How The Roots got over (at the Grammys)

As highly esteemed as The Roots are as the most well-respected live band in hip-hop for going on a couple of decades, you might think the Philadelphians had taken home a bucketload of Grammys by now.

Not so. Until the Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson and Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter fronted ensemble won three on Sunday night for Wake Up!, their collection of '60s and '70s socially conscious R & B songs sung by their pal John Legend - that's the U of P. grad on the left - they had only won once before.

To understand why the Roots won this time you just have to look back on what they won for the last time - in 1999, when they got a golden gramophone for "You Got Me," their biggest hit to date, which featured a guest rap by an up-and-coming Philadelphia MC named Eve and, more importantly, a chorus sung by Erykah Badu.

Just as the band used the assist from Badu to get in Grammys good graces, their hook up with Legend, a serial Grammy grabber who now has nine total, reaped rewards, with trophies for best traditional R & B performance, best R & B album and best R & B song.

And while that's a nice haul for Legend, who's in the middle of working on a new album produced by his pal Kanye West, it's a big deal for the Roots, who can now put "multiple Grammy winners" on their resume.

I'm sure it would have meant even more to ?uestlove to win Best Rap Album for last year's How I Got Over. The band was nominated in the category for the third time (they were nominated for Phrenology in 2002 and Game Theory in 2007), and this time lost to Eminem's Recovery.

Still, winning for Wake Up! - which takes it name from both the Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes song "Wake Up Everybody" and "Wake Up" by Grammy album of the year winners Arcade Fire - is a big deal, as ?uestlove made clear with this Tweet. "Man to win one .... but 3? This is nothing to @johnlegend but everything to me. Wow."

Oh, and I've got one other Roots and Philadelphia related Grammy bone to pick: It's nice to win Grammys, but it's just as nice to get to perform live on prime time, even if you don't win. There was a Grammy segment that could not have been more perfectly suited to Legend and the Roots: the musical tribute to Teddy Pendergrass, the late Philadelphia soul man and singer for Melvin and the Blue Notes.

But did Legend and the Roots get to pay tribute to Teddy Bear, who died in January 2010. No. Instead, that privilege went to Lady Antebellum, the smoothed over country-pop trio whose name romanticizes pre-Civil War era when the Southern economy was fueled by slave labor.

Presumably they got the gig because the titles of Melvin and the Blues Notes' "You Don't Know Me By Now" and Lady A's "Need You Now" are similar and make for nice medley making. Otherwise, it didn't make any sense to me, or to ?uestlove, for that matter, who made a few thumb typos when he Tweeted thusly: "Hmmmm. So 6 nominations w / one of them being a teddy cover ... and lady antebellum gets the pendergrass tribute w a chrous huh @johnlegend?"

Below, The Roots and Legend's cover of Arcade Fire's "Wake Up," which didn't make Wake Up!.

Previously: Post-Gammy Show Announcements: Florence & the Machine, Cee Lo Coming To Town