If you had told me 20 years ago that the two main members of The Roots would be executive producers on a Disney animated series, I’m not totally sure I would have believed you. But here we are in 2022, with Black Thought and Questlove working on “Rise Up, Sing Out,” a musical series looking to inspire and empower children with uplifting messages and cultural affirmations. Variety reports the series will be streaming starting today on Disney Plus with the first episode also airing on Disney Channel and Disney Junior.
Not only do Quest and Thought produce the series and the music in it (naturally), but they will also appear in it in adorable animated form offering themes of “diversity, inclusion, kindness, and self-expression.” Disney produced the show to address a growing demand for children’s entertainment that would help parents teach kids respect for each others’ differences in an increasingly diverse world. In a statement, The Roots’ frontmen tackled those issues head-on:
The ‘Rise Up, Sing Out’ shorts touch on a lot of real-world issues, especially for young Black kids, that just weren’t talked about when we were growing up. The beautiful thing about these shorts is that not only are they going to provide young kids the proper language to talk to their friends and family about some of the things that might be bothering them, but it’s also going to give parents the tools on how to respond.
We feel this is the perfect moment and the perfect time for us to put this project out into the world to plant a seed about kindness that will hopefully have a lasting impact for generations to come.
In addition, on Friday, February 4, Walt Disney Records will release the music from the series to streaming. It looks like the future is in good hands — who would’ve thought those hands would belong to The Roots?