During Kendrick Lamar’s increasingly vitriolic back-and-forth with Drake earlier this year, Questlove stepped in to express his dismay at how dark things got during their tiff, prompting some hip-hop fans to snub the veteran producer for being overly dramatic and out-of-touch. However, Kendrick himself seemed to agree throughout his new album GNX, and appeared to acknowledge Quest’s band The Roots in the video for his new single “Squabble Up,” which resembles the video for The Roots’ 1999 single “The Next Movement.” It appeared K. Dot was letting Quest know there were no hard feelings.
Quest acknowledged the nod on Instagram, thanking Kendrick for highlighting a moment in The Roots’ history that the drummer believed “no one saw or cared about” in a longer post about being floored by his work’s overall impact on younger generations. “I once joked I live a life in which someone knows Jordan JUST for the Hanes commercials only,” he wrote. “I own that I (was) the king of hiding in plain sight for decades & we live the reality we set for ourselves. HOWEVER… My number one love is the music I create in @TheRoots —that is the fuel to my fire & sometimes if you love something you must set it free. Then if it returns to you it’s real. That said I wanna thank @kendricklamar for acknowledging something I thought noone saw or cared about. Feeling seen is a great feeling and I dont take it for granted.”
He also gave Roots fans a little something-something to look forward to: “Yup, new album still coming lol.”
Hip-hop is the best. You can check out The Roots’ “Next Movement” video above.
WhyHunger, a non-profit organization working to end hunger and the injustices that cause it – held its 2nd annual Amplifiedconcert Presented by EY on October 15 at NYC’s Irving Plaza, kicking off its 39th annual Hungerthon fund-raising and education campaign.
Hosted by comedian Roy Wood Jr., the evening’s musical talent featured iconic Grammy Award winners and Tonight Showhouse band The Roots, award-winning 18-year-old guitarist, songwriter and bandleader Grace Bowers and her band The Hodge Podge, as well as Cuban “international funk champion” (NY Times) Cimafunk – captivating the audience with sets across funk, hip hop, blues, and soul.
Founded by the late singer/songwriter Harry Chapin and radio DJ Bill Ayers in 1975, WhyHunger has music in its DNA. Honoring its origins, the organization harnesses the power of music to fuel the food justice movement. The 2nd annual Amplified eventraised a gross total of $545,000 to support WhyHunger’s ongoing work to end hunger and protect the human right to nutritious food. More than 91% of funds raised will support community-based solutions for people in need across America.
iHeartRadio served as the Amplified 2024’s Premier Audio Partner, including on-air, digital, and social promotion on six iHeartRadio New York stations including 710 WOR, Z100, 103.5 KTU, Q104.3, Power 105.1 and 106.7 LITE FM.
Jenique Jones, WhyHunger Executive Director, said “Our 2nd Amplified concert was a dynamic celebration of the unique power of music and community to drive social change. An unforgettable kickoff to our Hungerthon campaign, the support of these artists, sponsors and fans will enable usto address the pressing challenges of food insecurity at a grassroots level, and to confront the broader social and economic causes of food injustice.”
Born on this date in 1971 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania as Tariq Luqmaan Trotter, Black Thought, the lead emcee of the legendary Hip Hop band The Roots, has created his key to success with simply one word; longevity.
Thought has always been regarded as one of the most lyrical post-Golden Era emcees, yet received very little recognition for his prowess outside of his work with the entire Roots band, which is now a staple of ‘The Tonight Show.’ This summer’s Streams Of Thought: Vol. 1 just further proves his “staying power” in any circles where rhymes are being spit.
Growing up in a Nation Of Islam household, Trotter’s family life was very cultured, leading him to seek knowledge among the Five Percent Nation in high school. There is where he met The Roots’ co-founder Amhir Thompson, whom they originally named the group The Square Roots.
Throughout the two-decade span of his illustrious career since The Roots debut in 1993, Thought has earned a Grammy win, appeared in two blockbuster films(Bamboozled, Brooklyn Babylon), and appeared on several groundbreaking albums.
On this day, The Source Magazine would like to salute Mr. Trotter on his Birthday, wishing him an enjoyable day and many more to come!
The recently reunited Linkin Park put their stamp on last night’s (September 17) episode of The Tonight Show. Perhaps the most fun moment came at the very start, though.
The band’s Mike Shinoda was one of Jimmy Fallon’s interview guests, and after introducing him, Shinoda walked out as The Roots performed a rendition of The Knack’s 1979 classic “My Sharona.” Naturally, instead of singing the actual words, they replaced it with Shinoda’s name and it was a delightful moment.
Shinoda clearly got a kick out of it, as he laughed and pointed at the band when he realized what was happening. Still smiling and laughing once the intro was done, Shinoda explained to Fallon how his name has faced “My Sharona” comparisons since he was in high school.
