Hip Hop Royalty and Philly’s Finest Light Up Roots Picnic 2024
Never let it be said that Questlove, Black Thought, and the rest of The Roots aren’t always thinking outside the box when it comes to curating its annual 2024 Roots Picnic on the grassy knoll of The Mann Music Center and its bucolic Fairmount Park lawn-scape.
After last year’s Picnic and its surprise last minute headliner Usher (we had him long before the Super Bowl Halftime Show) and its shocking Fugees showcase, 2024’s June 1 and 2’s iteration of the Roots Picnic finds the band teaming with iconic rapper Lil Wayne and fellow New Orleans musicians PJ Morton, and Trombone Shorty in its celebration of the spirit of the Mardi Gras. Also on the top of the Picnic bill is the prince of Atlanta hip hop, currently doing his own chill brand of space jazz, rapper-turned-flautist Andre 3000, and the smooth soul man who coined the term Grown and Sexy, Babyface. Queens’ NYC gets an old school hip hop shout out when Nas – the legend – hits the stage with his neighboring rapper Cam’ron.
That said, Philadelphia is not about to let Nola or the ATL have all the fun. Also headlining at the Picnic is Philly’s own Jilly – vocalist Jill Scott, who has been busy throughout 2023 celebrating the 20th anniversary of her debut album, “Who Is Jill Scott?”. Philly bassist and composer Adam Blackstone – the Emmy-winning producer behind the 50th anniversary Super Bowl Halftime Show – returns home with currently Oscar-nominated vocalist Fantasia, along with fellow R&B goddess Muni Long.
More Than Music: A Cultural Gathering at Roots Picnic 2024
Billboard chart-topping innovative hip hop producer-rapper Gunna and eclectifying keyboardist Robert Glasper (with Yebba and Tasha Cobbs Leonard) fill out the top slots on The Roots Picnic lineup. Even the Parkside Stage – the usually quiet podcast stage features event programming such as Million Dollaz Worth of Game, R&B Only & U+ME+RNB to Tonight’s Conversation, Juan Epstein Podcast, World Series of Spades, and They Have the Range.
And since it is only February with over four months left to book, expect a multitude of shocks and thrills to spill.
“We rely on our relationships with these artists, calling them up, telling them our vision and them doing us a solid,” Questlove told me in 2023 at Variety about his continued curation of The Roots Picnic. “”I’m doing all this because somewhere out there, in 2031 or 2041, there will be a new Ahmir Thompson, or Ahmira Thompson – maybe my kids when I start having them – and all of my hard work won’t be for naught. Perhaps, I will have reached somebody the same way that I was reached.”
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