--- title: Watch Philadelphia's Mayor Cover "Rapper's Delight" with The Roots description: Mic drop. canonical: https://time.com/3946642/philadelphia-mayor-rappers-delight-the-roots/ author: Melissa Locker article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-07-06T16:32:46.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:21:47.819Z og:title: Watch Philadelphia's Mayor Cover "Rapper's Delight" with The Roots og:description: Mic drop. og:url: https://time.com/3946642/philadelphia-mayor-rappers-delight-the-roots/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch Philadelphia's Mayor Cover "Rapper's Delight" with The Roots twitter:description: Mic drop. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Watch Philadelphia's Mayor Cover 'Rapper's Delight' with The Roots by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Jul 6, 2015 4:32 PM UTC by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Jul 6, 2015 4:32 PM UTC There’s one thing every politician should know if they want to succeed in the rough-and-tumble world of Philadelphia politics — all the words to “Rapper’s Delight.” That’s the takeaway from a new video where Philly mayor Michael Nutter jumped on stage with local boys-turned-_The Tonight Show_ house band The Roots to perform the Sugarhill Gang’s classic rap song. The mayor didn’t miss a beat as he spit out the rhymes on stage at the 4th of July celebration at the Wawa Welcome America! festival. He walked the stage like a pro, throwing down verses, and even dropped the mic at the end after nailing the performance. There’s no doubt that the mayor’s performance was way better than the time then-NBC anchor Brian Williams [“rapped”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CYJ73pVpVc) the Sugarhill Gang’s classic. As [_Uproxx_ points out](http://uproxx.com/smokingsection/2015/07/philly-mayor-michael-nutter-roots-picnic-rappers-delight-performance/), there’s a reason that Nutter is so good at this: before he started a career in business and politics, he [worked in the city’s nightclubs](http://jumpphilly.com/2011/06/03/mayor-michael-nutter-i-could-make-a-party-happen/) and had performed the song before. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3946642/philadelphia-mayor-rappers-delight-the-roots/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3946642/philadelphia-mayor-rappers-delight-the-roots/"},"headline":"Watch Philadelphia's Mayor Cover 'Rapper's Delight' with The Roots","datePublished":"2015-07-06T16:32:46.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:21:47.819Z","description":"Mic drop.","url":"https://time.com/3946642/philadelphia-mayor-rappers-delight-the-roots/","keywords":["Newsfeed","politics","Music","viral","The Roots","Philadelphia"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Locker","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3946642/philadelphia-mayor-rappers-delight-the-roots/","name":"Watch Philadelphia's Mayor Cover 'Rapper's Delight' with The Roots"}}]}] ```