With Grammy Award winners Lenny Kravitz, Maxwell, and Miguel just a few of the big names at the 17th annual Roots Picnic, any of them could have closed out the two-day festival. But once Philadelphia’s own Meek Mill was added to the lineup, there was no one in the lineup better suited to close it than the city’s hip-hop star, and that’s what happened.
The man born Robert Rihmeek Williams took pride in the opportunity, performing many of his hits while spreading love and wisdom to his brothers and sisters in the “City of Brotherly Love.”
He performed several songs off of the platinum album Championships, including “24/7,” “All Eyes on You,” “Uptown Vibes,” and even the album’s “Intro.” Philadelphia’s own Fridayy joined Meek Mill to perform “Don’t Give Up on Me” and a song they released earlier this year, “Proud of Me.”
“I want to give a special shout out to PNB Rock, a true soldier from Philadelphia,” Meek Mill said of the hip-hop artist who was murdered in a Los Angeles robbery in September 2022. “Where I come from, we come from the streets. We don’t kill each other over material (things)” He added that “we grind, we love our folks, and we are going to keep pushing Philadelphia” before launching into his song, which featured PNB Rock and Jeremih, “Dangerous.”
Other songs performed by the 2016 Billboard Music Award winner for Top Rap Album included 2011’s hit “Ima Boss,” “!942 Flows,” and perhaps the song he is best known for, and the one the crowd was waiting for, “Dreams and Nightmares.”
Meek Mill was not the only Philly artist to take the stage. The festival’s creators, The Roots, celebrated the 30th anniversary of their second album, Do You Want More?!!!??! and performed “Proceed,” “Distortion to Static,” and “Silent Treatment” with Black Thought on vocals and ?uestlove leading the band on percussion. Spoken word artist Ursula Rucker performed “The Unlocking” with the group.
Other Philadelphians to take the stage included producer and radio personality DJ Diamond Kuts, as well as hip-hop artists Lay Bankz, Freeway, and Beanie Sigel.
It may have been someone from a bit south of Philadelphia who summed up the event at the end of the rain-soaked opening day of the festival that saw the dirt at Fairmount Park turn to mud.
“This is outstanding,” Dave Chappelle said after making the crowd laugh briefly with an awful dance move as he joined singer Maxwell onstage. “From the front to the back, all I see is beautiful Black people. I don’t see no violence. I don’t see no hatred. I just see love from community. I flew all the way from Ohio. Shout out to the legendary Roots crew from Philadelphia that puts this whole weekend together and shout out to my good brother Maxwell. It’s beautiful to see what Maxwell’s doing. I’m going to enjoy the show. Goodnight.”
