One of the founding members of the Grammy award-winning hip-hop group The Roots has died after years of battling cancer. Leonard Hubbard, a former bassist for the pioneering group, died from complications of blood cancer. Hubbard was 62 years old. He was first diagnosed in 2007. His wife, Stephanie Hubbard, confirmed the news of his death to the Philadelphia-based 6ABC station. She said that Hubbard’s health took an unexpected turn on Wednesday, Dec. 15, leaving him immobile. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, she was unable to stay with Hubbard after taking him to the hospital.
“I was called to the hospital,” she told 6ABC. “They told me what had happened, that he had passed. I went to the hospital and was able to sit with him.” Stephanie said that his cancer had been in remission until last month. Hubbard, affectionately known as “Hub,” is survived by his former bandmates Questlove and Tariq “Black Thought” Trotter. Member Malik B. died in 2020. “It’s with the heaviest of hearts that we say goodbye to our brother Leonard Nelson Hubbard,” the band tweeted Thursday. “May your transition bring peace to your family to your friends to your fans and all of those who loved you.”
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Hubbard’s diagnosis came the same year he left the group. He continued making music in between cancer treatments, including two rounds of chemo. Stephanie said he finished working on a project, The Awakening, the week before his passing. Stephanie said the album includes features with artists including Jill Scott, Ben Harper, Vernon Reid, Jeff “Tain” Watts, Lady Alma, and Jaguar Wright.
“When you hear his project, you’ll see he was so much more than what people know,” Stephanie said. “He wanted to be known for the type of music he was composing. And before he died, he was sitting there at night listening to the music, and he was so happy with it.”
Hubbard grew up in West Philadelphia and learned to play the bass in the fourth grade. His musical inspirations included saxophonist John Coltrane and Jimi Hendrix. Hubbard also studied classical piano.
He joined The Roots in 1992, when he played with Black Thought and Questlove at a gig. “They didn’t know me from Adam,” Hubbard told the Philadelphia Inquirer in 2007. “Ahmir (Questlove) told me to take a solo, and when he saw that I was a virtuoso, he was like, ‘Oh, man, keep playing, keep playing.’”
