The Roots

Philadelphia soul/hip-hop collective the Roots delivered hip-hop that merges soul and jazz with old school-influenced beats and socially conscious lyrics that helped them ascend from the rap underground to mainstream status as the house band for "The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon" (NBC, 2014-). The group began as a duo - drummer Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson and rapper Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter - that began performing together while students at the Philadelphia High School for Creative Performing Arts. With the addition of bassist Leon "Hub" Hubbard and rapper Malik B., the Roots began performing at East Coast clubs, and released a debut album, Organix, in 1993. Their mix of hip-hop with live instruments and relatively few samples drew industry attention and led to a contract with DGC, which resulted in their major-label debut, Do You Want More?!!!??! The album generated considerable interest from the alternative hip-hop community, which helped to boost its follow-up, Illadelph Halflife (1996), to the Top 40 on the Billboard 200. By the release of their third LP, Things Fall Apart, the Roots had added producer Scott Storch, vocalist Dice Raw and beatboxing veteran Rahzel to their lineup, and honed their sound to a blend of jazz-driven rhythms and poetic, socially astute observations; the result was their first gold record and Grammy Award for the single "You Got Me," which featured Erykah Badu and Eve. A series of high-profile assignments, including performing with Jay-Z at his 2003 concert at Madison Square Garden, preceded a string of critically and commercially successful studio albums, including the Top 5 records The Tipping Point (2004), as well as more experimental releases like the politically minded Game Theory (2006) and Undun (2011), which traced the downfall of a would-be criminal from his death to the events that led to it. Between these efforts were collaborations with John Legend on Wake Up! (2010) and Elvis Costello on Wise Ghost (2013), but the band's most high-profile project was as the house band on "Late Night With Jimmy Fallon" (NBC, 2009-2014), which provided them with a mainstream showcase for their versatility. In 2014, the Roots followed Fallon to "The Tonight Show," where in addition to composing and performing its theme song, the band backed Fallon on numerous skits ("Slow Jam the News," where Fallon, Tariq and guests, including President Barack Obama, rhymed over a slow-boiling funk track) and the Classroom Instruments sketches, where the band played children's instruments behind musical guests like Mariah Carey and Carly Rae Jepsen.