Many young rappers focus on violence of materialism as they try to make a name for themselves in the genre, but the Roots instead concentrated on bringing in the best musical influences to create their one-of-a-kind hip-hop band. The group first formed as a duo in the late 1980s when Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson and Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter first met in the principal's office of the Philadelphia High School for the Creative and Performing Arts. They discovered a mutual love for music as Thompson lends his talents as a jazz drummer and Trotter is an MC. They first name their collaboration Square Roots.

The duo started playing anywhere they could and soon added Leon "Hub" Hubbard on bass and rapper Malik B. They started gaining an immense underground following in Philadelphia and New York, pushing them to eventually record the album Organix in 1993. The album led to a record deal, and the released Do You Want More?!!??! in 1995. They decided to take a different route with the album than most hip-hop groups, refusing to use samples for their album and instead recording the way a band does. While not yet a hit with hip-hop fans, the album was picked up by fans of alternative music and pushed on to the charts.

The lineup of the Roots tended to be rather fluid throughout the years, adding and subtracting new members on every album. They released Illadelph Halflife in 1996, which started gaining them momentum before the release of Things Fall Apart in 1999, a massive success that hit number two on the Top R&B/Hip-hop Albums chart and number four on the Billboard 200. They have continued to build a name for themselves throughout the 2000s. Their recent release, Rising Down, made it to number one on the Top Rap Albums in 2008.