Nas’s beyond-classic debut Illmatic turns 20 this year, and he’s celebrating by releasing a 20th-anniversary reissue and doing the album in full on tour. Last night, he appeared on Jimmy Fallon’s rebooted Tonight Show, performing the Illmatic track “One Love,” which Q-Tip produced, with Tip himse...

In their capacity as the Tonight Show house band, the Roots don’t exactly need to keep making albums, but they’re doing it anyway. The long-running Philly group has just announced plans to release album number 11, And Then You Shoot Your Cousin. Like the last one, 2011′s undun, this one is a concept album about [...]

“The Devil Is A Lie,” Rick Ross’s new Jay Z collab, is a harder and more anthemic song than either Ross or Jay has any business making at this late-career date. And last night, appearing on Jimmy Fallon’s newly reinvisioned Tonight Show, Ross really did look like the biggest rap star in the world (even [...]

Questlove remembers the exact moment when the Roots became passé. In Mo’ Meta Blues, the memoir he published last year, the renowned drummer, bandleader, producer, DJ, and all-around music geek flashes back to the filming of Michel Gondry’s concert film Dave Chappelle’s Block Party in 2004: I remember one moment so...

On Friday night, Justin Vernon sat in with the Roots on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, doing a short and funkily reworked version of Bon Iver’s “Woods” on the show. But as a treat for the live crowd, and for those of us currently watching stuff on the internet, the band also did a full [...]