Who to see at the Roots Picnic? Maxwell, Meek Mill, Lenny Kravitz, the Roots, and more

The 2025 Roots Picnic arrives this weekend on the expanded campus of the Mann Center in Fairmount Park.

Over 40 acts will play on multiple stages over the course of two days. So whom should you go see?

Not D’Angelo. The cancellation of most anticipated set of the festival — a rare performance by the neo-soul and funk master, backed by the Roots — was announced last Friday, with R&B love man Maxwell stepping in to fill his shoes.

(The Roots have gotten good at this last minute substitution drill: in 2023, Diddy pulled out at the last minute — fortuitously, in retrospect — and was replaced by Usher.)

So now the big headliners are Maxwell — who will play with his own band, rather than being backed by the Roots, on Saturday — and Lenny Kravitz and Meek Mill, who share equal billing on Sunday.

And the ever-growing Roots Picnic is now much more than a two-day multistage music gathering. Besides the Roots Picnic Food Festival — which is part of the goings-on at the Mann — there will also be plenty of adjacent attractions spread all over the city.

Those include the 3rd annual Roots Picnic Con, “a day of education and community” during the day at Punchline Philly in Fishtown, featuring panel discussion and a keynote conversation between the Roots Tariq “Black Thought” Trotter and filmmaker Malcolm D. Lee.

On Friday at 4 p.m., Gillie and Wallo267 will host a celebrity basketball game at the Alan Horwitz “Sixth Man” Center. On Friday night at Punchline, Black Thought will host a Delirious comedy night, and do a little stand up himself. And also that night at Warehouse on Watts, a Roots Picnic Pride Soiree will go off, featuring Bayli, Sky Jetta, and others.

If after all that, you still have energy to go to the actual Picnic, here are 10 acts — five per day — to put on your hit list, beyond the top-line headliners. Take note that since the D’Angelo-Maxwell switcheroo, several acts have flip-flopped to play on different days than they were originally announced.

That’s a phonetic spelling of “I Just Wanna Sing,” a straight-to-the-point declaration, also the name of the debut album by Philly’s Taalib Johnson, also known as Musiq Soulchild. That 2000 release put the mellifluous-voiced Soulchild on the map, featured the production teams of Dre & Vidal and Carvin & Ivan, and spawned the singles “Girl Next Door” and “Just Friends (Sunny).”

Memphis rapper GloRilla — born Gloria Hallelujah Woods — went viral in 2022 with her debut single “F.N.F. (Let’s Go).” Since then, she has been on a steady rise, smartly aligning herself with other formidable female rappers like Cardi B. on “Tomorrow” and Megan Thee Stallion on “Wanna Be.” Her 2024 full-length debut Glorious added Sexyy Red, Kirk Franklin, Latto (who is also on the bill Saturday), and Philly vocalist Fridayy to her list of collaborators.

Miguel has played many a festival date in Philadelphia, but this will be the arty Mexican American R&B singer and songwriter’s Roots Picnic debut. He hasn’t released an album of new material since 2017’s War & Leisure, but has remained visible. Thanks to his song “Sure Thing,” from his 2010 album All I Want Is You, going viral on TikTok in 2023. He has also made some successful collaborations with Kilo Kish, most recently on the electro soul single “Negotiate.”

Tems — whose full name is Temilade Openiyi Mafia Kibwija Nyirumufutu — is the Nigerian singer whose vocal on Wizkid’s 2020 single “Essence” turned the song into a global sensation. She proved there’s much more to her artistry with last year’s Born in the Wild, an 18-song set of self-penned songs that mixes modern R&B with Afrobeat influences and jazzy overtones.

With D’Angelo unavailable, we can hope that British Sudanese up-and-coming singer Elmiene can break out into the viral cover of “Untitled (How Does It Feel),” which helped launch his career. Get ready to be wowed by his supple, tender voice, showcased on his EPs For the Deported and This Is the Remix, as well as a showstopping cover of Jeff Buckley’s “Lover, You Should’ve Come Over.”

Do You Want More?!!!??!, released in January 1995, and was the second Roots studio album; its first for a major label and the first to convey a cohesive version of its genre-melding sound. It also contained classic tracks such as “Mellow My Man,” “I Remain Calm,” and “Proceed” that would become staples of the band’s live set for decades.

For years now, the Roots Picnic’s one weakness — ironically — is that there hasn’t been enough Roots in it, with the Philly band spreading itself around backing others, rather than playing its own music. This set will remedy that.

» READ MORE: Lenny Kravitz is finally coming to Roots Picnic to ‘Let Love Rule’ in Fairmount Park

The Haitian Canadian DJ-producer and rapper Kaytranada has accumulated a mightily impressive CV as a producer, working with a who’s who of R&B and hip-hop artists, including Kali Uchis, Alicia Keys, Mick Jenkins, Kelela, Cassie, Snoop Dogg, and many more. But the two-time Grammy winner has also stepped under his own name, most recently with last year’s Timeless, which sported vocal features from Dawn Richard and Anderson .Paak, but also stood on its own in a wordless instrument version that mixes house and hip-hop.

One of the most salutary developments in recent Roots Picnic history has been the Sunday afternoon Baller Alert Go-Go shows that pack the TD Pavilion, with fans of the Washington-born funk genre. This year, the Backyard Band — led by Anwan Glover, who played Slim Charles in HBO’s The Wire — will be joined by CeeLo Green of Gnarls Barkley “Crazy” fame.

Tariq “Black Thought” Trotter’s unparalleled extemporizing skills on the mic will be on display in this afternoon set, with DJ J. Period as the beatmaster and two top flight guests, Pusha-T and 2 Chainz, going toe-to-toe with the Roots rapper.

Rich Medina grew up in New Jersey and moved to Philadelphia in 1992, and, as he explained when he was a Pew Fellow in 2022, he approaches his DJ practice as an archivist, storyteller, educator, and “ambassador for Black excellence.” He has two Picnic gigs on Sunday: one with house music heroines Crystal Waters and CeCe Peniston, and a second in which he and his globe-trotting DJ cohort mate Cosmo Baker will re-create The Remedy, the weekly hip-hop event in Philadelphia in the late 1990s and early 2000s that gained world renown.