Today (March 17), it was announced that JAŸ-Z will be performing with the Roots for the first time in over a decade. The performance is set to take place at the Roots Picnic later this year. It will be held at Philadelphia’s Belmont Plateau. The Roc Nation founder is scheduled to headline on May 30.
The festival shared the exciting news in an Instagram post this morning. Pre-sale tickets are available to purchase now, while general on-sale begins tomorrow at 10 a.m. ET. Additional performers are expected to be announced in the coming days.
“Moving the Roots Picnic to Belmont Plateau and bringing JAŸ-Z and The Roots together to perform are both bucket-list moments for us,” Shawn Gee, the Roots’ manager and president of Live Nation Urban, said of the announcement. “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.”
Is JAŸ-Z Dropping A New Album?
News of JAŸ-Z's headlining slot at the Roots Picnic comes just a few weeks after he decided to change up his name on streaming services. He's back to stylizing his name as JAŸ-Z, after years of going by JAY-Z.
The name change earned big reactions from social media users. It also sparked a great deal of speculation about what it could mean. Many, for example, believe that it's tied to the 30th anniversary of his 1996 debut album, Reasonable Doubt.
Those supporters theorize that a special anniversary edition of the project could be coming soon. Others suspect that the name change could indicate that an entirely new album is in the works, though at the time of writing, that remains to be seen.
