Former Member Of The Roots Band Leonard 'Hub' Hubbard Dies at 62
Leonard “Hub” Hubbard, a former member of the hip hop band The Roots and a Grammy Award winner, died on Thursday (Dec. 16), losing his long battle with cancer, Christie Ileto of Philadelphia’s WPVI reports. He was 62.
According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, Hubbard is survived by his wife Stephanie Hubbard, stepdaughters India Owens and Onita Owens and stepson Edward Owens. Funeral services are still being planned.
Ileto tweeted: “One of the founding members of @theroots died this morning. Leonard Hubbard, known as Hub, was a bassist for the group. He’d been battling cancer since 2007 and at that time stopped touring. His wife tells @6abc, ‘It happened quickly. He didn’t suffer a lot.’”
Hub joined The Roots, a hip hop group with a unique jazzy sound, in 1992 when the group was just a local band. After being diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a form of blood cancer, the bassist left the group in 2007, according to Rolling Stone.
During his time with The Roots, Hub recorded seven albums through Game Theory in 2006. But he returned in 2008 for the Roots Picnic to perform “Mellow My Man” and for another reunion appearance in 2010.
His relationship with the group turned sour in 2016, as Philadelphia magazine reported, when he filed a civil lawsuit against Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, Roots manager Shawn Gee, Tarik “Black Thought” Trotter, and a variety of Roots-related LLCs.
Hub claimed that he was owed money as a founding shareholder of a company created in 1993 to handle The Roots’ business dealings.
Our thoughts and prayers are with Hub’s family. Rest in peace.
