Once again, The Legendary Roots Crew are back on tour and would return to Toronto’s Rebel Nightclub for an epic Saturday night performance. Having been the house band on Jimmy Fallon’s The Tonight Show for over a decade, their touring schedule is mostly limited to weekends these days, but The Roots still make it a point to get out and connect with their fans, representing as one of the greatest groups in Hip-Hop history. The Roots’ last time in Toronto was of course in 2023, when they joined LL Cool J on The F.O.R.C.E. Tour and celebrated Hip-Hop’s 50th anniversary with a different lineup of artists joining them in each city, bringing Jadakiss and Queen Latifah with them to their show at Scotiabank Arena. While they played more of a supporting role on that tour, backing up all the other artists on the lineup, this would be their first time in about a decade performing a full setlist of their own music in Toronto, their last time being an outdoor festival in front of City Hall during the 2015 Pan Am Games.

I wrote in my 2023 concert review from that F.O.R.C.E. Tour show that I wished The Roots had more time to perform their own music, as they arguably have one of the best discographies in Hip-Hop. While they may not have as many platinum plaques or Grammy awards as other GOATs, the quality of the music and the synergy between Questlove’s production and Black Thought’s lyrical mastery is what makes their discography great, their impact spanning over a dozen albums as a band between 1993 – 2014, and Black Thought going on to release several solo projects between 2018 – 2023. The Roots may not have any new music to be promoting, but they have a deep catalogue worth celebrating, including their acclaimed sophomore album Do You Want More?!!!??! reaching its 30th anniversary in 2025.

This Saturday night at Rebel Nightclub would have a double booking, with Reggae/Dancehall artist Alkaline performing a late night concert, and The Roots booked for an early show. The concert was tightly coordinated, with doors opening at 5pm and The Roots going on stage just after 6, rocking a solid 2-hour set of constant music and no breaks. We got to the venue just in time to see them get on stage to start the show.

Even with me personally having seen The Roots perform a few times over the years, there is still excitement felt going into their show to see which songs they’d put on the setlist, as they’ve always been able to pull a different selection from their deep discography and perform something new every time. That moment would hit from the very beginning, as they opened with the Illadelph Halflife banger, “Respond/React,” a song I’d never seen them perform live before. Black Thought would rap both his own and the late Malik B’s verses, and the band would switch the beat to The East Flatbush Project’s “Tried By 12” as he got into the 3rd and 4th verse of the song. Regardless of how many times you’ve seen The Roots perform before, you had to be energized off of that opening!

As they’re known to do, The Roots kept the music going constantly, throwing in short covers and interludes between their own songs. Black Thought would do a quick interpolation of Beenie Man’s “Who Am I” before moving on to their Do You Want More?!!!??! album, performing the classic “Proceed” that always fits well near the start of a concert, followed by “Distortion to Static.” Although they’re celebrating the album’s 30th anniversary this year, these would surprisingly be the only songs they’d perform off of it for the entire night (I would’ve hoped to hear “I Remain Calm,” “Mellow My Man” or “The Lesson Pt. 1”).

The Roots are also known make the time for every band member to shine individually throughout the show. The band’s roster has changed many times over the years, with producer/drummer Questlove and emcee Black Thought being the consistent core, and they’d be joined by longtime members Kamal Gray on keys, Captain Kirk Douglas on guitar, and Tuba Gooding Jr. on sousaphone. More recent members also joining the band for this show included Mark Kelley on bass guitar, Stro Elliot on MPC/percussion, Raymond Angry on a second keyboard set, Ian Hendrickson-Smith on saxophone, and Dave Guy on trumpet. The first to get a solo would be Dave, as he’d let loose on the trumpet as the band played an instrumental to back him, eventually turning into a cover of the 1975 Jazz record “Think Twice” by Donald Byrd.

When they’re not performing their own originals, The Roots like to pull from Jazz, Funk and Soul records for their cover songs, but they’d also do a rare Hip-Hop cover this time, using Donald Byrd’s “Think Twice” to transition into a rap song that sampled it: Main Source’s “Looking At The Front Door.” Black Thought would cover Large Professor’s verses on the 1991 throwback, and the live instrumentation from The Roots gave it some nice energy. Getting back to their own music, The Roots next took it to 1999 with a Things Fall Apart deep album cut, “Step Into The Realm,” putting a unique twist on it with the way Black Thought alternated his vocal pitch to match the spiraling volume of the instrumental, as he went from whispering to fully projected rapping.

