Black Thought Will Perform With Yasiin Bey At The 2019 Roots Picnic

Today (March 12), the luminary Philadelphia, Pennsylvania outfit announced the return of their annual festival, sharing the official line-up for the 12th annual Roots Picnic, set to take place this summer in the City of Brotherly Love on Saturday, June 1.

As one of the longest-running artist-run Hip-Hop festivals, this year’s festivities continue to reflect the standard set by the legendary group themselves. This includes offering a top-tier curation of live music, a first of its kind “Jam Session” presented by Raphael Saadiq and Questlove (aptly titled “Soulquarian vs Raphael Saadiq”), live podcast experiences featuring The Joe Budden Podcast, The Read Podcast and Questlove Supreme, and a special performance commemorating the 20-year anniversary of The Roots’ seminal album, Things Fall Apart. The highly revered album, which released in 1999, cemented the innovative Hip-Hop group as an integral fixture in music, propelling them to the next level commercially and garnering a Grammy Award for their track “You Got Me.”

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This year’s festival will play host to a range of performances from the likes of H.E.R., 21 Savage, Blueface, Raphael Saadiq, Queen Naija, City Girls and Lil Baby, among others, as well as will include Black Thought’s “Live Mixtape” series featuring Yasiin Bey (fka Mos Def) along with DJ J. Period. Other DJs in the lineup included Stretch Armstrong, D-Nice, DJ Clark Kent, Rich Medina, and Tony Touch.

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Per the organizers’ announcement, this year the Roots Picnic will take place at Fairmount Park’s The Mann Center, a location that speaks to the festival’s organic growth and overall well-received nature.

“We finally have a Roots Picnic in the Park. The vision 12 years ago was always to provide an all-day musical and cultural experience in Fairmount Park. Black Thought, Questlove and I grew up spending our Sunday afternoons at the Belmont Plateau in Fairmount Park watching Philly DJs spin, and enjoying the vibe and the culture,” Roots manager and president of Live Nation Urban Shawn Gee shared in a statement. “It’s a great feeling to be able to come full circle and bring the Picnic to Fairmount Park, I think it’s a big WIN for the city.”

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Pre-sale tickets are now available, with the rest being made available to the general public on Friday (March 15) at noon ET.

For more information, please visit the Roots Picnic’s official website and see the full lineup.