The Roots to Retire From Touring?

This past weekend, ?uestlove announced via Youtube that The Roots, who have been on the road for the better part of the last decade, have finally decided to retire from touring to take on a new challenge in March, as the house band for Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.

Though Quest quickly dispelled the rumors that the Philadelphia crew were retiring from recording music altogether, all evidence, from the YouTube video to the message board posts on his website have since been removed, leaving us summarily puzzled.




The Roots have basically become the universal "rap tour house band," taking part in virtually every important performance, in support of artists from Eminem and Jay-Z to Dave Chappelle, and covering our favorites from Nas to Nirvana, but this new gig will be an entirely new direction for the crew. There's no word as to the nature of the residency, whether it will be the entire band (including Black Thought and Malik B) etc., but at the very least it offers an interesting opportunity for live performers on the show (Brit-Brit and Quest duet? Finally!).

We don't want to judge Fallon's show before he gets a fair chance, so instead we're going to go ahead and begin anticipating the inevitably awkward ?uestlove/Jimmy fallon interchanges and hope for the best.