“What we do every day onstage, there's lights, there's lots of other musicians, there's an audience, there's a microphone and mic stands - layers of the onion we have to kind of hide behind.”

American rapper, singer, actor, and television host

Tariq Luqmaan Trotter, known as Black Thought, is an American rapper, singer, actor, and television host, and the lead MC of The Roots. He co-founded the Philadelphia hip hop group with drummer Questlove. He is widely noted for his command of live performance, dense rhyme schemes, layered wordplay, and politically aware writing. With The Roots, he also serves as part of the house band for The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, where the group appears alongside Fallon and his guests.