The Roots’ Black Thought Has A Surprisingly Serious Pizza Obsession
Black Thought knows his way around a microphone, but the legendary Roots MC also knows his way around a pizza oven. And we’re talking serious pizza obsession, down to the 1,100-degree oven he uses to cook pies in 90 seconds.
We caught up with the Philly native to talk about his partnership with Mike’s Hot Honey, his favorite pizza and cheesesteak spots, the unusual eating habits of his fellow Roots members, and how his relationship with food has evolved since his days of eating Raisin Bran out of red Solo cups on tour.
Foodbeast: Let’s talk about your partnership with Mike’s Hot Honey. How did it come about, and what do you like putting hot honey on?
Black Thought: I think the Mike’s Hot Honey relationship came about in a really authentic way. Mike and I have some friends in Philly in common, and there are elements of both our stories where we’ve had comparable journeys.
Once we started having conversations and he found out how passionate I am about food and pizza, and that his product was something I’d already been using for quite some time, it made perfect sense. It wasn’t a stretch. It’s not like me co-signing something you won’t find in my kitchen.
During COVID, for my wife’s birthday, I rented a house so we could have a little family get-together. We had Chef Roblé come cook for us, and we mainly had pizza. He was throwing hot honey and truffle honey on everything. He was the first chef I really saw getting freaky with the sweet and savory, kimchi, and different umami flavors on pizzas.
That’s where my inspiration to get a pizza oven came from. My wife got me a couple of Ooni ovens, but they didn’t get hot enough or feel sturdy enough for me. When Tom Gozney came out with his pizza oven, it felt like the answer to my prayers.
The thing gets up to 1,100 degrees. You can cook pizza in 90 seconds, but you can also cook chicken, vegetables, fish, whatever.
There’s something about the way an oven gets that hot, cooking with bricks, wood, or charcoal, that caramelizes the honey and makes it hit differently. It’s not only sweet and spicy. There’s a different depth that it opens up.
Foodbeast: What’s something surprising you’ve tried hot honey on that actually worked?
Black Thought: I tried hot honey on ice cream this summer, and it was excellent. It was avocado ice cream. I think it came from Morgenstern’s.
There are a couple of artisan creameries I go to that do daily or weekly specials. Sometimes it’s egg yolk ice cream or avocado, something you wouldn’t expect to be a delicious ice cream.
I got inspired when we did the first Mike’s Hot Honey commercial. There’s a scene where I tell one of the kids working there, “I want you to put honey on everything that comes out.” Then some ice cream comes out, and he looks at me like, “Even the ice cream?”
And I’m like, “No. Yeah, everything. I said everything.”
That’s when I thought maybe I should actually try it. So I did when I got home.
Foodbeast: What’s your favorite pizza spot in New Jersey?
Black Thought: My favorite spot for probably the past 15 years recently closed down. It was called Coppola, in Berkeley Heights, I want to say.
Excellent grandma pie. My favorite grandma pie in the Northeast. I love a sweet crust that’s crunchy on the outside but still slightly doughy, without being doughy. I also love a sweet, garlicky sauce. I’m more of a tomato-forward than a cheese-forward pizza dude, so that place checked all the boxes.
But there’s another place, Angeloni’s, that has the Thinny Thin.
I’m not mad at Reservoir in South Orange. It’s like a bar pie. Star Tavern is really good, too, but the reason I like Star Tavern is because it reminds me of Angeloni’s.
Those are my top New Jersey pizza places.
From The Tour Bus To The Tonight Show
Foodbeast: How has your rider changed since the days when The Roots toured 300 days a year?
Black Thought: Here at The Tonight Show, my dressing-room rider is mostly drinks. I have Mountain Valley spring water, Fentimans sodas, Rose Lemonade, Pink Ginger, ginger beer with muddled lime, Harmless Harvest coconut water, and watermelon water.
Then dried fruit, cranberries, figs, fresh grapes, cheese and crackers, and bagged snacks. But it’s all more health-conscious now.
There’s not going to be any Doritos in there. It’ll be popcorn with Himalayan pink salt, stuff like that.
We’re all in our 40s and 50s. After surviving as road warriors for as long as we did, I think we’re all at the intersection of health, fitness, and spirituality at this point.
Foodbeast: What was on the rider back in those touring days?
Black Thought: We always had lots of cereal. Quest always got the Cocoa Pebbles and Fruity Pebbles, the sweeter cereals that make that weird-colored milk at the end.
I was always a Raisin Bran dude. I was vegan at the time, or somewhere between vegan and vegetarian. I wasn’t really eating meat or drinking dairy milk. We had soy milk on the rider, and I ate lots of Raisin Bran.
Foodbeast: Was that something you’d eat before or after performing?
Black Thought: Anytime, but usually after a show. That was a late-night, on-the-tour-bus snack for me.
I’d fill a big red Solo cup with Raisin Bran and let it break down a little bit, get a little soggy, so I could push it down and compress it. Then I’d add more.
That was my jam.
I grew up eating Kellogg’s Raisin Bran, which was coated in sugar anyway, so it was the best of both worlds. But as an adult, straight-up raisins make it sweet enough.
Foodbeast: Speaking of Doritos, on “Ain’t Sayin’ Nothin’ New” from Things Fall Apart, you mention “Dorito-head cats.” What exactly is a Dorito-head cat? And were you ever a Doritos fan?