He also spoke about what it’s like to have the Linkin Park machine up and running again and said, “You know what’s really funny is I was texting with the band after the Forum show, and we were euphoric for like 48 hours. I mean, it was truly, you know… to be this many years in and to feel that genuine adrenaline and excitement and happiness was like… there’s nothing like it, man.”
The new-look band also performed their recent single “The Emptiness Machine.” The group released the single earlier this month and it’s the first one featuring new members Emily Armstrong and Colin Brittain. Check out the performance below.
WhyHunger, a non-profit working to end world hunger and the injustices that cause it, announces Amplified Presented by EY – the 2nd annual concert kick-off to its Hungerthon fund-raising campaign, now in its 39th year. The electrifying event coming to New York’s Irving Plaza on Tuesday, October 15 features a range of talent across funk, blues, hip hop, and soul, including iconic Grammy Award winners and Tonight Show house band The Roots, acclaimed guitar prodigy Grace Bowers and her band The Hodge Podge and exciting special guests to be announced.
Committed to addressing hunger’s myriad social and economic causes, WhyHunger – founded by the late singer/songwriting Harry Chapin and radio DJ Bill Ayers in 1975 – has music in its DNA. WhyHunger has partnered with iHeartRadio as the Premier Audio Partner for Amplified to harness the power of music to fuel the food justice movement. Relixmagazine called last year’s inaugural Amplified “a dynamic showcase of sound,” and “a lively and soulful dance party.”
The Roots shared, “It’s hard to think of a more worthy goal than helping people worldwide to access food. We’re honored to join WhyHunger for a great night of music and proud to support the work they do – making the world a better place.”
Tickets can be purchasedHERE. Funds raised will directly support WhyHunger’s work to end hunger and protect the human right to nutritious food. For more information visit WhyHunger.org/Amplified.
WhyHunger, a non-profit working to end world hunger and the injustices that cause it, announces Amplified Presented by EY – the 2nd annual concert kick-off to its Hungerthon fund-raising campaign, now in its 39th year. The electrifying event coming to New York’s Irving Plaza on Tuesday, October 15 features a range of talent across funk, blues, hip hop, and soul, including iconic Grammy Award winners and Tonight Show house band The Roots, acclaimed guitar prodigy Grace Bowers and her band The Hodge Podge and exciting special guests to be announced.
Committed to addressing hunger’s myriad social and economic causes, WhyHunger – founded by the late singer/songwriting Harry Chapin and radio DJ Bill Ayers in 1975 – has music in its DNA. WhyHunger has partnered with iHeartRadio as the Premier Audio Partner for Amplified to harness the power of music to fuel the food justice movement. Relixmagazine called last year’s inaugural Amplified “a dynamic showcase of sound,” and “a lively and soulful dance party.”
Funds raised will directly support WhyHunger’s work to end hunger and protect the human right to nutritious food. For more information visit WhyHunger.org/Amplified.
The Roots shared, “It’s hard to think of a more worthy goal than helping people worldwide to access food. We’re honored to join WhyHunger for a great night of music and proud to support the work they do – making the world a better place.”
Grace Bowers remarked, “It’s a privilege to support the legendary band The Roots for such an incredible cause like WhyHunger. We’re excited about the opportunity to raise money and awareness for community-led solutions that help feed those in need.”
WhyHunger’s Executive Director Jenique Jones said, “We’re thrilled to hold our second annual Amplified – a joyous celebration of music that raises awareness of our important mission. Nutritious food is a human right, but one often denied. We’re proud of our work worldwide to address the social, environmental, racial, and economic injustice at the root of hunger, and we hope you’ll join us in this ongoing journey toward justice.”
Questlove recently spoke with Common and Pete Rock on his Questlove Supreme podcast, and the conversation yielded something The Roots fans have been waiting for since the group’s latest album, 2014’s …And Then You Shoot Your Cousin: News of a new album.
During the episode, Questlove said of the upcoming project, “I know the exact date I want to release it, and it’s not 2024, but it’s a seminal 2025 date that will make sense once it comes out.”
Worth noting is that 2025 will mark the 30th anniversary of The Roots’ Do You Want More?!!!??! (which was released on January 17, 1995), as well as the 15th anniversaries of How I Got Over (June 22, 2010) and the collaborative John Legend album Wake Up! (September 21, 2010).
Quest also spoke about how Common and Pete Rock’s 2024 joint album The Auditorium Vol. 1 has inspired him and Black Thought (Tariq Trotter) to finish their upcoming album. He said:
“I will say that it’s made Tariq into… the motherf*cker wrote seven songs in one day! We have not done that since our second album. […] I was like, ‘Yo, dog. You ain’t going to believe this, but Rash [Common] and Pete made the perfect summit meeting record. No person’s outshining the other person.’ […] I was just going off about it and I could tell I planted a seed. But then, I think after the Hollywood Bowl performance that we did, […] I think that lit something under Tariq.
