joints that music lovers came to expect.

Although this nightly mainstream gig is giving the guys an opportunity to spend more time with their families, it turns out that this has been their most labor-intensive undertaking. In addition to backing some of their hip-hop friends, such as Ludacris and Rick Ross, the group has crafted 200 new songs to serve as bumpers and intros.

Drummer Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson said that although Fallon initially didn't believe the band wanted the gig, the new job has been a gift and really "enabled the group to survive."

What group member are most grateful for are the upcoming dark weeks – five weeks when they'll return to their normal touring schedule. This summer, they'll hit the road with Nas and Common on the "Rock the Bells" tour. The group also has a monthly residency at New York City's Highline Ballroom and is gearing up for a Friday residency at the Borgata in Atlantic City, along with a summer residency at Sub-Mercer Lounge at the Mercer Hotel in New York City.


But one fact group members are quick to clear up is that they are not the same backup band performing with soul singer Etta James.

"Etta James performs with the Roots band, but it has nothing to do with us," confided Roots' MC Tariq Trotter, who is better known as Black Thought. "It makes for a lot of confusion. I don't know that we can do anything about it, but they sell a lot of tickets off the strength of. They're on tour now, and whenever they are coming to a city, I get a lot of calls like, 'I hear y'all are comin' to town.'"

The group's next Def Jam release 'How I Got Over,' according to Black Thought and ?uestlove, is the closest they've gotten to recording a spiritual album. "Its title is a nod to the famous Mahalia Jackson song and representative of our political transition with the election of President Barack Obama," Thought added.


One thing's for sure, the Roots are crafting their own path and doing what makes them happy. Just look at how ?uestlove was the mastermind behind getting some of his music friends, like Solange Knowles, Erykah Badu, Talib Kweli and one other very big name, on Twitter. "I got Diddy on it," he noted. "I was mad when he was on 'Larry King' and didn't mention me, but he gave me a shout out on 'Ellen.' So even before Twitter, I was that ubiquitous artist doing diaries in '97 and '98 online before it was called a blog."

On June 6, the group will hold its second annual "Roots Picnic," a music festival concept fashioned after the Police's annual Toronto weekend in the '80s. Public Enemy, Asher Roth, Kid Cudi, Santigold, the Black Keys and TV on the Radio are a few of the acts handpicked to take the stage in Philadelphia. "We want to establish a fun festival weekend and make it real diverse, [and] it's our version of what we've learned in the past 17 years," ?uestlove added.

With the Roots latest resurgence, it's evident that the group has a long future in and beyond the music business.