The Roots come back to Atlantic City for the first time since 2015

The Philadelphia band plays Hard Rock Live at Etess Arena on Sunday, Jan. 17, with Tierra Whack and DJ Jazzy Jeff on the bill and tickets on sale now.

The last time The Roots played the shore, it was the dead week between Christmas and New Year's: Dec. 27, 2015, at the Borgata Event Center. Nearly eleven years later, the band is coming back down the Expressway for another winter date.

The Roots play Hard Rock Live at Etess Arena in Atlantic City on Sunday, Jan. 17, 2027, at 8 p.m. Ticketmaster bills it as The Roots with special guest Tierra Whack, and DJ Jazzy Jeff is also listed on the night. Tickets run $95.10 to $331.20 through Ticketmaster. The presale opened Oct. 20 and the general on-sale followed on Oct. 23, so seats are available now.

That's a long gap for a band whose home base is Philadelphia. South Jersey fans who wanted The Roots in the years since have mostly had to cross the bridge, whether to a Philadelphia date or to the band's own Roots Picnic. A Sunday night in mid-January, in a 7,000-capacity arena on the Boardwalk, is a different kind of show. It's big enough to feel like an event, and it falls on the Sunday of a long holiday weekend, with Martin Luther King Jr. Day the next morning, so a lot of people won't have work on Monday.

Nearly eleven years later, the band is coming back down the Expressway for another winter date.

The bill makes it more than a one-act night. Tierra Whack brings one of the more inventive voices in rap from the last decade, and a set from DJ Jazzy Jeff is a draw in itself for anyone who grew up on records.

As for The Roots themselves, a lot has changed since that 2015 Borgata night, though the core idea hasn't. This is still a hip-hop group that plays as a full live band, built around Questlove's drums and Black Thought's verses, and it's still the reason people who don't usually go to rap shows end up at one. Questlove has talked publicly about a new Roots album titled End Game, which would be the group's first in more than a decade. We couldn't confirm a release date, so don't count on hearing a new record's songs at the Hard Rock. You can count on a band that has spent years backing everyone from late-night guests to festival headliners, and knows how to fill a room.

Etess Arena is the Hard Rock's main concert room, the arena-sized space inside the property on the north end of the Boardwalk. For a band that last played a ballroom-sized room in town, it's a step up in scale, and the support acts help justify it. With an 8 p.m. start, expect Whack and Jazzy Jeff earlier in the evening and The Roots to hit the stage later.

If you've been waiting since 2015, this is the one. Book the room, make it a weekend, and get there early enough to catch the openers.

Sources: The Roots — Ticketmaster tour dates (Atlantic City, Jan. 17, 2027, with special guest Tierra Whack) (ticketmaster.com); The Roots with special guest Tierra Whack — Ticketmaster event (ticketmaster.com); DJ Jazzy Jeff — Ticketmaster tour dates (ticketmaster.com); The Roots Picnic — Ticketmaster (ticketmaster.com); The Roots Atlantic City tickets on sale for Hard Rock Live show — TicketNews (ticketnews.com); Questlove Reveals Syd, Benny The Butcher Features on New Roots Album — Okayplayer (okayplayer.com); The Roots at The Blue Note, NYC, in 2025 — Wikimedia Commons (commons.wikimedia.org); Martin Luther King Jr. Day - Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org); Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Atlantic City - Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org); The Roots - Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)