Posted June 9, 2009 by gingerlynn 19 comments

Photos: Roots Picnic Re-Cap, A Nation Of Millions Feels Brand New

This past Saturday saw the 2nd Annual ROOTS PICNIC take-over the Festival Pier at Philly’s Penns Landing. The Roots, TV on The Radio, Santigold, Kid CuDi, The Black Keys, Asher Roth, Elevator Fight, Bajah + The Dry Eye Crew – a day of truly amazing music and performance. But I have to say, the most magical part of the day-long event, was PUBLIC ENEMY backed up by The Roots and the Antibalas horns. Chuck D and Flavor Flav owned the stage, running around, hyping the audience with lightening bolts full of energy, while Black Thought held it down on the mic, alongside the legends. They recreated A Nation Of Millions and made it feel completely fresh and totally relevant, even though those songs are 21 years old, a testament to the longevity of a truly classic album. Above, look at TONE’s beautiful photos from the day. Want more? Click here to view OKP resident photographer Mel D. Cole’s flicks from the event (this links you to set 1, but there are 4 total sets so be sure to view all!). For even more on the event, check out Rolling Stone’s article entitled “The Roots Steal The Show From Black Keys, Public Enemy, at Picnic.,” or this article here in Philly’s City Paper.

About the author

Ginny Suss is super excited about Okayplayer's new African channel, www.okayafrica.com. View Profile »

Comments

Nyle

ughh…tone is a beast
FARMERhomay

lmao @ Flave. He still had the size sticker on his jeans. fresh to death. amazing show tho! The Roots rocked the house, PE was dope! Santogold and everyone else was awesome. Beanie Sigel even showed up for a minute. Cant wait for next year! although this show will be tough to follow
KiN CAMELL

PEACE,FROM THE BAY!

P.E. + THE ROOTS = UPLIFTING.

COME VIBE;
KiN CAMELL(GOOGLE THAT)

PEACE TO YOU & YOURS.
KLAP215

Picnic was crazy! One of the best shows ever props 2 the Roots, Public Enemy, Asher Roth, Beaine Sigel,Black Keys, Kid Cudi, etc! Can’t wait until next year!
DISTURBED FEMCEE

Let me just say that I had a TERRIBLE TIME at this picnic and I HAVE to blog this. I am from DC and I am a female emcee. This was not my first time in Philly, but my first time seeing the Roots play live. First off, I want to say I am not blaming The Roots, but whomever was the entertainment/show scheduler is totally BACKWARDS! MY husband and I were completely fucked up about what happened. Let’s start from the beginning….First off, the tickets stated that the show would be at “Penn’s Landing at Festival Pier” in large lettering, then in small lettering said Columbus and Spring Garden. We asked our hotel how to get to Penn’s Landing at Festival Pier (since that was the venue listed) and they instructed us accordingly to Penn’s Landing. When we got there, the stage was completely bare and folks were beginning to show up and it was 1:15/1:30. There was a LIve Nation emblem on the sails of the stage which REALLY made folks thin the show was there (including folks from Philly). It was beginning to look like a hoax. We checked online and saw no cancellations, then one gentleman who had been sitting with us for a while, said “it may be at one of the other piers.” Who knew there was more than one?? Needless to say at 2:15/2:20, roughly about 30-40 of us started heading towards Columbus and Spring Garden, which we were told IS NOT Penn’s Landing by folks who live in Philly. So, here we are in the HOT ASS heat, walking damn near 20 blocks to get to where the real picnic is. Needless to say, we arrived about 2:50–AFTER THE ROOTS HAD DID THEIR OPENING NUMBER–WHAT A FUCKING BLOW.
DISTURBED FEMCEE

Then, we get there, we have our tickets, and the guy says there are no “ins and outs”–WTF? Are you kidding me? A festival that last 8 HOURS and you can’t come and go as you please after you paid 50 BUCKS to be there, get FUCKING REAL–who does shit like that? Then, they had a small selection of food (that you HAD to buy if you were hungry, since you COULDN’T leave) which ranged from pizza, philly steaks (with imitation velveeta cheese), fries, and pretzels and prices ranged from 4-10 (some were listed as $3 or 3.50 for a 16 oz soda, and the ppl were like “oh, yeah the sign is wrong, that will be 4 dollars–wtf???) Then, to make things worse, they had one sister, Amanda Diva as a host. She was in and out from the inside and outside stages, but much of our time was spent watching the cracks of the asses of the techies setting up and breaking down the stage with NO ONE saying what the fuck was going on, who was coming up next etc. Not to mention the Event services folks (NES) acted like they knew NOTHING about who was performing where and there was not one, NOT ONE large sign posted by the tents or anything to show the list of folks performing so you know if you would like to go to the main stage or the inside tent. What kind of shit is that? Who does an event of this magnitude without posting what artists are performing where? What the hell? During the dead time, ppl were playing cards on the DIRTY ASS floor inside and outside the tent–now explain to me how you have multiple staff members running throughout the joint in black and yellow t-shirts and there is “massive” amount of Miller Lite bottles all over the floor ALL DAMN DAY LONG? Thank God they were plastic, but still, people were actually sitting next to piles and piles of Miller Lite bottles, like we were at fucking Woodstock. I’m sorry, I am 30 and that shit is not appealing, ESPECIALLY when I’m hot as hell, the event is disorganzied and you don’t have any decent food??
DISTURBED FEMCEE

