Amazon Developing Two Children’s Series With The Roots

Amazon Developing Two Children’s Series With The Roots

Amazon is getting into business with the Roots.

The streamer is developing an animated children’s series tentatively called South Street Sounds and a live-action kids’ show with the Grammy-winning hip-hop band. Both projects hail from the Roots’ Passyunk Productions and will be executive produced by band members Tarik Trotter and Ahmir Thompson, along with their manager Shawn Gee for Philly Films and Brian Sher for Category 5 Entertainment.

Written by Becky Friedman (Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood) and featuring music by The Roots, South Street Sounds follows three friends growing up in the most musical of neighborhoods — where the birds tweet to a beat, every shop-keeper, pizza-maker and crossing guard dances perfectly in time, and having a bad day means literally singing the blues. It’s only natural that these three friends have formed a band called “South Street.”

Together, creative scatterbrain Zora, future entrepreneur Nick, and disaster-averse Tyson pride themselves on playing gigs for any occasion. As they prepare for their performances, mishaps, obstacles and chaos is never too far behind. Through the strength of their own friendships, every episode ends in harmony.

As for the live-action project, no details are available at this time.

“As we venture into the world that is film and television production, we couldn’t think of a better partner than Amazon to help us develop these first two children’s projects,” said Thompson.

Added Trotter, “Our love for music started as young kids, and we hope to inspire a generation of future artists, musicians and music fans through the stories we tell and the music they hear on these shows.”

“Driven by the Roots’ passion for music and the arts, these projects are perfectly aligned with our mission to inspire kids to think creatively and musically about the world around them,” said Tara Sorensen, head of kids programming at Amazon Studios.

The Roots, which serves as the official house band on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, consists of Trotter aka Black Thought and Thompson aka Questlove, as well as Kamal Gray, F. Knuckles, Captain Kirk Douglas, Damon Bryson and James Poyser.

This story originally appeared on The Hollywood Reporter.

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