Black Thought talks about the biggest-ever Roots Picnic: ‘It’s the Philadelphia Black music experience’
This year's Picnic kicks off Friday with the Roots and Dave Chappelle, and features Usher, Lil Uzi Vert, State Property, Eve, Adam Blackstone, and others. It's a "Philadelphia-centric" fest.
The Roots Picnic returns this weekend, in its 14th in-person incarnation in Philadelphia, presented by the hip-hop band led by Tariq “Black Thought” Trotter and Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson.
The bigger-than-ever event kicks off with Dave Chappelle and the Roots at the Wells Fargo Center on Friday night followed by two full days on the Mann Center campus. Acts include Lil Uzi Vert, Ms. Lauryn Hill, Ari Lennox, Syd, Adam Blackstone, City Girls, Kindred the Family Soul, Maverick City, and more. Diddy, originally scheduled to headline with the Roots, has been replaced by Usher.
Besides sharing the stage with Chappelle, Questlove and Black Thought will turn up on other stages. The former plays with Soulquarians, the all-star band backing Roy Ayers and the Isley Brothers, and cohosts his Questlove Supreme podcast.
Black Thought will perform at and host J. Period Live Mixtape, a yearly fest highlight, with Busta Rhymes and Eve.
The Roots rapper spoke to The Inquirer about the Philly-centric Picnic, as well as his new album Glorious Game with El Michels Affair, and forthcoming memoir, The Upcycled Life, due in November.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
It’s a three-day Roots Picnic. Why did it make sense to expand to the Wells Fargo Center with Dave Chappelle?
It’s become a tradition to do a comedy show the Friday before the Picnic. Last year I did it at Punchline and Dave did a surprise performance. So it feels like a natural progression to include not only comedy but other mediums. We have a whole stage dedicated to podcasts. And if you’re going to add comedy, why not shoot for the top? We have a relationship with Dave, he’s like family.
Is it storytelling that holds everything together, across mediums?
That’s it. Everything we do, whether it’s me doing Black Thought stuff or in a Roots capacity, or anything that Questlove does that’s extracurricular, it all comes back to the essence of the human experience, telling a story in a way that is going to be engaging for the audience.
Chappelle’s been widely criticized for remarks perceived as transphobic. Did that give you pause about bringing him in?
It’s something that you always take into consideration, the way any lineup will be received. But I feel like Philadelphia loves the Roots and Philadelphia loves Dave, and the Roots-Dave Chappelle experience is something completely different. It’s dope.
One of the first shows we did coming back from quarantine, we performed in Las Vegas in the round in a comparable way to what we’re going to do in Philly. We fit together like hand in glove. Dave is telling stories that come from his lived experience, and some people are going to feel the way they feel about what he has to say.
The Roots did the 50 years of hip-hop presentation at the Grammys, which was an incredible logistical feat. But you are not doing a version of that at the Picnic. Why not?
In putting this festival together this year, we were definitely interested in maintaining its Philly-centricity. Maybe more so than ever. There are a lot of Philadelphia artists, hometown heroes, but in various stages of the game, various stages of their career. So we’ll be telling a different story than what we did with the Grammys and then what we intend to do later this summer with LL. [The band’s tour with LL Cool J does not have a Philadelphia date.]
There are a lot of Philly people at the Picnic. You’ve got Kindred, you’ve got Eve, you’ve got Adam Blackstone ….
.. State Property. There’s no shortage of Philadelphia representation. This is the Philadelphia Black music experience.
I have one complaint about last year’s Picnic. There wasn’t enough Roots. The ethos and vision is everywhere, but the band doesn’t play much.
That’s a valid critique. Early on in the Picnic’s evolution, so much of the lift was contingent upon what we did on stage. We would be performing two or three times out in 90-degree temperatures on that concrete slab [when the Picnic was held on Festival Pier at Penn’s Landing.] Now you get a glimpse of the Roots interacting with different artists and the opportunity to see the Roots in a way that you wouldn’t in other circumstances.
But who knows, we might pull out all the stops and hit you in the head with some other Roots stuff. I think the space we occupy is super unique. It’s a good feeling to have that option to play it many different ways.
When is the Roots album coming? It’s been nine years since ‘…And Then You Shoot Your Cousin.’
We did put out one soft release of one song with Tierra Whack and Erykah Badu. That was well-received. So if that’s any indication, it’s going to be done soon.
Your memoir is due in November.
The storytelling continues. There’s a certain level of, I think, vulnerability, openness, transparency, just entry into one‘s lived experience that’s different on the printed page. Anything new for me is super exciting, and sort of what keeps me going. This is probably the oldest medium there is, but it’s a new experience for me. I waited so long in my career to reach this level of candor with an audience, so I’m not burned out in that way. It’s about regeneration, self-discovery, and introspection. It’s a book of thoughts for Black men, for young men, and for artists.
It seems like an ongoing autobiographical project. There’s ‘7 Years,’ your Audible ‘Words & Music’ piece. And ‘Glorious Game,’ the new record with El Michels Affair.
That’s the place I’m able to take it right now and feel like I’m doing something authentic.
‘The Weather’ on ‘Glorious Game’ paints a vivid picture of a time and place, on your grandmothers’ stoop in South Philly in the 1980s.
I wanted to transport the listener, give them a peek at what made me the man that I am, the artist that I am. It’s never easy to put that into words. On “The Weather” I tried to engage in sense of smell and taste and touch. Just diving in a little deeper. That song is sensory-overload synesthesia, whatever you want to call it.
In ‘Alter Ego’ there’s a line: ‘Ask a simple question: Who is I?’ What’s the answer?
Damn. It’s blowin’ in the wind. [Laughs]. Yeah, I don’t know. I guess everything that I do, it’s almost an active exercise in trying to honestly come to a complete understanding of that. “Who is I?” But the journey is the journey. And that’s what I live for. I don’t know that I’ll ever get a definitive answer. It’s about working towards that answer, I guess. Working towards it, forever.
More info at RootsPicnic.com.