The Roots @ Hangout Music Fest
The Roots are the last of a dying breed. The hip-hop world doesn’t have bands anymore. Collectives like A Tribe Called Quest and Wu Tang Clan are very few and far between these days, and even those cats don’t rock guitars, drums and keys like this ultimate hip-hop band.
I recently read ?uestlove’s book Mo’ Meta Blues and was thoroughly impressed. I knew these guys were dope, but I knew very little about the impact ?uestlove and the rest of the group had on the impact of hip-hop and especially neo-soul. Artists like Jill Scott, Musiq Soulchild, Common, D’Angelo; they were all touched directly by the Roots. Suddenly I realized the magnitude of a band this influential coming to the Bear Creek Music & Arts Festival in the Suwannee.
They’ve come a long way from rappin’ on street corners to playing house band for Jimmy Fallon and beatboxing with Miley Cyrus, and you can’t deny that it is thanks to the crazy-dope music they’ve been churning out for 26 (!!!) years now. At Bear Creek, there will be no Jimmy Fallon, no TV cameras, no celebrity guest…just thousands of music lovers and funk fans in the middle of the woods. How will the group respond to such primitive surroundings that are so drastically different from their daily life? I’ll put my money that they throw down one of the illest sets of the weekend.
Anyways, let’s get to the point here. I’m a fan of the Roots and I wish I could right their setlist on Saturday night of Bear Creek. Since I can’t do that, I figured I would at least share 10 songs I hope they play at Bear Creek…so here they are.