Roots Picnic 2024 headliners: Lil Wayne, André 3000, Jill Scott, Victoria Monét, Nas, and, of course, The Roots

The 15th annual Roots Picnic will kick off the 2024 summer concert season at the Mann Center on June 1 and 2, with headliners including the Roots, Lil Wayne, Jill Scott, André 3000, Nas, Trombone Shorty, and Victoria Monét.

The bill for the multistage festival also includes sets by trap rapper Gunna, 1990s smooth R&B singer and producer Babyface, jazz-hip-hop-R&B pianist Robert Glasper with singer Yebba, hip-hop tandem of Method Man & Redman teaming with Black Thought of the Roots as part of the J. Period Mixtape, South African singer Tyla, and rappers Smino, Cam’ron, and Wale, along with many others.

The picnic is presented by The Roots, the Philadelphia hip-hop and The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon band. It debuted in 2008, and until 2019 took place on the Festival Pier. This year marks the fourth time it will be staged on the expanded campus of the Mann.

The Roots, led by rapper Tariq “Black Thought” Trotter and Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, will team with Lil Wayne to celebrate New Orleans, backing up the Louisiana rapper who will be joined by Crescent City bandleader Trombone Shorty and PJ Morton, the New Orleans songwriter who also plays keyboards for Maroon 5.

Along with that Roots-curated set, other featured performances will include Scott, the Philadelphia singer, poet, and actor whose history with the Roots goes back to her early days of performing at Black Lily showcases at the Five Spot. In 2019, she joined the band at the Picnic to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Roots 1999 album, Things Fall Apart.

Perhaps the most intriguing booking is “A Special Performance by André 3000.” The OutKast rapper’s New Blue Sun is an instrumental album of flute music that took the hip-hop world by surprise. But it wasn’t such a shock to Philadelphians after seeing the rapper born André Lauren Benjamin playing his flute around the city in the summer of 2019 when he was in town filming Jason Segel’s AMC series Dispatches from Elsewhere.

Other noteworthy acts include Nas, the New York rapper whose 1994 album Illmatic stands as one of the greatest achievements in the history of hip-hop. R&B songwriter Monét was nominated for seven Grammy awards this year and won for best new artist and R&B album for Jaguar II.

Muni Long, who wrote songs for Rihanna and Ariana Grande before emerging as a solo artist with her 2019 hit “Hrs and Hrs,” is joining Fantasia as part of the Adam Blackstone Legacy Experience, led by Blackstone, the Philadelphia bassist and bandleader. Marsha Ambrosius, the R&B singer who was formerly one-half of the hip-hop-flavored duo Floetry, is also playing.

One of the highlights of last year’s Picnic was the battle of the D.C. go-go bands that packed the Mann’s TD Pavilion with funk-loving dancers. This year, go-go group Backyard Band is back, joined by Houston rapper Scarface, and singer Amerie whose 2005 single “1 Thing” is a stone-cold masterpiece.

Gospel singer Tasha Cobbs Leonard, Snoop Dogg cosigned soul man October London, and up-and-coming singer-producers Leon Thomas and Blk Odyssy are also on the bill.

The Picnic’s Podcast Stage has been renamed the Parkside Stage and will feature R&B Only, U+ME+RNB, and Million Dollaz Worth of Game.

There’s a Picnic Alumni pre-sale at RootsPicnic.com at 10 a.m. Feb. 20, followed by tickets going on sale to the general public at 10 a.m. Feb. 23.