Questlove Announces Roots Picnic 2013 Lineup

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By Tamara Palmer

Naughty By Nature, Solange, Trinidad James, Araab Muzik, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Hit-Boy, and DJ Premier are among the artists expected to appear at the annual Roots Picnic, held at the Festival Pier at Penn’s Landing in Philadelphia on June 1. Questlove revealed the lineup poster via his Instagram account.

Questlove told Billboard that this year’s more diverse lineup, which also includes artists such as jazz pianist Robert Glasper, guitarist Gary Clark Jr. and electronic pop artist Grimes, was made possible in part by relationships that The Roots have fostered as the in-house band at "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon."

“Now that we've worked at 'Fallon,' it's more sweet than it's ever been,” he said. “You have to keep in mind that the picnic started three years before we started with Jimmy Fallon. So the process in the beginning was really tough because we had to go through agents and managers. Once I realized that the real advantage of working at Fallon kind of cut the red tape, it allowed us to deal with the artists one-on-one.”

Naturally, one of the expected highlights will be a live performance by The Roots. The group’s last album was 2011’s Undun, and this event would be a perfect time to unveil new material. Tickets for Roots Picnic 2013 go on sale at 10 a.m. on January 25. Follow @RootsPicnic on Twitter for show updates.

[url=http://rapfix.mtv.com/2013/01/24/questlove-announces-roots-picnic-2013-lineup/]View the full article[/url]