I mean, I can say in the last two weeks, he’s knocked off at least 80 percent. […] I mean, back in Do You Want More?!!!??! days, ‘Riq would write, like, six or seven songs in a setting. This album is definitely […] it’s probably what he’s working on right now as I speak. It’s inspiring.”
On this date in 2020, one of the founding members of The Roots, Malik Abdul-Basit Smart aka Malik B passed away. He was 47 years old.
At the time of his passing, The Roots released a statement saying, “It is with heavy hearts and tearful eyes that we regretfully inform you of the passing of our beloved brother and long time Roots member Malik Abdul Baset. May he be remembered for his devotion to Islam, His loving brotherhood and his innovation as one of the most gifted MCs of all time. We ask that you please respect his family and extended family in our time of mourning such a great loss.”
Malik B. was considered to be an integral part of the group. He appeared on the first four albums, but like every group, they had internal problems and he eventually parted ways. The Philly emcee made guest appearances on later records and also released a solo project called Street Assault in 2005.
This past Saturday, The Roots brought the best parts of their annual festival, Roots Picnic, to the Hollywood Bowl for a special concert, Love Of My Life. Named after a song from the Philadelphia band’s 1999 fourth studio album Things Fall Apart (which was itself inspired by Common’s metaphorical 1994 storytelling track “I Used to Love H.E.R.”), the concert was dedicated to celebrating the group’s 30-year love affair with this thing called hip-hop. To that end, they recruited a slew of guests from the genre’s Golden Era to join them onstage to perform some of their greatest hits.
Arrested Development, Black Sheep, Common, Digable Planets, The Pharcyde, and Queen Latifah were all billed as performers, but throughout the evening, surprise guests ranging from Black Eyed Peas’ Will.I.Am to an all-star roster of pioneer women in rap, including The Lady Of Rage, MC Lyte, Monie Love, and Yo-Yo, all joined The Roots on the legendary stage. And, as befits any live performance played the Philadelphian ensemble (the most recent of which I have to compare it to was their New Year’s Eve show at the Wiltern in LA just seven months ago), those hits were reinterpreted, remixed, and transformed by the addition of the live band.
When the crew launched Roots Picnic back in 2008, I felt so left out, living on the West Coast. While endless sunshine and pretty people never really gets stale, it did feel a bit like I was missing out on all the best bits of culture taking place in the northeast. As social media became more commonplace, allowed more footage from the festival to enter the public consciousness, that feeling was only intensified. For someone who counts The Roots among his most formative acts, watching Black Thought freestyle for 15 minutes on a phone screen was as exciting as it was disheartening that I couldn’t see it live.
On Saturday, I did. It was glorious. I’ve seen LeBron James play basketball in person in a high school gym in the hood (another of those perks of growing up in LA). I got the same, transformative feeling watching Tariq Trotter, a master of his craft in the same respect, do things very few other earthly powers have ever been able to come close to reproducing. When Common came out to perform “I Used To Love H.E.R.,” to see nearly 17,500 other people rap EVERY. SINGLE. WORD. was akin to a spiritual experience.
The biggest pops, though, were reserved for Queen Latifah and the cadre of hip-hop sistren who joined her for a mini-set that proved that women have always run hip-hop — and always should. Not expecting Lyte, Rage, or Yo-Yo to put in appearances, I was genuinely surprised by the surprise guest appearances. And I was awed. These women, all well into their 50s, hit every bar. The mics were ON. I get why younger artists often look like deer in the headlights at these festivals, but I’m going to recommend that you festival organizers start sending out media packages for study with the booking contracts. This is what it’s supposed to look like.
The night ended, somewhat fascinatingly, with a singalong of Black Sheep’s “The Choice Is Yours.” It was a high point, but there were so many singalong moments that could have been the finale: Thought and Com running through the title track of the evening. Arrested Development crooning “People Everyday,” Will sitting in with Pharcyde for a rendition of “Passin’ Me By,” or the Jungle Brothers popping out to perform the Native Tongues posse cut “Buddy” with more than a few of the original artists in attendance.
The best part of the show was the best part of the Roots Picnic as an event. Getting to see all these pillars of hip-hop together, not just on the same stage performing their own sets, but as a group, playing off each other, enjoying each other’s company and vibing together. That’s the one-of-a-kind experience that makes Roots Picnic one of the premiere festivals throughout the year. Even getting to sample it at an iconic venue like Hollywood Bowl? You can’t beat that with a bat.
