BY BANDINI • OCTOBER 30, 2018

Next March marks a decade for The Roots and Jimmy Fallon working together five nights a week. The partnership began in 2009 when the Grammy Award-winning band from Philadelphia joined The Late Show With Jimmy Fallon in the midst of one of their strongest album-making strides. That relationship carried over when Fallon assumed the coveted earlier TV slot, branded The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

Since joining Fallon’s fold, The Roots have released four group albums and three collaborative projects. Questlove, Black Thought, Kamal Gray, Captain Kirk Douglas, Tuba Gooding, Jr., James Poyser, and the rest of the players have added two Grammys to their shelves (thanks to 2010’s Wake Up! with John Legend).

However, the transition pulled one of the hardest-touring acts in all of music from their home on the road. While The Roots still do occasional dates, and they host their annual picnic in Philly, the move put them on the stages of NBC Studios’ “30 Rock” for all to see, instead of inside of a venue near you. Appearing on The Breakfast Club, Jimmy Fallon explains that it took some convincing, all in the name of TV history.

At 22:00, Charlamagne Tha God asks Fallon if adding The Roots required some convincing of the NBC brass. “Yeah, it wasn’t that easy. It was interesting,” begins the Emmy and Grammy Award-winning host, actor, and stand-up. However, he reveals that the convincing aspect was more about courting the group than any exec.

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