Roots Picnic Rounds Out With Badu, Kehlani

The Roots Picnic has filled in the rest of its 2026 lineup, adding Erykah Badu as a second headliner alongside a deeper slate of R&B and hip-hop names.

As previously reported, Jay-Z will top the May 30 bill at Belmont Plateau with the Roots serving as his backing band — a years-in-the-making reunion that had already been announced earlier this week. Click here for tickets.

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The newly revealed details put Badu in the closing slot on May 31, giving the long-running Philadelphia festival a fitting counterbalance: one of hip-hop’s most elusive live performers followed by the enduring “Queen of Neo-Soul,” whose ties to the city date back to her earliest recordings.

Beyond the headliners, the expanded bill leans heavily into R&B legacy and contemporary crossover. Kehlani returns to the Roots Picnic stage for the first time in a decade, while Brandy makes her debut. Also newly announced are T.I., De La Soul, Mariah the Scientist, Wale, Jermaine Dupri and Philadelphia mainstay DJ Jazzy Jeff.

As in past years, the programming extends beyond standard sets. A 50th-anniversary celebration of go-go music will feature an all-star band, while Adam Blackstone is set to lead a tribute to the soundtrack of the 1995 film Waiting to Exhale with Yolanda Adams and Ledisi.

To see our running list of the top 100 greatest rock stars of all time, click here.