Jay-Z is making his grand return to the stage for the first time in nearly a year with a headlining performance alongside the Roots at the Roots Picnic 2026.
The rapper, who recently changed the styling of his name to JAŸ-Z in honor of the 30th anniversary of his debut album “Reasonable Doubt,” is scheduled to headline the May 30 date of the 2026 Roots Picnic at Philadelphia’s Belmont Plateau. It marks his first performance with the Roots in over a decade.
The appearance will also be his first live performance since joining his wife Beyoncé at the final “Cowboy Carter” international tour date, which took place in Paris in June 2025. During the show, he popped out to perform “Crazy in Love,” “N—s in Paris” and “Drunk in Love.”
The last time he played a festival was in 2019 as a surprise guest at Pharrell Williams’ Something in the Water, which took place in Virginia Beach.
“Moving the Roots Picnic to Belmont Plateau and bringing JAŸ-Z and The Roots together to perform are both bucket-list moments for us,” says Shawn Gee, the Roots’ manager and president of Live Nation Urban. “After meeting with Mayor Cherelle Parker and hearing her vision for Philadelphia 250, she truly inspired us to dream even bigger, and we’re grateful to her, Commissioner Susan Slawson, Jazelle Jones and everyone who helped make it happen. We can’t wait to see everyone in May at the Plat.”
Presale tickets for the two-day Roots Picnic festival, taking place on May 30-31, are available now. General on-sale starts on March 18 at 10 a.m. ET. Details on the rest of the lineup are expected to be announced this week.
Jay-Z has recently kicked back up the promo machine in honor of the 30th anniversary of “Reasonable Doubt,” which was released on June 25, 1996. Fans noticed that his name on streaming services changed to his original stylization of JAŸ-Z — yes, with the umlaut — and over the past few weeks, he put the original version of “Dead Presidents” on streaming and dropped the video for “Wishing on a Star” featuring Gwen Dickey on YouTube.
Though Jay-Z hasn’t released an album since 2017’s “4:44,” there have been recent rumors that he’s been in the studio, according to interviews with the Alchemist, Memphis Bleek and Cash Cobain. The latter had to clarify the rumor after Jay-Z told him that he’s “absolutely not dropping an album,” according to a post on social media.
