Latest news with #Questlove
Black America Web
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Black America Web
Questlove Apologizes for Roots Picnic 2025 Issues
Source: Astrida Valigorsky / Getty Despite a challenging start, the 18th annual Roots Picnic in Philadelphia transformed into a triumphant celebration of music and community. Held on May 31 and June 1 at the Mann Center in Fairmount Park, the festival showcased an impressive lineup of artists, reaffirming its status as a premier event in the music calendar. A Stellar Lineup Lights Up the Stage The festival boasted an eclectic mix of performers, drawing fans from across the nation. Saturday's headliner, Maxwell, delivered a soulful performance that captivated the audience. Sunday featured dynamic sets from Lenny Kravitz and Philadelphia's own Meek Mill, both of whom energized the crowd with their electrifying performances. Other notable artists included Miguel, Latto, GloRilla, and Musiq Soulchild, among others A highlight of the weekend was The Roots' performance of their classic album Do You Want More?!!!??! in honor of its 30th anniversary, a treat for longtime fans. STAY INFORMED! CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTER! Overcoming Adversity: A Community United The festival's first day faced significant challenges due to heavy rainfall, leading to muddy conditions and logistical delays. Attendees experienced long wait times and safety concerns, with reports of medical emergencies on-site Questlove, drummer and co-founder of The Roots, addressed the issues in a heartfelt Instagram post, explaining that the severe weather had nearly led to the festival's cancellation. He emphasized the organizers' commitment to safety, stating, 'We prioritized caution above all else.' Efforts included repairing the site and adjusting the schedule to ensure all artists could perform without violating city noise curfews. By the second day, conditions had improved significantly, and the festival proceeded smoothly, allowing attendees to fully enjoy the performances and festivities. READ MORE STORIES: Questlove Apologizes for Roots Picnic 2025 Issues MFT: Childlike CiCi Remembers Her First Performance Fondly B-Side Bangers: Mariah Carey Beyond the Music: A Cultural Experience Roots Picnic 2025 was more than just a music festival; it was a celebration of Black culture and community. The event featured a variety of food vendors offering local flavors, including Southern-style favorites and soul food staples . Art installations and cultural exhibits provided attendees with immersive experiences that highlighted the richness of the African diaspora The festival also served as a platform for local businesses and nonprofits, fostering a sense of community engagement and support. Looking Ahead Despite the initial setbacks, Roots Picnic 2025 showcased the resilience and unity of its organizers, performers, and attendees. The festival's ability to adapt and deliver a memorable experience underscores its significance in the cultural landscape. As Questlove aptly put it, the challenges faced only highlighted the strength and dedication of everyone involved. With its successful conclusion, Roots Picnic 2025 stands as a testament to the power of music and community to overcome adversity and celebrate shared heritage. Source: Jazmyn Summers / Jazmyn Summers Article by Jazmyn Summers. You can hear Jazmyn every morning on 'Jazmyn in the Morning 'on Sirius XM Channel 362 Grown Folk Jamz . Subscribe to J azmyn Summers' YouTube . Follow her on Facebook and Instagram. LIKE US ON FACEBOOK . FOLLOW US ON INSTAGRAM & TWITTER . SUBSCRIBE TO OUR YOUTUBE . STAY INFORMED! CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTER! HEAD TO THE HOMEPAGE SEE ALSO Black America Web Featured Video CLOSE
Axios
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Axios
Roots Picnic won't issue refunds after long delays and safety concerns
The Roots Picnic will not be giving out refunds for this year's festival after Saturday's three-hour delay in opening led to long lines, organizers told Axios on Monday. Why it matters: Hundreds, "if not thousands," of concertgoers were expected to demand their money back, a Mann Center staffer working the event told Axios last weekend. The big picture: Roots Picnic serves as a mecca of Philly's Black musical and cultural contributions, headlined by some of the region's most popular artists since 2008. But some upset attendees have compared their experience at last weekend's event to the disastrous Fyre Festival. Driving the news: The festival told Axios in a statement that no refunds would be issued because the "rain or shine event" was still "able to deliver a full day of artist performances and programming." It comes after outraged festivalgoers took to social media to list their grievances, from long waits without access to bathrooms and water stations to complaints that the grounds were difficult to navigate for people with disabilities. Following Saturday's weather delay, the festival was slow to communicate the new schedule and then posted the wrong one, sparking confusion among attendees about which artist was on when. Plus: Some festivalgoers said they witnessed people faint while waiting to get into the event at the Mann Center, and long waits for paramedics to provide care. What they're saying: At least 57 people received care during the festival, but large crowds made it challenging for paramedics to immediately reach people who needed attention, Rachel Cunningham, a spokesperson for Philadelphia's Fire Department, which staffed EMS at the event, told Axios. The Mann Center and Live Nation Urban didn't immediately respond to Axios' requests for comment. Between the lines: Several people also claimed on social media that they received refunds at the event. The festival didn't immediately respond to Axios' request for comment on the matter. Catch up quick: The festival posted an apology on Instagram about Saturday's long lines to get into the event, blaming a heavy rainstorm that doused the area for making the "grounds unsafe." The apology's comment section is disabled, but one of the top comments on another post called the festival's crowd control "the most amateur and unprofessional" they've "ever had the misfortune to experience." Roots drummer Questlove said the event was almost canceled, but they decided to forge ahead after taking "extra time to repair the site."