Then, to make things worse, you had groups coming out performing without being properly introduced and if they were, the sound was HORRIBLE. We saw one dope group Bajah and the Dryer Crew, and the only way we knew who they were was because some chick was passing out cards at the close of their performance–other than that, you were like, who are we listening to? What if I want to buy their album. Real bad promotion wise. I was blown away at the fact that you had to pay $20-40 extra to sit in a bleacher up front or a bar stool and that was considered VIP–really tho? REALLY? Then, folks were on the inside waiting for Asher Roth to perform when the techie guy (no, NOT a host or event person, wtf) comes out and says “Umm folks, Asher is going to perform after Public Enemy, sorry about that”–this after 25 minutes of just fucking standing there, then ppl bumrush to get outside to see PE of course, so that was madness. Prior to that, they had Santigold outside on mainstage, the ONLY FEMALE performer. Now, let me say this before I go any further. I am real sick and tired of going to festivals, events, particularly those of hip-hop origins and only seeing 1 and at BEST 2 female artists, like there is some SHORTAGE of dope female acts, when truth is, it’s NOT. Dudes tend to own a lot of these companies and don’t check for women performers. And when they do, it’s normally the one random eye-candy braud and dudes try to “big her up” like she’s the dopest thing since sliced bread, when there are MANY dope female artist. Now I could go on about that, but let’s just say, why at a pseudo hip-hop picnic is the ONE FEMALE performer a ROCK performer instead of HIP-HOP? Again, whomever the event throwers are between Live Nation and their folks, you could tell this WAS NOT a ROOTS picnic, this was some folks who decided to pimp The Roots name as frontliners, to the back end of BS–this shit was about promoting Miller Lite, and how was it a picnic, when the food wasn’t free? They should have at least had a real grill set up or something to signify that–it was totally NOT what we anticipated.
DISTURBED FEMCEE

I’m not a rock person, but my husband enjoyed Santigold, then we enjoyed Public Enemy’s performance. Then another rock group I never heard of called TV On The Radio performed, now they were dope, even though I don’t like rock, but the bass on the instruments was so loud, you thought you were going deaf! I couldn’t even hear the lead vocals words. Now get this, they were supposed to go on and be done by 10pm and the Roots was supposed to rock from 10-11. Did that happen? HELL NO! As a matter of fact, TV On The Radio did MORE songs than the ROOTS–now wtf is THAT about? It’s a ROOTS picnic and they play longer than the group featured on the flyer? Who ppl paid their money to see? No disrespect to them as artists, however, they didn’t come on stage until 10:40 after an elaborate set-up, much more elaborate than the ROOTS, and they were on the stage for damn near 45 minutes and then they had to break down that elaborate ass set-up. The ROOTS had to come on when the stage wasn’t even fully set back up for them, now that’s CRAZY! And if that wasn’t bad enough, when The ROOTS finally hit the stage, the SOUND was completely fucked UP! You could not hear Black Thought for the first 3-4 pieces he did. Finally, they turned the damn mic up when Amanda Diva came out with another mic in her hand to accompany Black Thought singing the Erykah Badu cover, yet her mic didn’t work, so she ended up taking Black Thought’s mic and trading off with him and I have done enough shows to know that shit wasn’t planned and Black Thought looked pissed (I don’t know if he was), but it DAMN sure looked like it. The instruments completely drowned the sound of Black Thought rhyming and the brother who plays guitar who also sang (can’t recall his name at the moment). Oh, flashback, Public Enemy called Beanie Siegel to the stage to spit, do you know he came on stage and spit one line? I mean no seriously, one line literally, not two that rhymed, one damn line–I know he wasn’t scheduled, but come on boo, one line? Why even come on stage?
DISTURBED FEMCEE

