About the Community

Okayplayer.com launched in the spring of 1999 to be the online home of The Roots. Almost immediately, visitors to the site’s three message boards—who shared a passion for left-of-center music—coalesced as an online community.

As visitors to the site, known as okayplayers, cemented their status as a community by meeting each other offline, the roster of artists who made their online homes at okayplayer.com grew to include Common, D’Angelo, Talib Kweli, Jill Scott, Dilated Peoples, Erykah Badu and more.

In addition to maintaining the web site, okayplayer.com sponsored the okayplayer Tour in 2001, released a compilation record in 2005 and supports a variety of events in metropolitan areas all over the globe.

Meanwhile, the okayplayer community has carried on traditions that run the gamut from posting messages on The Boards to gathering for their annual Reunion each Memorial Day Weekend.

Since its relaunch in 2008, okayplayer.com has celebrated its 10th anniversary by adding e-zine and blogging platforms to the site. It remains home to 30 recording artists and its message boards now consist of 10 topical venues where members of the okayplayer community post messages back and forth every day of the week.