The Roots close out their concert with Black Thought speed rapping a cover of the Kool G Rap & DJ Polo song "Men At Work" live in concert at The Masonic Auditorium in San Francisco, California on February 23, 2023. Men At Work appeared on Kool G Rap & DJ Polo's debut studio album, Road To The Riches (1989). Before launching into a long double-time speed rap, Black Thought quotes from some different songs, including "The Breakdown Pt. 2" by Rufus Thomas ("Do you want to see it...") and "Double Barrel" by Dave and Ansel Collins ("I am the magnificent...").
The Roots are a hip-hop / soul band from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania consisting of Tariq Trotter a/k/a Black Thought (vocals), Ahmir Thompson a/k/a Questlove (drums), Kirk Douglas (guitar), Dave Guy (trumpet), Ian "The Chief" Hendrickson-Smith (saxophone / flute), Damon Bryson a/k/a Tuba Gooding, Jr. (sousaphone), Stro Elliot (percussion), Ray Angry (keyboards / keytar), and Kamal "Maldoc" Gray (keyboards). Joining them onstage was Thaddaeus Tribbett (bass).
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The Roots official bio:
The Roots have consistently elevated music and culture as one of the most influential and impactful hip-hop collectives of all time. Founded by Tariq “Black Thought” Trotter and Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, the three-time Grammy Award-winning multi platinum group went from rapping on Philadelphia corners all the way to gigs at The White House, a longtime stint as the “house band” on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, and billing atop their own annual festival The Roots Picnic. Among numerous classics, they changed hip-hop forever with 1999’s platinum Things Fall Apart-which Rolling Stone named one of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time and Pitchfork graded 9.4/10. Their Grammy Awards include Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group for “You Got Me,” Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance for “Hang On in There,” and Best R&B Album for Wake Up. As a live phenomenon, The Roots made history as the “first hip-hop group to perform at Lincoln Center,” and Rolling Stone lauded them as one of the “Twenty Greatest Live Acts in the World.” Black Thought and Questlove served as executive producers of the acclaimed AMC documentary series, Hip-Hop: The Songs That Shook America, and also launched their own film and television production company Two One Five Entertainment and locked down a first-look deal with Universal Television Alternative Studio and Universal Television. With their twelfth full-length album on the horizon, The Roots level up again and bring the whole culture with them.
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The Roots Holiday Tour live dates (2022-23):
Dec. 31 - Los Angeles, CA @ Walt Disney Concert Hall
Feb. 20 - Seattle, WA @ Showbox SoDo
Feb. 21 - Portland, OR @ Crystal Ballroom
Feb. 23 - San Francisco, CA @ The Masonic Auditorium (postponed from Dec. 29)
Feb. 24 - Denver, CO @ Mission Ballroom (postponed from Dec. 27)
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The Roots live tour dates (2023):
Mar. 18 - Chicago, IL @ The Salt Shed
April 29 - Bentonville, AR @ The Momentary
June 2 - 4 - Philadelphia, PA @ Roots Picnic
July 21 - London, UK @ Tottenham Hotspur Stadium
July 23 - Glasgow, UK @ Hampden Park National Stadium
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Men At Work lyrics:
Deadly rhymes, here's the solution
Smoking so bad, I'mma cause a pollution
With satisfaction, baddest action, fatal attraction
Drop you to an improper fraction
Ill insanity, kill like Amity-
Ville horror, as I wipe out humanity
Won't leave a path, a track, a trail to trace
But when you're staring inside a mirror, you see my face
And I'll terrify, so don't ever try
To shake or bake or flake cause I never fry
Letters together sly as a fox clever than ever
Silly ducks write rhymes with feathers
Really dope needles are needed to inject this
Dope cause I'm a death wish, not even Bob Hope's
Rhymes are rugged, soul flooded, cold blooded
You ain't better, you're butter, so just shut it
Here to perform, having a brainstorm, make a rain form
How rap groups run to keep the name warm
Putting heads to beddy-bye like Freddy so get ready
Cause I'mma get crazier than Crazy Eddie
I'm alone but my tone is a sharp tune
Developing pictures in your brain like a darkroom
Rappers are captured and tortured with rapture
In 3-D is a G coming at you
Words in my rap will surprise you like Cracker Jacks
You dig them like Sugar Smacks and bite them like Apple Jacks
Brother, sister, misses or mister
My style is complicated, patterns like a twister
Throws, my shadow grows when I walk slow
Nerds are scared to be heard so they talk low
But I've been urging to drill in your brain like a surgeon
Rhymes so dope and they're busting you up like a virgin
More competitors change to challenger
You need to talk into a mic with a silencer
My defeat is like a mission impossible
My brain is unexplained, not illogical
Tough for a passing pate to assassinate
Guns in your ass so fast, it'll fascinate
Written by Nathaniel Wilson a/k/a Kool G Rap / Marlon Williams a/k/a Marly Marl