Over the past few years, Black Thought has been branching. Primarily known as the rapper and de facto frontman of The Roots, a growing number of recent releases, the Philadelphia MC has been collaborating with an expanding roster of producers, including Danger Mouse, El Michels Affair, 9th Wonder, Salaam Remi, and Sean C. While his new project, Glorious Game with El Michels Affair, is due April 14, frequent collaborator and DJ J. Period put together yet another compilation of Black Thought tracks to hold fans over ’til then.
On J. Period Presents The Live Mixtape [JB Edition], the DJ utilizes Thought’s status as one of rap’s preeminent technicians of the craft, pairing live freestyles taken from Thought’s most recent Roots Picnic Live Mixtape performance. over instrumentals from the late, great funk and soul icon James Brown, as well as hip-hop beats that sampled his works. These include Nas’ “Get Down,” “Big Payback,” “Hot Pants Road,” and Public Enemy’s “Fight The Power.”
While Black Thought labored for much of his career with The Roots in relative obscurity, thanks to social media and a string of strategically placed freestyles, he’s finally received recognition from rap fans as a peerless rapper, and here, he puts that reputation to the test, freestyling for 35 minutes over some of the funkiest production known to man. Check it out on J. Period’s Bandcamp.