The Roots Break Down Four Decades of NBA Greatness for the 2017 All-Star Game

Hip-hop was heavily featured in the 2017 NBA All-Star Weekend festivities, and last night (Feb. 19), The Roots closed things out by giving the pregame set for the main event; the NBA All-Star Game itself.

The Philly band performed an original number titled "The Evolution of Greatness," which finds Black Thought flowing poetically over a jazzy instrumental about decades of NBA greatness. "We live in a culture that has always been obsessed/With one age-old question, who's the best?/When was the best era?/When was the best player?/Who is strongest, the fastest, the prettiest, the most stylistic?/What is excellence?/What is legendary?/I mean, why do we even play?/Define imminence/Who are the illustrious that elevated the sport to an art form?/What is supremacy?/What is greatness?," he flows.

The beloved hip-hop ensemble is currently working on their 17th overall album, End Game. In October, Questlove revealed the news to fans via social media, posting a video of the work in progress, along with the caption, "In 1996 w our 3rd album #IlladelphHalflife we decided to be our own sampling source and jam in the day and sample ourselves at night. 20 years later we are working on our 17th album entitled #Endgame....& we startin all over again. Here the gawd @StroElliot is breaking out his get busy tools and making ish sound tight!."

This will be the group's first LP since 2014's ...And Then You Shoot Your Cousin.

Check out their NBA All-Star Game intro below.

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