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Questlove Was ‘Shocked' by Kendrick Lamar's Homage to the Roots In ‘Squabble Up' Video
Questlove recently dropped by The Jennifer Hudson Show, sharing his reaction to finding out that Kendrick Lamar paid homage to the Roots in a music video for his monumental GNX album, which released last year. When discussing his influence on other artists, Hudson pointed out the scene from Lamar's 'Squabble Up' video that recreates the set for the Roots' 1999 track 'The Next Movement,' with both visuals sharing the same moss-green wall molding. More from Rolling Stone D'Angelo Cancels Roots Picnic Performance Over Medical Issue The Joey Bada$$ vs. Everyone Beef Is Fun, But What's It Really About? Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross Announce Inaugural Future Ruins Fest Celebrating Film Music 'I was so shocked because the way that people told me — I woke up to 30 K. Dot texts,' Questlove recalled. 'I thought, 'Oh no.' He just dissed us. I thought it was something else. And they were like, 'No, he paid tribute to y'all in this video.'' The Roots drummer said that he was surprised because the Philly band is 'ubiquitous,' but 'not super mainstream, but we're niche, but we're not overexposed popular.' He continued, 'It's hard to tell where we fit in the scheme of things. It's an honor but it's also a surprise when you see people acknowledging you after all this time.' In reply, Hudson reminded the musician that his critically acclaimed band has been a 'blueprint to all artists and the music industry.' 'The Next Movement' featured on the Roots' breakthrough album, Things Fall Apart, a record that Rolling Stone listed as one of the 200 greatest hip-hop albums of all time. A review hailed the Nineties LP as 'a socially observant, profoundly musical thesis statement from the Philadelphia band that dared to play their own instruments,' while noting that the 'timeless' tracks 'are full of virtuosic verses from Black Thought and Malik B, along with fellow travelers like Mos Def and Common, and varied grooves from drummer Questlove, bassist Leonard Hubbard.' More than 25 years later, Lamar would release his sixth album, GNX, capping a historic year that packed in a cataclysmic feud with Drake, the announcement of Lamar's Super Bowl performance, and a swath of Number One singles including 'Not Like Us', SZA-collab 'Luther,' and 'Squabble Up.' In an Instagram post looking back at his work with the Roots and following the news of Lamar's homage, Questlove posted back in November an Instagram photo of a side-by-side screenshot from 'The Next Movement' and 'Squabble Up' videos. 'My number one love is the music I create in @TheRoots —that is the fuel to my fire & sometimes if you love something you must set it free. Then if it returns to you it's real,' Questlove wrote in the caption. 'That said I wanna thank @kendricklamar for acknowledging something I thought noone saw or cared about. Feeling seen is a great feeling and I dont take it for granted.' Best of Rolling Stone The 50 Greatest Eminem Songs All 274 of Taylor Swift's Songs, Ranked The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Questlove Apologizes for Extreme Delays at Roots Picnic: ‘Today Wasn't Ideal'
Opening day of the annual Roots Picnic in Philadelphia on Saturday was marred by long lines, muddy conditions, a scrambled schedule, and extreme frustrations for fans who flocked to the Mann Center to check out sets by Maxwell, Latto, Musiq Soulchild, GloRilla, and several other acts. Questlove took to Instagram at 3 am the next morning to share a video of workers dumping mulch onto muddy spots on the grounds and apologize for what took place. 'I know today wasn't 'ideal' for The Roots Picnic in this 18th year of 2025,' he wrote. 'This year has been particularly challenging to say the least. Transforming the Mann Center into our event takes about two weeks, but as many of you experienced, heavy rain from May 30th into the morning of the 31st caused significant damage (midnight to 7am).' More from Rolling Stone D'Angelo Cancels Roots Picnic Performance Over Medical Issue Questlove Was 'Shocked' by Kendrick Lamar's Homage to the Roots In 'Squabble Up' Video Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross Announce Inaugural Future Ruins Fest Celebrating Film Music Things were so bad that they nearly cancelled the event, but they ultimately chose to delay doors by three hours. It was a chaotic time where much of the emphasis was on prepping the grounds, even as fans showed up in droves, and faced closed gates, a long, winding line, and little information. 