Philadelphia Renames Street After The Legendary Roots Crew

After more than three decades in the music business, the legendary Roots Crew has been memorialized in their hometown of Philadelphia. Now, the road between South Street and Bainbridge Streets will be renamed: “Avenue of the Roots.”

Councilman Mark Squilla introduced the resolution to rename the stretch of East Passyunk Avenue after the Philly-bred hip-hop act last week at City Council. “They had first started there on Passyunk and South Street, that’s where they would go and do their singing at night,” Squilla said. “Philadelphia is still a land of music and arts and culture, and the more we bring attention to it, the better we are.”

On Friday, the sign was unveiled to Questlove, who founded the group with Black Thought in ’87.

“Welp, this is very Philly,” Questlove wrote. “Technically, we were supposed to wait for the vote, and then like in May come Picnic Time, we’d have an unveiling with confetti and kool-aid lol, but cats was like ‘NOAP! We finna put this jawn up now. Really awesome to see the place we honed our skills and craft embrace us.”

“The Roots started their performance experience by busking on the streets of Philadelphia. East Passyunk Avenue and South Street was one of their main locations. Since then, The Roots have taken Philadelphia with them on television nightly and to audiences worldwide. The Roots are, and will always be, appreciated as a talented band from the streets of Philadelphia,” the resolution read, according to Variety.

The official ceremony will kick off in May.