The Roots would keep it in the ’90s for the next few songs, going back to 1996 with the upbeat single “What They Do” before diving into another handful of Things Fall Apart joints, including “The Next Movement,” “Dynamite” and “Act Too (The Love of My Life),” complete with a trumpet and saxophone solo in the middle. The crowd was definitely into the throwbacks, as Black Thought was able to get some good energy with a call and response routine before moving on. While these are songs they typically pull out for most of their shows, Things Fall Apart of course being their biggest album, The Roots would be sure to keep adding some rarities to the mix, next jumping ahead to their underrated 2004 album The Tipping Point with “Stay Cool.” You’d think for rare joints like this they’d move on after just a verse and a hook like most rappers, but The Roots played the entire track, even breaking the beat up so Black Thought could go acapella for parts of his third verse, highlighting his lyricism even on the sometimes underrated/overlooked joints.

Continuing on with the deep album cuts, The Roots went back to Illadelph Halflife again with another standout, “Clones,” with Questlove’s rapid-fire drumming standing out and Black Thought absolutely slaying the rap verses by M.A.R.S., himself and Malik B. This was an example of how The Roots’ live instrumentation can change the entire vibe of a track, as the album version has a bit of a laidback feel that you can bob your head to, but the live performance with the brass instruments added a ton of energy, getting the crowd to wave their hands and even jump up at times. They’d sprinkle in another Donald Byrd cover from the ’70s, with the trumpet and saxophone shining and Black Thought soulfully covering the vocals on “Change (Makes You Want To Hustle)” before they got into a favourite of mine that I’d been waiting years to see get performed live – another underrated cut from The Tipping Point, “Web.”

“Web” is one of my favourite songs by The Roots because it removes all commercial elements and is stripped down to just the bare essentials of a dope Hip-Hop track: drums, bass, and a fucking ferocious lyricist on the mic. Questlove kept the drums going at a steady pace, using a slower tempo than the album version that forced Black Thought to rap at a slower pace that was easier to follow; Tuba Gooding Jr. would use his sousaphone for the simple bass note at the end of every bar, and Black Thought ripped through his 84-bar verse with impeccable breath control, although the slower tempo felt like he was on easy mode. He’d give the song a false ending that even caught me off guard, the crowd giving big applause before he came back and finished off the last 16-bars of the song with high energy.

If “Web” could be considered Black Thought’s standout solo performance, it was time to let other band members have the spotlight. Ian Hendrickson-Smith would get to shine on saxophone again, and Raymond Angry would follow by pulling out a keytar and taking the front of the stage for a funky solo. The fans were hyped just off the rarity of seeing a keytar get played at a Hip-Hop show, and Angry delivered a performance worthy of the hype, putting the crowd in a Funk vibe. The Roots would then get the crowd to do a soul clap along with Questlove’s drumming, and the beat the crowd made would eventually turn into a performance of The Roots’ 2006 hit “Here I Come.” Similar to how they did it at their 2023 concert, The Roots performed the track over an alternate Funk groove rather than the original beat, and Black Thought would rap all three verses on the song, including Malik B’s, Dice Raw’s and his own, with the instruments all pulling back so he could rap over only Mark Kelley’s bassline for the third verse.

Keeping the vibes going, Dave Guy would get another trumpet performance, and the solos would continue with Tuba Gooding Jr. next getting to take over the stage with his sousaphone. He’d start with a bassline, and the band would build a beat around him, Ray Angry eventually joining him at the front of the stage again with the keytar until they got a full blown production going. Tuba Gooding Jr.’s performance got big applause from the crowd as he lifted the sousaphone above his head triumphantly. The next solo would be one The Roots have included in their shows for decades, as they performed their Grammy award-winning hit “You Got Me,” with both the crowd and Captain Kirk Douglas covering Erykah Badu’s vocals on the hook, and after Black Thought rapped all three verses on the song, Captain Kirk would get into a 7+ minute guitar solo.

