New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson and Tarik "Black Thought" Trotter of legendary hip-hop collective The
Roots and Two One Five Entertainment ink first-look deal with Universal Television Alternative Studio and Universal Television
· Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson and Tarik "Black Thought" Trotter of Grammy Award-winning, multiplatinum hip-hop collective The
Roots and their production company, Two One Five Entertainment, have inked a first-look deal with Universal Television Alternative Studio and Universal Television.
· The three-year deal covers development on scripted, unscripted and specials programming across television and digital content platforms, expanding The Roots' 10-year-plus relationship with NBC.
· "This deal is very important to us as we've been content producers and storytellers for our entire career," said Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson. "A significant investment from Universal Television Alternative Studio and Universal Television in our vision allows us to share these stories on a much larger scale. Tarik and I see this as the next chapter to our careers, and we are very involved in the entire process. I'm directing, Tarik is writing and we both are producing."
· "Many of our initial projects have been music-centric content, and one of our goals is to become the premiere hub for music storytelling - a safe space for these stories to be shared across a variety of platforms," added Tarik "Black Thought" Trotter. "Eventually we will expand outside of music with our stories. However, as we all know, every story has a rhythm and Two One Five Entertainment will harness that rhythm and create well-produced, compelling content."
· "The
Roots are innovators and cultural tastemakers whose breadth of musical knowledge is unparalleled," said Meredith Ahr, President, NBC Alternative and Reality Group. "The band has been a cornerstone of NBC's late-night programming for over a decade, and we are excited to extend our collaboration across a diverse slate of projects to bring even more compelling storytelling to our audience."
· The
Roots is the official house band on "The
Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon," where Questlove also serves as the show's Musical Director.
· About Two One Five Entertainment: Two One Five Entertainment, founded by Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson and Tarik "Black Thought" Trotter, is a full-service storytelling and content development media company. The foundation of the company is built upon compelling storytelling through the creation of films, short form and long form digital content, theatrical experiences and documentary styled content. Current projects in development include "Hip Hop Songs that Shook America," a docuseries that premiered on AMC to rave reviews last fall; the recently completed "Black Woodstock," a feature documentary about the "Harlem Cultural & Arts Festival" in 1969; a full slate of self-produced short-form music-based content distributed on You Tube and two Broadway productions;"
Black No More," in partnership with Oscar-winning writer John Ridley; and "Soul
Train the Musical". Two One Five has produced content for partners such as AMC, Disney, Amazon, VH1, BET, You Tube and Twitch. Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson, Tarik Trotter, The
Roots and Two One Five are all represented by Shawn Gee of
Maverick Management.
