Public Theater to Welcome The Roots, 5/13-14

The Public Theater, The Roots, and Def Jam Recordings announced today that they will present ...and then you shoot your cousin, a two-night concert event celebrating the release of The Roots' new album of the same name on Tuesday, May 13 and Wednesday, May 14 at 8:30 p.m. in The Public's intimate 260-seat Anspacher Theater. A limited number of tickets are on sale now to benefit The Public Theater.

Benefit tickets to support The Public Theater start at $200 and are on sale now at www.publictheater.org; by calling (212) 967-7555, or in person at the Taub Box Office at The Public Theater at Astor Place at 425 Lafayette Street. These limited number of benefit tickets to ...and then you shoot your cousin are a tax-deductible donation that goes to support The Public's mission of giving voice to new and established artists and to provide audiences throughout New York City with free and low priced tickets.

...and then you shoot your cousin is a satirical look at the Dionysian impulse in contemporary hip-hop told through a series of ne'er-do-wells and outlaws. The characters are dysfunctional, alienated, occasionally mean-spirited, but always meaningful - denizens of the permanent underclass who have become lost in history's shuffle without losing their sense of the broader comedy of existence. They look at their own life both from within and from without, self-possessed and self-aware in ways that set them apart from the standard hip-hop protagonist who rarely attempts to scale the fourth wall. Some of them may even have shot their cousins.

The core of the two-night concert event is the new album by The Roots of the same name, ...and then you shoot your cousin. The album's lyrics seed the character's inner monologues and its melodies and rhythms supply personal and political context, all set against a background of cascading absurdist monologues, flat-footed rap verse, deconstructed samples, found sounds, and improvisational movement pieces.

The evening will feature Roots members Black Thought on vocals and Questlove, who previously appeared at The Public Theater for a Public Forum last year with David Byrne, on turntable; along with the legendary sampling artist Jeremy Ellis; the ground breaking chamber orchestra Metropolis Ensemble; the award-winning jazz pianist, composer and arranger D.D. Jackson, the highly acclaimed dancer/motion artist Storyboard P, the extraordinary musician and beatboxer, Rahzel, and the incomparable jazz trombonist and composer Craig S. Harris on didgeridoo.

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