In 2026, The Roots Picnic moved from its home of the past several years, The Mann Center, to The Belmont Plateau. The change was necessary to enable the festival to hold 80,000 attendees (according to Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson) and give audiences the lineup they wanted to see. The Universe rewarded all of us with the best weather we could ask for during a two-day festival in Philadelphia at the end of May.
It was an incredible event that featured dozens of artists, surprises and more than 30 hours of musical performances crammed into a weekend. We had a great time, and wanted to share our five favorite moments with you.
5. Erykah Badu
Any performance by Erykah Badu is a precious thing. Erykah brought otherworldly stage production and plenty of attitude. Her band, including The Alchemist, held down the grooves and complex instrumentation necessary to bring those timeless neo-soul tracks to life before a crowd of tens of thousands. She also told us stories from her life and her connections to Philly that felt intimate and special.
Badu interacted with the crowd a fair amount and even beefed with them at times, but in the end, the performance will be cherished by those in attendance for a lifetime.
Specifically: The performance of ‘Appletree’ is when the audience really got into it, and it’s one of our favorite tracks.
4. T.I.
One of the pioneers of Trap, Atlanta’s own T.I., was one of the most anticipated performances of the entire weekend. With a forthcoming album and plenty of the biggest hits of the 2000s in his back pocket, Tip set The Plateau Stage on fire, performing songs from across his 20+ year discography. Hearing ‘Fancy’ boom through the entire plateau was a special moment.
Specifically: The Plateau Stage (the smaller of the two) may have been a less-than-ideal venue for T.I. because he absolutely packed the lawn. The audience had a great time though, dancing and screaming along, even when they were half a mile away from the music.
3. Beano French
Beano French just dropped a new single and is fresh off an album release in 2025. When we heard that he had been selected as a performing artist on the biggest stage at The Roots Picnic, we were ecstatic.
Hearing Beano’s tracks echo out across The Plateau in the early afternoon on Saturday from The AT&T Stage was a victory lap for The Philly Soul scene and the artists in it.
Specifically: Seeing Philly’s own take the biggest stage was a special moment, but Beano held the stage and the audience even better than some of the bigger names that performed later in the day. Fans were shouting and dancing along to ‘Pull The Trigger.’
Keep an eye out for our exclusive interview with Beano French coming soon.
2. Brandy
The Roots Picnic felt especially celebratory of the 90s this year, and Brandy was perhaps the artist who best embodied it. Her stage production specifically called out 1994 as the year she was harkening back to, but if that wasn’t clear enough, the stage outfits and choreo made it undeniable in the best way possible.
The Roots Picnic has been known for surprise guests, and while this year had plenty of them, Brandy’s were among the best. She brought out rapper Yo-Yo, June’s Diary and best of all, Monica.
The whole performance was baked in a golden glow as the sun was setting and it was the perfect tone-setter for the evening of the first night. We just wish technical issues didn’t stop Monica and Brandy from performing their iconic “The Boy Is Mine.”
Specifically: The version of ‘Best Friend’ that featured elements from the Moesha theme to the cover of ”My Lovin’ by En Vogue” to bringing out Monica for “So Gone.” Those ten or so minutes were special.
1. Jay-Z
This had to be number one. Hov set The Plat on fire for the better part of two hours and gave us a performance we’ll all be talking about for a long time. He debuted a new style and a new sound with The Roots. Hearing all of Hov’s biggest hits reimagined by The Roots with live instrumentation was a one-of-one performance. We got to hear “The Story of O.J.” played on an actual upright bass. We got to see Jazzmine Sullivan come out and sing her heart out for “Feeling It” and “I Need U Bad.” We got to see Meek Mill perform “Dreams and Nightmares” with Jay. We got to see Bilal perform the vocals on ‘No Church in the Wild.”
The freestyle. The hits. The banter. This was Jay-Z’s first headline performance in more than seven years, and it was worth the wait. The artist is still at the top of his game.
Questlove’s drums hit like Thunder. Tuba Gooding Jr. danced across the stage while adding a unique texture to each song. Captain Kirk Douglas played guitar like a man possessed.
Hov was thoughtful in his curating of the performance, ceding the stage to the biggest names in Hip-Hop from Philadelphia at every opportunity he had. He knew his crowd and he knew this was a special opportunity to share the best of Philly’s legacy.
Please give us an album of Jay-Z and The Roots. Even if it’s just a live album. We’ll stand in line.
Specifically: In a performance with dozens of highlights, The State Property reunion was the biggest one for us. Seeing Freeway, Beanie Sigel, Peedi Crack, Memphis Bleek and Young Gunz on stage together with Jay for the first time in forever was, in our opinion, the greatest moment, from the greatest set of the entire Picnic.
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