Now, at the end, I told my husband once The Roots do their 5th song, we can head out to beat the traffic, because at this point my feet were numb from standing damn near 8 hours on concrete(in flats I might add). I didn’t even care about seeing the ending because we had had such a bad experience overall, it was just like FUCK IT! As we are leaving, we get about 25 paces from the space and we hear the ROOTS say, thank you all, GOOD NIGHT! What the hell? Tv On The Radio did 7 full songs, loud ass bassy ass songs with full throttle and the ROOTS, while they didn’t do full songs, if you added them up, they may have done 5, maybe. In that case, I was wondering what the fuck did I pay $50 for? There was NO MENTION of any damn charity and frankly I don’t think there is one. Miller Lite sponsored it from the looks of it. they had the most signs up. Red Bull had a few tables and to kick it off LIVE NATION’s name was NOWHERE to be found at the venue, but The ROOTS name is. That’s that bullshit. That’s why I wnated to put a disclaimer because often times we blame the wrong ppl for shit. In this case, I blame the promoters and event coordinators. It was a WACK ass experience for folks coming all the way from DC and even the hometown Philly folks were pissed. We had conversations at the train station with folks who went last year and they said that last years lineup was better, and that they don’t understand why you are paying so much money and why the event is so long and that the piers get confusing, you never know which one something is popping off at. And there were absolutely NO SIGNS posted on the street to let you know you were going in the right direction for the picnic or NOTHING. Almost like the Events folks didn’t even give a fuck if you knew where it was or not, and why should they? Shit, they already got your money–and that’s what sucks because then ppl will blame The ROOTS instead of the folks behind the scenes pulling the strings. Luckily the next day we went to a records festival at The Arts Garage called “Ya Digg” because a sister was passing out flyers and doing promotions “the right way”, speaking directly to people, and that’s what made us go. My hubby is dj so he got mad records and we met some cool peeps from Philly, and that shit was FREE 99, and we had a MUCH better time. Now ain’t that something–sorry if I took up your blog space but I could not leave without saying my peace on this one. All I have to say is Live Nation and Okay Player pimped the game using the ROOTS name. My advice is see The ROOTS play when they are the only group performing and not on a hard ass concrete parking lot covered up with some foam.
dj crossfader

a message to DISTURBED FEMCEE i wasnt there but you got to see probably the 2 greatest hip hop acts ever on the same bill shut the fuck up moenin id stand out in the pouring rain to see that
dam girl

holy shit a 5 page blog. and did i read it was ur first time seeing the roots and u were going to leave. granted 5 songs is weak and i have seen them 5 times. but again it was your first time seeing the roots and you were going to or did leave after the 5th song? because your feet hurt? dam i need to read that again mb i will find it in your list of 3000 complaints. hereis what i learned from going to over 50 shows including RTB and other big outside shows. shit never goes to plans . roll with the punches. and be happy you even have legs is what my paralyzed friend always says.

one.
K-rocka rocka

WOW! I kinda feel u disturbed femcee, i went to the picnic last year in sweltering 95 degree weather! I think I lost like 10 pounds that day. Sad that that was ur first roots show, if i were u though id catch a more intimate venue (like the 930 club, or the meriweather pavillion which r both in the DC area). As a native philadelphian living in DC, and avid roots fan im sad that ur first roots show was some bullshit. I vowed last year that id never go to that picnc shananagin ever again!
femcee is a cancer

Femcee is a tool and obviously doesn’t have a clue about shit. The Roots picked artist’s they thought were dope and hand picked everything. Stop hating – you’re dumb and don’t know as much as you think. The Picnic was dope, The Roots are dope, the community they are with is healthy and you are a pollutant. stop posting dumb shit. THANKS TO THE ROOTS FOR A GREAT WEEKEND
Steamboat

First off the Roots Picnic was completely dope…Of course there are manys things that could be changed, the menu, the bleachers, merchandise, signings and all that other crap.

Dude i missed the First act…I’m not crying…the performance that i did see from the roots was insane…It is very evident that some people have never attended a concert. Shit always goes wrong.

I’m am now able to say that i saw Public Enemy at a concert, but not at any concert, on the same stage with the roots…Dude i drove from NY to see this concert…I guess i should say now u kno how the roots picnic is and things shouldn’t surprise u anymore lol

My only real complaint is that i want a video from last years concert in my possession.
femcee sucks

Gotdamn, femcee.

Complaining about the location: Why would you trust your hotel to tell you where to go? Why not do some research ahead of time and look at a map? And if it said Columbus and Spring Garden, why not ask for directions to the exact fucking address?

Why would you sit around at Penn’s Landing wasting your time? If you bought tickets, wouldn’t it be obvious that you were in the wrong place when you sat down at the stage and nobody took your ticket?

Complaining about lack of info: Why wouldn’t you research ahead of time? If you came on this website the day before, you could have gotten the times and known what the fuck was going on.

Who said the Picnic was a hip-hop only festival?

Why would you think you could leave and come back in? When was the last time you paid for a concert and they let you leave and come back?

You really expected free food at something like this?

I could go on, but the bottom line is that my god, your idiocy is just mind-blowing.
To Disturbed Femcee:

I mean this in the nicest way possible…I am really sorry you had a bad time but just next google everything and call up people on okayplayer representing the concert or whatever you have to do so you know exactly who is playing when, where and even how much food costs. I google search the crap out of everything anymore because you can’t rely on just winging it.
Kani Saburi Ayubu

One of these days I want to make it to this event. It seems real fly. Got some family up that way so maybe I can make this happen next year. – Kani, The Black Art Depot
Jamal420

Femcee.. you don’t know who TVOTR is.. wow Ive heard enough outta you. This concert wasnt meant for clowns like u. Pipe down.
Cole

hey i am planning on going to the roots picnic on June 4th this year, and I have a couple questions. is the tailgating scene enjoyable, if there is is even tailgating allowed? and secondly, is there a lot of underage drunk kids there who obviously cant control their alcohol?
any response would be great