'I got numerous messages from attendees, family, everyone in the tristate,' Questlove wrote, 'but we prioritized caution above all else…We managed to revise the schedule so that all artists, including headliners Maxwell (whom we ALL owe an incredible amount of gratitude for doing us a solid with seconds on the clock) and Latto, could perform without violating city noise curfews.' (Maxwell was a last minute substitution for D'Angelo, who was originally slated to make his first live appearance in years at the event.) Fans gathered outside the event eventually started to chant, 'Let us in.' 'We would see these staffers outside and ask them questions, but they would just say, 'I have no idea,'' South Jersey fan Lauren Brown told Philadelphia Magazine. 'So I have no idea what their purpose was. We weren't allowed to bring chairs, so there was nowhere to sit, and I have back and knee issues, and we didn't see any bathrooms or trash cans, so everybody was just throwing their stuff on the ground while we were waiting out there for hours and hours…There was no organization of any kind. Absolutely zero.' In his message, Questlove thanked all the fans for their patience. 'This year has shown our ability to adapt and overcome challenges, much like we did in past years,' he wrote. 'Tomorrow is a new day.' The second day of the Roots Picnic was indeed much smoother. It featured a complete performance of the Roots' 1995 LP Do You Want More in addition to sets by Lenny Kravitz, Funk Flex, and Meek Mill. Best of Rolling Stone The 50 Greatest Eminem Songs All 274 of Taylor Swift's Songs, Ranked The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘A lot comes with jumping into that inferno': Questlove explores the burden of Black genius in ‘Sly Lives!'
To follow up his Oscar-winning Summer of Soul, Ahmir 'Questlove' Thompson turned his focus on one of the landmark acts featured in that lauded documentary, Sly and the Family Stone. The result, Hulu's Sly Lives! (aka the Burden of Black Genius), is now in the mix for an Emmy Award. 'I like documentaries that make learning fun. Maybe I'm a natural-born griot,' he tells Gold Derby. 'It just took five decades to get here.' More from GoldDerby Directors open up about identity, risk and emotional storytelling at Disney's FYC fest 'M*A*S*H' star Loretta Swit dies at 87, and more of today's top stories 'Maybe Happy Ending' star Darren Criss on his Tony nomination for playing a robot: 'Getting to do this is the true win' Questlove traces his passion for unearthing and sharing music history back to his early years on The Tonight Show as bandleader for the Roots. "On the first day of The Tonight Show, someone told Jimmy [Fallon] and I, 'Everything that you ever know in your life is going to come out in this job,'' the artist recounts. This formative moment shaped his creative philosophy, one that prioritizes education through entertainment. 'I'd rather educate you than entertain you,' he says. 'But I figured out a way to reverse it, so you're so distracted by how entertaining the presentation is that you don't realize my ulterior motive is always to plant a seed and spark an idea." The idea for Sly Lives!, his exploration of Sly Stone's musical genius, arose while editing a pivotal moment of the band's footage from the Harlem Cultural Festival for Summer of Soul. 'I told my editor, 'Yo, this [performance] is 10 days from Woodstock. This is a dress rehearsal for Sly. In 10 days, he's going to go into hyperspeed.' I told them, 'That's the movie I want to see.'' Fate seemed to intervene shortly after when Common called Questlove out of the blue. 'He said, 'I own the life rights to Sly Stone. … You wouldn't be interested in that, would you?'' Questlove recalls, still awe-struck by the coincidence. 'That's when I knew Siri or somebody from the government was listening, because there's no way Common could've heard my exact conversation about wanting someone to make this movie — and it lands in our lap.'' Hulu In Sly Lives!, Questlove aims to showcase the cultural impact of Stone. Despite creating timeless classics like 'Dance to the Music' and 'Everyday People,' Stone's legacy is often overshadowed by what Questlove refers to as self-sabotage. 'There's footage in the film where Parliament-Funkadelic is on stage with him, and it's surreal. It's like, 'You're literally the teacher of all this, Sly, but you're now cosplaying a costar in the world you created.' "I tell people, after the seventh year, Sly drops the baton and the person that comes along the road and picks the baton up to finish the mission will actually be Michael Jackson. Michael Jackson will do, 10 years later, what was going to be expected for Sly to do after Woodstock, which was become this mega huge star beyond the stratosphere. But there's a lot that comes with jumping into that inferno, and that's what we learned in this film." Questlove posits that part of Stone's struggles stem from the weight of responsibility attached to his brilliance and success — a theme he makes central to the film's title. 'It's not just your journey, it's the burden of carrying 20 other people with you," he explains. 