Black Thought, Questlove and their production company, Two One Five Entertainment, have signed a first-look deal with Universal Television and Universal Television Alternative Studio.
“The Roots are innovators and cultural tastemakers whose breadth of musical knowledge is unparalleled,” said Meredith Ahr, President of 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.”
According to Variety, the three-year deal will expand Questlove and Black Thought’s relationship with NBC. The Roots currently serve as the house band for “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.” Questlove also served as the musical director for the show.
“This deal is very important to us as we’ve been content producers and storytellers for our entire career,” said Questlove. “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. [Black Thought] 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.”
The new deal with allow development on unscripted and scripted specials on digital platforms and television.
“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,” Black Thought said. “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.”
Congrats to Black Thought and Questlove on their new endeavors!