Black Thought: I used to like Doritos when I was a kid, before I became more conscious of ingredients. I was always an original cheese Doritos guy.
I’m from the era when there was original and then there was Cool Ranch. I never got into ranch flavor, period. I’m not into ranch dressing, ranch seasoning, or ranch Doritos.
I think the reference back in the day was about the shape of a Dorito, how it’s triangular. That’s a Philly sort of thing. “What’s up, big head?” You know what I mean? Y’all big-head dudes ain’t saying nothing new.
Foodbeast: Which member of The Roots has the weirdest eating habits?
Black Thought: I’m going to say Damon, who plays sousaphone, but we call him Tuba.
He might be snacking on some Chico Sticks, but he might also have a bag of chips he’s shaking up. You’re like, “What’s in that bag?” And he’s got torn-up pieces of lunch meat that he threw inside the bag of chips.
He’ll put hot sauce in there and shake up the bag.
There are places where that’s a culture, where people get a bag of corn chips and put meat, taco ingredients, beans, and all sorts of stuff on it. But he was the first person I saw moving that way.
He just never ceases to amaze, especially when we’re traveling on a tour bus. The stuff you’ll see him come out of the kitchen with is always fun, an exciting surprise, and a conversation piece.
Growing Up In Philly
Foodbeast: On “I Remain Calm,” you rap about making MCs embarrassed like they’re spending food stamps. Thinking back to your childhood, what foods felt like a treat when your family had to make money stretch?
Black Thought: During times in my life when we were on public assistance, or more reliant upon a monthly payout, whether it was Social Security or the Veterans Administration because my father was a veteran, you had to make that money stretch.
Back in the day, there was a mom-and-pop version of something like Costco called Murray’s. You could buy bulk, no-frills items that were comparable in taste and consistency to the name-brand stuff, but you could buy them by the case.
We’d go to Murray’s and get a case of T-bone steaks. I’d come home from school, and sometimes we didn’t even have gas, so I couldn’t cook on the stove. But I could heat up a hot plate or a wok, go into the freezer, and still have steaks.
For me, that was a treat. We didn’t even have fire, but we had a case of steaks in the freezer.
Looking back, they definitely weren’t the best cuts of meat, and who knows where that stuff came from. But when you’re shopping for the family for the whole month, that’s what you did.
There were also hearty meals my mother, grandmother, or aunt could make stretch, like cabbage and corned beef, corned beef hash, or salmon hash with rice and canned salmon. You could do the same thing with tuna out of a can.
Those were the meals where you could taste the love and the sacrifice that went into feeding the family.
As I think back on it, those were the treats.
Black Thought’s Philly Food Favorites
Foodbeast: You’ve named Angelo’s as your favorite cheesesteak spot. Before Angelo’s and the Cooper Sharp wave, where were you going, and what’s your order?
Black Thought: Dalessandro’s. Salt, pepper, ketchup, fried onions, American, and provolone. Together.
Foodbeast: What’s your favorite water ice spot in Philly?
Black Thought: John’s, down at 8th and Christian.
I like the lemon. Sometimes, if I’m having an event or people over in my backyard in Jersey, I’ll go down there and get a couple of gallon tubs of lemon and maybe cherry for the kids.
The lemon has fewer additives, and it’s the closest to natural. And you’ve got to do soft pretzels with it. I do pretzels and water ice.
I get my pretzels from John’s, too, but when I was a kid, I got them from Federal Pretzel Company, which is just a block away.
Foodbeast: Favorite Tastykake?
Black Thought: Butterscotch Krimpet, and then Jelly Krimpet.
Foodbeast: What’s your Wawa order?
Black Thought: If I’m going to Wawa, it’s probably a late-night run. I’m getting a turkey and cheese hoagie. The shorty. I’m definitely a shorty, with a bag of Herr’s chips. Might get some salt and vinegar chips or something.
Foodbeast: Are you always a turkey hoagie guy, or do you switch it up?
Black Thought: I don’t eat pork, so I’m either turkey or, if I’m lucky enough to find a place with turkey ham, I’ll go with an Italian or turkey.
Oil, salt, pepper, vinegar, sweets, hots, but just a little bit. Everything in moderation because I don’t like a sloppy sandwich.
My grandmother worked for the Mayor’s Office of Community Services at 11th and Federal, a block away from Ricci’s. I grew up going to Ricci’s and getting dollar hoagies.
What I appreciated was that you could hold one with one hand without everything falling out, but it could still be packed with all those different ingredients.
That’s the model I’m going for when I get a sandwich.
A Few New Jersey Food Memories
Foodbeast: We both used to live in South Orange, New Jersey. What do you remember about Eden Gourmet before it became Ashley Marketplace?
Black Thought: When it was Eden, we had something. It felt like the last bastion of the old-school deli.
I’d see Whoopi in there. I’d see Dionne Warwick.
Dionne Warwick, she’s the meanest lady in South Orange. She lived a couple of blocks away from me when I lived there.
I’d go for the brisket, turkey, and rotisserie chicken. The rotisserie chickens were crazy.
Sometimes I’d be waiting for that first batch to come off the rotisserie earlier in the day. But they don’t have any of that stuff anymore.