'Our level of success is way different than mainstream success because there's so much more that comes with it — there's people in your past that you might feel obligated to take care of. Sometimes it gets to be too much. It's understandable why some people break at the seams." It's the burden of Black genius. Despite the challenges, Stone's innovations are undeniable. Questlove marvels at how many of Stone's contributions to music shaped the industry, from pioneering multi-track recording to conceptual music videos a decade before MTV's advent. 'Even in that medium, Sly was ahead of the game,' he emphasizes. Questlove was intentional about serving three distinct audiences with Sly Lives!: 'There's the first-generation Sly Stone fans, anyone born around 1940. Then there's my generation, who learned about Sly through our parents — or through hip-hop. And finally, there's the people who don't know who Sly is at all — and you have to make sure they're covered, too.' 'For me, my sweet spot was always with the hip-hop heads,' he says. "You might be aware that Arrested Development's 'People Everyday' is 'Everyday People.' You might recognize the drums from 'The Humpty Dance' as 'Sing a Simple Song.' You might have some sort of hip-hop-adjacent, 'Oh, that LL Cool J loop is definitely Sly Stone.' You might be that person. Any chance that I got to throw a bone to hip-hop heads, I took." The documentary also indulges Questlove's passion for rare musical treasures. With access to Stone's vault, the filmmaker unearthed unreleased alternate takes and versions of hits like 'Thank You for Talkin' to Me, Africa' and 'Everyday People.' But fitting the entirety of Sly Stone's genius into a single film proved daunting. 'There are trillions of Sly genius stories,' Questlove admits. One such story, ultimately left on the cutting room floor, highlights Sly's remarkable real-time creativity during an urgent re-edit of 'Stand!' after testing it at Whisky a Go Go in 1969. 'Sly was a little disappointed that people weren't losing their minds to his new single,' Questlove recounts. 'Then, a girl he was with gave him the inspiration, saying, 'It's 1969, man. We need a get-down part.'' "Sly literally wakes the band up as the club is letting out at 1:45 a.m. and says, 'Get to the studio now. We made a mistake!' And they get to the studio and they work on what we now know as the ending of 'Stand!,' and he calls up Columbia the next day. He's like, 'Destroy all the 45s. We have a new ending. Forget that version.' They're like, 'We already printed it up.' So there's about 40,000 copies of the original 'Stand!' out there. I was lucky to find one." On June 5, Hulu will debut a new version of Sly Lives! with Questlove and Joseph Patel offering insightful, humorous and often confessional commentary on the making of their documentary, Sly Lives!, and the film's theme, the burden of Black genius. Meanwhile, Questlove has another documentary in Emmy contention this year: Ladies and Gentlemen... 50 Years of SNL Music. Like Sly Lives!, it also began with a phone call. Lorne Michaels, SNL's iconic creator, approached him with a simple question: Would Questlove help tell the story of SNL's musical history in time for its 50th anniversary? 'It was almost to the point where I thought, 'Wait, do you even know who I am? How did I get here?'' Questlove laughs, recalling his initial hesitation about the iconic 17th-floor meeting with Michaels. What started as a simple plan to catalog the '50 greatest musical performances' on SNL became a transformative project. 'By the time I chose my 30th clip, we weren't even at 1988 yet. I knew I couldn't fairly choose just 50 performances. So I spent a year and a half watching 939 complete episodes of SNL." The laborious process enriched Questlove's understanding of the show's musical evolution. 'It was fun, though,' he admits. 'I enjoyed it.' Through Sly Lives! and Ladies and Gentlemen... 50 Years of SNL Music, Questlove reaffirms his belief in the transformative power of music storytelling. Whether revisiting Sly Stone's forgotten innovations or cataloging SNL's greatest performances, Questlove invites audiences to see these moments with fresh eyes. Yet, underneath the entertainment, a deeper mission remains — to spark ideas, build bridges through music, and honor the unyielding legacy of Black genius. Sly Lives! (aka the Burden of Black Genius) is now streaming on Hulu, and Ladies and Gentlemen... 50 Years of SNL Music is on Peacock. Best of GoldDerby 'I cried a lot': Rob Delaney on the heart and humor in FX's 'Dying for Sex' — and Neighbor Guy's kick in the 'zone' TV directors roundtable: 'American Primeval,' 'The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power,' 'Paradise' 'Paradise' directors John Requa and Glenn Ficarra on the 'chaos' of crafting 'the world coming to an end' Click here to read the full article.
