Artist The Roots

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The Roots

The Roots have been extremely cool so far as the house band on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, a show that gains a lot from the energy the group emits just sitting there. In addition to its ineffable aura, no other outfit in hip-hop (not to mention any other realm of music) boasts as strong a reputation for barnstorming funk pyrotechnics. Even if The Roots’ incendiary leanings are tempered a bit on TV, the Late Night gig hasn’t dampened the group’s restless activity: A record called How I Got Over came out in 2010; the group backed John Legend on a classic soul covers album; and The Roots just released their first concept album, Undun, a magnum opus whose narrative unfolds similarly to Christopher Nolan’s Memento—which is also pretty cool.

Updated 12/14/2011