Grammy Award-winning hip-hop trailblazers The Roots are one of the most influential groups in music. Known for their prolific lyrics and live instrumentation, the legendary Philadelphia crew is composed of Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter on vocals, Ahmir "questlove" Thompson on drums, Kamal Gray on keyboards, Frank Knuckles on percussion, Kirk "Captain Kirk" Douglas on guitar and Owen Biddle on bass. Garnering critical praise throughout their career, The Roots have firmly established themselves as a band with uncompromised artistic control and integrity. The Roots were previously the house band on the NBC show, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.
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1987. Philadelphia High School for the Creative and Performing Arts, second day of school. A student named Ahmir Thompson walks into the principals office seeking a lunch pass. At the same time, a freshman named Tariq Trotter stumbles in, gripped by school guards who caught him engaging in extracurricular activities with a ballerina in the ladies bathroom.
Luckily, Thompson has designs larger than lunch, and Trotters game is wider than women. Thompson is a jazz drummer and Trotter is an MC, and decides to create music together. They cant afford turntables, microphones, or DJ equipment. But then again, they are secretly glad about their dollar deficiency--their collaborations wouldnt have that something-from-nothing spirit that built hip-hop and rock. So, Trotter rhymes over Thompsons rented drum kit. Eventually, they call themselves the Square Roots, and Thompson adopts the name ?uestlove and Trotter takes on Black Thought.