Mural Gets to Philly's “Roots”

Philly’s favorite house band is now part of not only the musical landscape but the actual art landscape of the city they call home.

?uestlove, Black Thought & the rest of The Roots crew have joined many other larger than life Philly greats including Mario Lanza, Julius “Dr. J” Erving and Frank Rizzo that have been honored with their own mural as part of the city’s Mural Arts Program.

The Roots Mural was dedicated Friday at the World Communications Charter School at 512 S. Broad Street.

The mural called "Legendary" uses a colorful collage of images to trace the history of the group.

Members of The Roots including Ahmir “?uestlove” Thompson, Tariq “Black Thought” Trotter, Damon “Tuba Gooding Jr.” Bryson, “Captain Kirk” Douglas, Kamal Gray, Mark Kelley, James Poyser and Frank “Knuckles” Walker were on hand for the dedication.

The mural is located less than a mile from where The Roots took root.

As Thompson puts it, he and Trotter "tried their luck at 'busking' on 5th and South Street to make 'date money,'" all the way back in 1992. Ten studio albums later, the Grammy Award-winning Hip-Hop band has played all over the world while collaborating with everyone from John Legend to Jay-Z to Elvis Costello.

"21 years & 10 blocks later we return to the scene -- nope -- the dream of the crime. Incredible Journey. Wouldn't change a thing. Thank you," wrote Thompson.

Since 2009, The Roots have served as the house band on NBC’s Late Night With Jimmy Fallon. They still tour including playing shows like Philly’s July 4th Welcome America Celebration and the annual Roots Picnic concert, which is this weekend at the Festival Pier at Penn’s Landing.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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