Captain Kirk’s guitar solo has been a highlight of The Roots’ concerts for a long time, as he’ll play through a ton of emotions, making the guitar play a crying pitch as he made a sad face, and going from playing the instrument above his head to lying on the floor with it. He’d even throw some covers into the mix, playing riffs from Scarface’s “Mind Playing Tricks On Me” and Dr. Dre’s “Xxplosive,” and would get behind the mic to sing some adlibs and match his pitch to the guitar’s notes. Being immersed in the guitar solo, you almost forgot that this was still a performance of “You Got Me,” as Captain Kirk ended his solo by singing those words to close out the song.

While Black Thought typically handles most of the vocals for The Roots with minimal backing, Captain Kirk would continue to shine both on the mic and guitar as they got into an upbeat performance of “The Seed 2.0,” with Thought adapting his verses to the Rock and Roll vibe and Kirk singing Cody ChestnuTT’s hook. The 2002 hit of course had the entire crowd dancing, and they’d join in on a soul clap during the hooks. When the song got to the bridge, rather than breaking it down on guitar like on the album, they’d transition right into an upbeat cover of Curtis Mayfield’s “Move On Up,” the energy between the two songs going together seamlessly. Black Thought would show off his singing chops as he covered Mayfield’s soulful vocals, and the dance vibes continued as The Roots moved right along into another cover of one of the most sampled songs in Hip-Hop history, “Apache” by The Incredible Bongo Band.

Just knowing how many Hip-Hop songs sampled “Apache” over its 50+ year history, including The Roots’ own “Thought @ Work,” there were endless possibilities of where The Roots would go next, but rather than diving into any song in particular, they kept the spotlight on the drums, with Questlove and Stro Elliot now getting their turn at a solo. Questlove and Stro would go back and forth with their percussion, but eventually Quest would stand up from his drum set and point down to Stro, getting the crowd to cheer as the MPC got to shine. Stro would chop up samples on the MPC, recreating the loop from k-os’ “Superstar Pt. Zero” seemingly to give a nod to Toronto Hip-Hop, and had the crowd captivated with the way he made a beat on the spot.

With “Apache” still somewhat fresh on the mind, The Roots would eventually perform a song that samples it, next performing a cover they’ve been using to close out their concerts for decades, Kool G Rap & DJ Polo’s “Men At Work.” It’s always incredible seeing The Roots perform this 1989 classic, as Black Thought’s cadence is the perfect fit to cover Kool G Rap’s verses, and he has that otherworldly breath control to perform the verses in double-time. Kool G Rap himself once admitted that he never performs this song because of the strain it has on the lungs to rap all three monster verses, but gives Black Thought his props for killing it every time. As always, they’d pause between verses to engage the crowd, yelling “can you dig it?!!” before going back in with the next verse, and the choreography kept getting tighter, with Black Thought timing his movements to match the rest of the band dancing behind him. After that big finale, the band would thank the crowd and end the show despite chants for an encore, tossing drumsticks and a copy of the setlist into the crowd and taking pictures before leaving the stage.

Overall, The Roots put on an incredible show as always. With this being my sixth time seeing them perform live, I can say it never gets old, as they always find ways to keep things fresh by adding different songs to the setlist and even changing the elements of the songs themselves. The Roots’ discography is great on its own, but you haven’t gotten the full experience until you see the songs performed live, as they bring a different energy to the stage. In terms of The Roots’ catalogue of music, their setlist focused in on the ’90s while also pulling out a few rarities from the early 2000s I hadn’t seen them do before, and it was also dope seeing them tie in Jazz and Soul records from the ’60s and ’70s and blend them seamlessly into their own music. It would’ve been dope to see Black Thought get to perform songs off of his more recent solo albums, but I was completely happy with this setlist, as The Roots gave us a full 2-hours of constant energy.

The Roots continue to tour Europe, USA and Canada this summer when they’re not working The Tonight Show, tickets and tour dates can be found here.

Check out this playlist of concert videos from all the times I’ve seen The Roots perform live over the years!

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