Bentonville preps for hip-hop legends The Roots to perform in April

More than Fallon’s house band, these hip-hop pioneers have gone from the Philadelphia streets to the White House, New York and now Bentonville.

The Roots may be best known as the “house band” on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, but their story is bigger than what you might have seen on TV. Hailed as one of the “Twenty Greatest Live Acts in the World” by Rolling Stone, The Roots stand as one of the most influential hip-hop collectives of all time—and they’re coming to Arkansas this April.

Playing at the Momentary in Bentonville, April 28, here’s what you need to know about these giants of the music world before you see them live.

From the streets to the White House, The Roots have come a long way.
Founded by Tariq “Black Thought” Trotter and Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, the three-time Grammy Award-winning, multi-platinum group started out rapping on Philadelphia street corners in 1987.

Since then, they’ve gone on to play gigs at the White House, collabed with queen of soul Betty Wright for Betty Wright: The Movie, and taken the national stage on The Tonight Show. They also headline their own annual Philadelphia-based music festival The Roots Picnic.

The Roots have been dropping award-winning albums and making history since 1999.
The Roots changed hip-hop forever with 1999’s platinum Things Fall Apart—named by Rolling Stone as one of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Their Grammy Awards include Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group for “You Got Me,” Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance for “Hang On in There,” and Best R&B Album for Wake Up.

As a live phenomenon, The Roots made history as the “first hip-hop group to perform at Lincoln Center,” and Black Thought and Questlove served as executive producers of the acclaimed AMC documentary series, Hip-Hop: The Songs That Shook America.

As part of their 2023 international tour, The Roots are heading to Arkansas this spring.
Whether you’re a hip-hop head, a fan of Fallon, or just plain love good music, you should also know: The Roots are playing in Bentonville April 28.

Opening for The Roots is KOKOKO!: a collective born in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo. This creative collision of artists includes musical instrument inventors, electronic producer Débruit, Makara Bianko (aka the Lingwala devil) and dancers bursting forth from the Lingwala neighborhood.

KOKOKO! creates an aesthetic all their own by rewiring and up-cycling materials from Kinshasa’s streets and transforming them into vital dance music marked by distorted, fast rhythms and spontaneous, lo-fi electric sounds.

So mark your calendars and get ready to head to NWA—you won’t want to miss seeing these legends for yourself. Tickets are on sale now at theMomentary.org.