Jay-Z is teaming up with The Roots to headline the 2026 instalment of Roots Picnic.
Their joint performance is set to close out the first day of the Philadelphia festival on Saturday May 30. The two-day event is taking place at Belmont Plateau this year for the first time – you can find tickets here.
The festival will reunite the Brooklyn legend with the iconic band for their first joint headlining performance in over a decade. They first shared the stage in November 2001 for JAY-Z’s iconic MTV Unplugged performance, and The Roots have since backed him during his performances on The Tonight Show.
Jay-Z’s return to the stage was announced yesterday, (March 17), with a poster which stylised his moniker as JAŸ-Z – the way it was written on his seminal debut album ‘Reasonable Doubt’.
“Moving the Roots Picnic to Belmont Plateau and bringing JAŸ-Z and The Roots together to perform are both bucket-list moments for us,” said Shawn Gee, The Roots’ manager and president of Live Nation Urban in a statement. “After meeting with Mayor Cherelle Parker and hearing her vision for Philadelphia 250, she truly inspired us to dream even bigger, and we’re grateful to her, Commissioner Susan Slawson, Jazelle Jones and everyone who helped make it happen. We can’t wait to see everyone in May at the Plat.”
Jay-Z’s last headline performance was a 2019 show at New York’s Webster Hall, and he was last on stage in July 2025, when he joined his wife, Beyoncé, during her final ‘Cowboy Carter’ tour date in Las Vegas.
The performance comes as part of the ongoing 30th anniversary celebrations for Jay-Z’s debut album ‘Reasonable Doubt’.
Last month, to mark the occasion, he released the original version of the album’s first single, ‘Dead Presidents’, on streaming services for the first time.
Produced by Ski Beatz, the track was first released independently through Roc-A-Fella Records, but the original version didn’t make the final cut of the album, with its sequel, ‘Dead Presidents II’, instead being included, with different lyrics over the same production.