American singer Jaguar Wright is undoubtedly incredibly talented. However, she is now mostly known for her shocking gossip stories about the music industry than for her skill. Jaguar is so good that her musical achievements include collaborations with some of the biggest artists and music bands, including Jay-Z, The Roots, and Blackalicious. The New Jersey-born songstress has two studio albums to her name. These are Denials, Delusions and Decisions, and Divorcing Neo 2 Marry Soul, released in 2002 and 2005, respectively.
However, rather than making headlines for her musical artistry, it is Jaguar’s stories about some of the industry’s biggest names that people know her for. She has made allegations about Jay-Z, Common, Mary J. Blige, Jill Scott, Diddy, and others. One thing about Jaguar Wright’s stories is that they are mind-blowing. Here are the wildest music industry tales Jaguar ever told.
3. The One About Diddy Being An Alleged Murderer
Long before singer and music producer Cassie accused music mogul Diddy of raping and physically assaulting her, Jaguar Wright had made scathing allegations against him. In 2022, Jaguar appeared in an interview with RealLyfe Productions and made several revelations about the music industry. In her disclosures about Diddy, Jaguar suggested that he could be behind the death of some Uptown Records employees. She said, “Uptown Records started with five people—Andre Harrell, Al B. Sure, Heavy D, and Puffy [Diddy]; and Kim [Porter] was the longest-working employee. She was there from the very beginning, she was Andre’s personal assistant. Kim is dead, Heavy D is dead, Andre Harrell is dead, the only two left are Puffy and Al, and Al almost died. Isn’t that interesting?”
Jaguar Wright added that the dead and surviving Uptown Records employees had one thing in common. “They were all writing tell-all books.” She added, “Has Puffy ever been in a coma? Has anything happened to him? He must be the luckiest mother**ker because it seems like everybody that worked at Uptown Records from the very beginning are gone. Just him.” Jaguar also alleged that Cassie left Diddy because something went wrong in their relationship. She claimed that Diddy paid Cassie $500,000 monthly before he “dropped her down.”
2. The One About Common Allegedly Sexually Assaulting Her
In another interview from 2020, Jaguar opened up about how Common allegedly sexually assaulted her. Jaguar explained that she and Common ended up together after a show. She continued, “Next thing we know, we go to bed, and he says, ‘C’mon J.’ No, I’m tired, n*gga. I was on the stage all night, I wanna lay down.” Jaguar also claimed that she kept all her clothes on that night as a precaution as she was a victim of sexual assault. She fell asleep but was shocked when she woke up in the morning. Jaguar accused Common of trying to initiate oral sex with her.
She claimed, “This n*gga tryin’ to stick his d*ck in my mouth while I’m sleep. Lonnie f*ckin’ Lynn. Rashid. Common. Whatever the f*ck you wanna call yourself. That’s why I stopped f*ckin’ with him. Because n*gga, if you gon’ try to stick your d*ck in my mouth while I’m sleep, there ain’t nothin’ you won’t do.” However, Common denied the allegations during an interview with Philadelphia’s Rise and Grind Morning Show. He said, “God bless Jaguar. I really don’t have any negative thoughts toward her. I was for sure disappointed and hurt when she said what she said about me because it wasn’t true.”
Common said he knew people who had endured sexual assault and knew they wouldn’t make false claims. He also said he understood Jaguar might be going through some things he didn’t understand. Common concluded, “In all truth, I went through different emotions. I’m like, oh man, why is she saying this? This is not true. How’s this gon’ affect me?”
1. The One About The Roots Allegedly Helping R. Kelly Recruit Underage Girls
Jaguar Wright said y’all favorite hip hop band was around with R Kelly getting young girls to come to the studio. Yikes. pic.twitter.com/kyvNDECUpX
In 2020, while R. Kelly was awaiting trial for sex trafficking, Jaguar Wright claimed the famous band The Roots helped him carry out his crimes. Jaguar made the assertions in an Instagram Live video. She said, “Look at R. Kelly, The Roots was around when that n*gga was sending his driver around to go get girls from what was the middle school — They brought ’em to the studio. They brought ’em to Larry Gold’s studio and I was told to mind my f*cking business if I wanted to keep my career. A member of The Roots told me that, ‘That ain’t none of your business. That man makes people millionaires.’”
Jaguar further expressed regret for not speaking up about the issue back then. She said she felt horrible for keeping quiet about it, especially as she was a sexual abuse survivor. She concluded, “You know how responsible I feel for the women I let get hurt because I didn’t say nothing.”
Jaguar Wright’s claims, whether true or not, shook the music industry. Although many people felt she was doing so for attention, the severity of those allegations, especially in light of recent happenings, may make one want to pay attention. Right now, it is uncertain if those Jaguar accused would ever face legal action as her claims would require hard evidence and not just word of mouth to prove.
