The Roots - Touring and Other Work

Touring and Other Work

The band tours extensively, and their live sets are frequently hailed as the best in the genre. Recently, the band played a concert in NYC's Radio City Music Hall with Common, Nas, Talib Kweli and Big Daddy Kane. They backed Jay-Z a third time, for his Reasonable Doubt Concert, a celebration of the 10-year anniversary of the release of his first album.

In 1994, The Roots appeared on the Red Hot Organization's compilation album, Stolen Moments: Red Hot + Cool. The album, meant to raise awareness and funds in support of the AIDS epidemic in relation to the African American community, was heralded as "Album of the Year" by Time magazine. They have been highly involved in many other Red Hot Organization productions, including the 1998 album Red Hot + Rhapsody and the 2001 album Red Hot + Indigo, a tribute to Duke Ellington.

The Roots have been featured in four movies: Dave Chappelle's Block Party, both performing album songs and playing as a backing band for other artists; Spike Lee's Bamboozled; Marc Levin's Brooklyn Babylon, in which Black Thought plays the protagonist, Solomon, and former band member Rahzel narrates; and Chasing Liberty, starring Mandy Moore. Black Thought and Questlove were both featured in the movie Brown Sugar. Black Thought made an appearance in the film Love Rome as Tariq Trotter, and Questlove currently appears in the recent documentary movie about TBC Brass Band called From the Mouthpiece on Back, which lists The Roots as one of the executive producers of the movie.

The band guest performed on August 25 and 26 with the Dave Matthews Band during their 2007 summer tour. Members of The Roots played in various forms as well as a whole band on DMB's back to back concerts at Alpine Valley Music Theatre in East Troy, Wisconsin. In 2007 the band performed at an NAACP tribute to Bono, covering U2's "Sunday Bloody Sunday" and "Pride (In the Name of Love)". Black Thought mixed in lines from the band's own "False Media".

The group hosts a highly anticipated jam session every year the night before the Grammys. The Roots jam session, produced by Okayplayer, Goodtime Girl Entertainment and Keldof, has been attended by everyone from Jay-Z, Beyoncé Knowles and Tom Cruise to Don Cheadle, Jeremy Piven and Prince with impromptu performances from Snoop Dogg and Corrine Bailey Rae to Queen Latifah, Matisyahu, Fall Out Boy and Dave Chappelle.

Billed as The Roots, Questlove, Kirk and Owen made an appearance on The Colbert Report on April 15, 2008 when Stephen Colbert spent a week in Philadelphia prior to the 2008 Pennsylvania Democratic primary. During the appearance, they performed the intro song to the show, and closed the episode with a rendition of the Star Spangled Banner.

The Roots are featured on the Men in Black Original Soundtrack (1997) with the song "The Notic" with neo-soul singer D'Angelo. The song "Here I Come" was featured in the movies Superbad and Hancock. "Here I Come" is also featured in many video games including Project Gotham Racing 4. The song "The Seed 2.0" featuring Cody ChesnuTT was featured in the movies Collateral and I Think I Love My Wife, as well as the Without a Trace episode "Candy." The song "Don't Say Nuthin" was featured in the first season episode, "Busey And The Beach" of HBO's Entourage. The song, "Guns Are Drawn", featuring Aaron Livingston, was featured in a season six episode of CBS' Cold Case.

They have performed on the popular kids show Yo Gabba Gabba, performing "Lovely, Love My Family" in 2008.

They also did a secret show while in Kentucky. The group had one of their famous jam sessions at the Oulipo Ballroom in 2009.

In March 2009, The Roots became the new official house band on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, with "Here I Come" as the show's theme. The Roots, Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, and Taylor Hicks performed Rebecca Black's viral hit "Friday" on the Late Night with Jimmy Fallon show on April Fool's Day, 2011.

The Roots host an annual all-day music festival in Philadelphia, PA every June.

On Tuesday, November 22, 2011, United States Congresswoman and presidential candidate Michele Bachmann was a guest on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. For her entrance, The Roots controversially played a snippet from Fishbone's 1985 song, "Lying Ass Bitch" resulting in apologies from Jimmy Fallon, The Roots, and NBC.

On Monday, January 2, 2012 they played during the NHL Winter Classic at Citizen's Bank Park in Philadelphia, PA.

Most recently, on October 13, 2012, The Roots appeared at Austin City Limits Music Festival (ACL) in Austin, Texas.