Today, GRAMMY Award-winning multi-platinum hip-hop luminaries The Roots announce their return to the iconic Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, CA, with A Roots Picnic Experience: Class of ’95, hosted by Live Nation Urban and the LA Phil. Set to take place on Sunday, June 8, 2025, the one-night-only concert special will feature a lineup of A-list talent who made 1995 a year to remember in hip-hop history: Method Man & Redman, Lil’ Kim, E-40, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Raekwon, DJ Quik, Goodie Mob, Havoc of Mobb Deep and more. The Roots will headline A Roots Picnic Experience: Class of ’95 and serve as the backing band for all guest performances. Tickets go on sale Wednesday, December 11 at 10 am PT at hollywoodbowl.com. Check out the full lineup below.
A Roots Picnic Experience: Class of ’95 follows last summer’s sold-out Roots Picnic: Hip-Hop is the Love of My Life at Hollywood Bowl, which saw the band bring their iconic Roots Picnic experience and curation of artists to the West Coast for the first time. Roots Picnic: Hip-Hop is the Love of My Life featured special performances by The Roots, Queen Latifah, Common, Digable Planets, Arrested Development and more iconic acts that have helped define the genre over the last half century. Watch a recap of Roots Picnic: Hip-Hop is the Love of My Life HERE. The upcoming Roots Picnic Experience: Class of ’95 continues to build upon the renowned music festival, which Rolling Stone hails as “Hip-Hop’s Greatest Festival,” promising show stopping performances, The Roots’ signature jam sessions and surprises throughout the evening.
On A Roots Picnic Experience: Class of ’95, Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson commented, “Well: 1995 was our true arrival. Nineteen eighty-seven was the Year of the Creative Adhesive, the year that tied together Tariq’s world and my world in high school, and 1991 was the Year of the Green Light, the year we gave ourselves permission to take our resources and passion and pursue our dream. But 1995? That was the Year It All Came Together, the year when our first major release, “Do You Want More?!!!??!” was sent into the world. Hip-hop was an entirely new ballgame back then, on an entirely new playing field. Those were the days when there were still things like mainstream terrestrial radio, bloated video budgets, and creativity at both the regional and the global levels. Those were the days that produced classic album after classic album, unleashing countless new ideas about art. Those were the days when the world was our oyster. This is the story of those days.”
A Roots Picnic Experience: Class of ’95 Lineup: The Roots, Method Man & Redman, Lil’ Kim, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, E-40, Raekwon, DJ Quik, Goodie Mob, Havoc of Mobb Deep, and more to be announced.
Since launching in 2007, The Roots Picnic has stood at the crossroads of music and culture, entertaining, engaging and enlightening millions of fans along the way. Its dynamic lineups have included everyone from The Weeknd, Pharrell, Snoop Dogg, Usher, Nas, A$AP Rocky, Sexxy Red and Future to Vampire Weekend, Phantogram, The War On Drugs, Jill Scott, Gary Clark, Jr., Solange, Diplo, Gnarls Barkley and much more. “Roots Picnic” isn’t just a cornerstone of the group’s career, but a cornerstone of the culture. Curated by The Roots co-founders Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson and Tariq “Black Thought” Trotter, A Roots Picnic Experience: Class of ’95 once again expands The Roots and Live Nation Urban’s collective production efforts to the West Coast’s hallowed Hollywood Bowl.
