{"id":141061,"date":"2026-03-17T21:47:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T21:47:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/141061\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T21:47:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T21:47:08","slug":"jay-z-headlining-roots-picnic-later-this-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/141061\/","title":{"rendered":"Jay-Z headlining Roots Picnic later this year"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to cover? <a href=\"#Section1\">Let us know!<\/a>\n<\/p>\n<p>Grammy award\u2013winning hip-hop star Jay-Z will headline this year\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/rootspicnic.frontgatetickets.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Roots Picnic<\/a> at the Belmont Plateau in Philadelphia\u2019s Fairmount Park.\n<\/p>\n<p>His performance will take place nearly 30 years after the release of his debut album, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/album\/3YPK0bNOuayhmSrs0sIIBR\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Reasonable Doubt<\/a>,\u201d which helped cement Jay-Z\u2019s status as one of the premier hip-hop artists and is considered one of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-lists\/best-hip-hop-albums-1323916\/jay-z-reasonable-doubt-1996-1346627\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">greatest rap albums<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n<p>Last week, it was announced that after years of setting up shop at the Mann Center, the festival will now take place at the Belmont Plateau after heavy storms last year delayed the event\u2019s start time due to significant mud build-up, as well as flooding on the grounds.\n  <\/p>\n<p>Details about the rest of the festival, scheduled for May 30 and 31, are expected to be announced later this week.\n<\/p>\n<p>This will be the first festival Jay-Z has performed in Philadelphia since 2017, when he headlined that year\u2019s Made in America festival, an event he helped curate for more than a decade.\n<\/p>\n<p>Philadelphia\u2019s very own, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theroots.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The Roots<\/a>, will serve as Jay-Z\u2019s backing band during the performance. Apart from moonlighting as Jimmy Fallon\u2019s house band on \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbc.com\/nbc-insider\/who-is-the-tonight-show-band-the-roots-drummer\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The Tonight Show<\/a>,\u201d the group\u2019s mix of hip-hop and live instrumentation has netted them great success over the years, including <a href=\"https:\/\/www.grammy.com\/artists\/roots\/7842\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Grammy wins<\/a> and multiple <a href=\"https:\/\/www.riaa.com\/gold-platinum\/?tab_active=default-award&amp;se=the+roots#search_section\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">gold- and platinum-selling albums<\/a>.<br \/>\n<img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-437592 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/AP_19153174273531.jpg\" alt=\"The Roots perform during the annual Roots Picnic at the Mann Center\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\"  \/>The Roots perform during the annual Roots Picnic at the Mann Center in Philadelphia\u2019s West Fairmount Park on Saturday, June 1, 2019. (Tim Tai\/The Philadelphia Inquirer\/AP)\n<\/p>\n<p>The last Made in America fest took place in <a href=\"https:\/\/whyy.org\/articles\/made-in-america-2022-philadelphia-labor-day-weekend\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">2022<\/a> when <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=cBAqpa16c2E\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Bad Bunny<\/a> headlined. The festival was <a href=\"https:\/\/whyy.org\/articles\/2023-made-in-america-festival-canceled-due-to-severe-circumstances\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">canceled in 2023<\/a>, with organizers citing \u201csevere circumstances outside of production control.\u201d It was once again <a href=\"https:\/\/www.madeinamericafest.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">canceled the following year<\/a> and promised \u201can exciting return.\u201d\n        <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":141062,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[64608,64609,69,71,70,64610],"class_list":{"0":"post-141061","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-belmont-plateau","9":"tag-jay-z","10":"tag-philadelphia","11":"tag-philadelphia-headlines","12":"tag-philadelphia-news","13":"tag-the-roots"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141061"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141061\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}