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The Roots artist page: interviews, features and/or performances archived at NPR Music
The Roots' members have earned a lofty reputation in hip-hop and beyond by reinventing the genre's boundaries. Incorporating live instrumentation and thought-provoking lyrics, the Philadelphia band expertly blurs the lines separating artistic integrity and commercial acceptance.
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Langston Hughes' epic poem Ask Your Mama: 12 Moods for Jazz gets a multimedia makeover at Carnegie Hall, complete with opera's Jessye Norman, a full symphony orchestra and the hip-hop group The Roots.
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Drummer Ahmir Thompson, also known as "Questlove," talked with Fresh Air in 2003 about his career in the hip-hop group The Roots.
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Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson of The Roots talks about the band's new album, Rising Down, as well as the scarcity of black bands signed to major U.S. record labels.
()Questlove, leader of the hip-hop group The Roots, talks about a new album, Game Theory. He says the album is "dark," and the subject matter ranges from Katrina to politics.
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Ahmir Thompson, aka Questlove, is the drummer for the Grammy-winning hip-hop group The Roots. The sextet melds musical styles: rock 'n' roll, jazz fusion, funk, poetry, shout-outs to hip-hop pioneers, black nationalism and groove-laden neo-soul musings. (This interview originally aired Feb. 6, 2003.)
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Years after breaking through as one of the most innovative and musically gifted acts in hip-hop, The Roots' members return with Game Theory, another groundbreaking collection of stellar and often political material.
()Hip-hop artists often avoid live shows because their sound depends on studio wizardry. But Philadelphia's top live hip-hop act The Roots are trying to help a larger audience see the genre as art. NPR's Julia Mitric reports.
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The new album from the Philadelphia hip-hop band The Roots contains verses from the perspective of a child soldier in Sierra Leone, a campus shooter in America, and those in the grip of addictions. Rising Down may be the group's best album.
()Years after breaking through as one of the most innovative and musically gifted acts in hip-hop, The Roots' members return with Game Theory, another groundbreaking collection of stellar and often political material.
()Music critic Christian Bordal reviews The Tipping Point, the latest CD from hip-hop band The Roots.
()For its new album, the Philadelphia-based hip-hop group the Roots got together for impromptu jam sessions. Reviewer Tom Moon says the resulting album, The Tipping Point, has a spontaneous spirit that's reminiscent of early hip-hop.
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John Richards, morning DJ for NPR station KEXP in Seattle, shares his picks for the year's best albums. Richards recently appeared as a guest on NPR's live online, call-in edition of All Songs Considered to help count down listener picks for the top ten CDs of 2006.
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