Jay-Z (Shawn Carter) headlined Philadelphia’s annual Roots Picnic on Saturday (March 30), Pitchfork reports. The show marks his first solo headlining show in over five years. The highly-anticipated set also served as a potential preview for his upcoming series of New York performances to celebrate the 30th anniversary of his debut album Reasonable Doubt and its successor The Blueprint. He was backed by the Roots, who he had previously collaborated with on his 2001 MTV Unplugged live album, and supported by Jazmine Sullivan, Meek Mill, Bilal and more. The show also featured an unofficial State Property reunion, with Beanie Sigel, Freeway, Peedi Crakk, Memphis Bleek, and Young Gunz all taking the mic at various intervals, Pitchfork says. Watch the full performance below:
Over the course of the 90-minute performance, Jay-Z performed over 30 songs from across his catalog, including big hits (“Dirt Off Your Shoulders,” “Empire State of Mind,” “Run This Town,”) as well as deeper cuts (“Can I Live,” “Marcy Me”). Arguably the biggest surprise of the night came when, after opening with 2002’s “Hovi Baby,” Jay-Z jumped into a four-minute freestyle, which he told the crowd he had kept himself from practicing during rehearsals with the Roots.
During the a capella performance, he appeared to take shots at Drake, Nicki Minaj and Kanye West, whom Jay-Z likely holds fault over disparaging comments the Bully rapper made last year about Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s children. “You ever heard of wonder-kin? My children are some of them,” he rapped. “Have you n*ggas have no shame? You really wanna get under my skin? I’ll really get under ya skin (stab).” Still, despite the shade, Pitchfork reports that Jay-Z still performed multiple songs from his and West’s joint album Watch the Throne.
The freestyle comes on the heels of a recent GQ interview in which Jay-Z positioned beef within what he called “the four pillars of hip-hop:” breakdancing, graffiti, DJing, and battling. The rapper expressed concern over the way the modern diss track goes beyond the excitement of “sparring” into character assassination. “It’s too far. It’s bringing people’s kids into it. I don’t like that,” he said. “Back then, you had the battle, it was fun, and you moved on. Now, I don’t know if it can hold up with the technology we have.”
Jay-Z Roots Picnic 2026 Set List:
Hovi Baby
Freestyle
U Don’t Know
FucskWithMeYouKnowIGotIt
N*gga What, N*gga Who (Originator 99)
Run This Town
Jigga My N*gga
No Church in the Wild (with Bilal)
Where I’m From/Marcy Me
Empire State of Mind
Dirt Off My Shoulders
I Know
Never Change
Feelin’ It (with Jazmine Sullivan)
Need U Bad (Jazmine Sullivan solo)
Can I Live
The Story of OJ
Dead Presidents I & II
Excuse Me Miss/La La La
You, Me, Him and Her (with Memphis Bleek and Beanie Sigel)
Gotta Have It (Beanie Sigel and Peedi Crakk)
Roc the Mic (Freeway and Beanie Sigel)
Flipside (Freeway and Peedi Crakk)
Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop (Young Gunz)
What We Do (with Freeway and Beanie Sigel)
N*ggas in Paris
Dreams and Nightmares (with Meek Mill) (Meek Mill solo)
Roc Boys (And the Winner Is)…
I Just Wanna Love U (Give It 2 Me)/Big Pimpin’
Public Service Announcement
Photo Credit: Sharon Alagna
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