Leonard Nelson Hubbard (1958/1959 – December 16, 2021), also known simply as Hub, was an American musician who was best known for being the bass guitarist for

The Roots The Roots are an American hip hop band formed in 1987 by Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter and Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. The Roots serve as the house band on NBC's ''The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy F ...

, a

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

band, from 1992 to 2007. He played on all of their records until his departure from the group, including 1999's ''

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'' and 2004's ''

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''. He was known for always having a

chew stick A teeth-cleaning twig (in India: ''datun'') is an oral hygiene tool made from a twig from a tree. It can help to prevent tooth decay and gum disease. History Chew sticks are twigs or roots of certain plants that are chewed until one end is fra ...

in his mouth, both on and off the stage. Hubbard studied at

Settlement Music School Settlement Music School is a community music school with branches in and around Philadelphia. Founded in 1908 by two young women, Jeannette Selig Frank and Blanche Wolf Kohn, it is the largest community school of the arts in the United States. It ...

during his youth in Philadelphia, then went on to study classical upright bass at

Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. One of its predecessors was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools; it became the Carnegie Institute of Technology ...

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. Hub played his last show with The Roots on June 7, 2008, at the first annual Roots Picnic. Hub lived in

West Philadelphia West Philadelphia, nicknamed West Philly, is a section of the city of Philadelphia. Alhough there are no officially defined boundaries, it is generally considered to reach from the western shore of the Schuylkill River, to City Avenue to the nort ...

. He was diagnosed with

multiple myeloma Multiple myeloma (MM), also known as plasma cell myeloma and simply myeloma, is a cancer of plasma cells, a type of white blood cell that normally produces antibodies. Often, no symptoms are noticed initially. As it progresses, bone pain, an ...

in 2007, and died from the disease at

Lankenau Medical Center Lankenau Medical Center, part of Main Line Health, is a 370-bed acute care, teaching hospital in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania. Lankenau Medical Center has been named as one of the top 5 hospitals in the Philadelphia region by '' U.S. News & World Repo ...

Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania Lower Merion Township is a township in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. It is part of the Philadelphia Main Line. The township's name originates with the county of Merioneth in north Wales. Merioneth is an English-language transcription of the W ...

, on December 16, 2021, at the age of 62. He was interred at

Laurel Hill Cemetery Laurel Hill Cemetery is a historic rural cemetery in the East Falls neighborhood of Philadelphia. Founded in 1836, it was the second major rural cemetery in the United States after Mount Auburn Cemetery in Boston, Massachusetts. The cemetery is ...

in Philadelphia.

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* * 1950s births 2021 deaths 20th-century American bass guitarists 21st-century American bass guitarists American male bass guitarists American male guitarists Burials at Laurel Hill Cemetery (Philadelphia) Carnegie Mellon University College of Fine Arts alumni Deaths from cancer in Pennsylvania Deaths from multiple myeloma Guitarists from Philadelphia The Roots members {{US-bass-guitarist-stub