Nas & The Roots in Long Beach

Nas is an American rapper born in 1973 and raised in the Queensbridge Houses in New York City. His 1994 debut album, Illmatic, established his detailed street narratives and jazz-rooted East Coast sound; his best-known recordings also include “N.Y. State of Mind,” “The World Is Yours,” “If I Ruled the World (Imagine That)” and “Made You Look.” The 2012 Life Is Good/Black Rage tour paired Nas with Lauryn Hill. Two years later, he marked the 20th anniversary of Illmatic by performing the album in full on tour and presented it with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center. In 2022 he joined Wu-Tang Clan for the arena and amphitheatre dates of the NY State of Mind Tour, which returned in 2023 with De La Soul.

The Roots are an American hip-hop band formed in Philadelphia in 1987 by drummer Questlove and rapper Black Thought. Known for performing rap with a full instrumental lineup, they have built a catalogue that includes the albums Things Fall Apart, Phrenology and Game Theory, as well as the songs “You Got Me” and “The Seed (2.0).” In 2001, The Roots backed Jay-Z for an MTV Unplugged performance that was released as a live album. They later performed at Dave Chappelle’s Block Party in Brooklyn, backed several of its guests and founded the annual Roots Picnic at Festival Pier in 2008. Television then made live performance a nightly part of their work: they became the house band for Late Night with Jimmy Fallon in 2009 and moved with him to The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in 2014.