Roots Picnic 2018
photo by Rafe Baron

Roots Picnic 2018 cut short by weather; Cam'ron solo replaced Dipset & more (pics)

Black Thought debuted tracks from his first ever solo project, Streams of Thought, Vol. 1— an unexpected offering released earlier this week with 9th Wonder. During Black Thought’s solo set, he rapped endlessly, not skipping a beat or a breath, à la his now-legendary Hot 97 freestyle. He performed parts of his “Live Mixtape” series with J.Period before bringing out Fabolous, who ran through cuts from his Friday on Elm Street project alongside Jadakiss who, in turn, brought out Styles P. Question of how Fab would be received following the lurid news of his domestic abuse allegations arose before the show. The crowd answered in overwhelming support, cheering him on and rapping along to every lyric.

The Diplomats reunion was hardly that, but the Uptowner in me wasn’t completely disappointed. Cam’ron held the set down, solo, running through the group’s collection of culture-shifting hits. He was accompanied only by Freekey Zekey and his infamous dance moves, as Jim Jones was out of sight, while Juelz Santana is currently under house arrest following federal firearms charges. Cam lead a “Free Juelz!” chant that echoed across the crowd. [OkayPlayer]

The Roots Picnic went down at Philly’s Festival Pier on Saturday (6/2) with headliners The Roots doing one of their jam sessions. The Roots were introduced by Dave Chappelle and they brought out 2 Chainz, but then the show was shut down early due to torrential downpours and heavy thunder and lightning. Before that, there was Lil Uzi Vert, a solo set from Cam’ron in place of The Diplomats’ scheduled set, The Roots’ Black Thought doing his live mixtape (with 9th Wonder, J.Period, Fabolous, Jadakiss, and surprise guest Styles P), Dirty Projectors, dvsn, Rich the Kid, Jay Critch, GoldLink, BADBADNOTGOOD, Rapsody, Tierra Whack and more. Photos are in the gallery above.

photos by Rafe Baron