A collection of our favorite songs of the week.
BLACK THOUGHT
Black Thought & El Michels Affair Unite For ‘Glorious Game’ Album
The talented Mr. Trotter gets cinematic.
Black Thought Details A Pair Of Highly Anticipated Projects
Black Thought is sharing details about the highly anticipated Streams of Thought Vol. 4. The Roots rapper released the previous three versions of the album in He’s also gearing up for an album set to come out later this week. Glorious Game is a collaborative effort with the ever-soulful El Michel’s Affair. Both albums have garnered considerable interest from fans.
During an interview with Fader, Thought revealed that Glorious Game is a deeply personal album. “It’s probably my most personal record to date,” he said. “It’s going to be all narrative and it’s going to all come from a very personal place.” Meanwhile, Thought detailed the long list of artists set to feature on the Streams of Thought Vol. 4. “The album features Yasiin Bey, Pharoahe Monch, Fabolous, Redman, Rick Ross, Big K.R.I.T. Curren4y, Tobe Nwigwe, and J.I.D.,” he said. “There’s at least one feature on almost every song.” He went on to reveal that R&B veteran Nicole Wray also features on the album.
Black Thought Reveals Long List of Features on New Album
Despite the long features lost, Thought says the album didn’t take long to record. “I wanted to shuffle through the recording process the same the listener shuffles through songs,” he said. Thought says the project is already complete. However, he’s not committing to a release date. “It’s been in my vault for a couple years now,” he said. “It could come out at any point in time.” Obviously, Thought gained stardom as a co-founder and frontman of the Roots. However, the members of the group have never shied away from doing solo projects. Thought credits this as the source of the group’s strength. “Everybody has there own thing they do when we’re not together as part of the roots,” he said. “There’s a great appreciation for what we are able to achieve independently.”
The Roots rapper has certainly been busy over the past year. He released the album Cheat Codes, a collaboration with Danger Mouse just last year. The album received generally favorable reviews from fans and critics. Moreover, the project features a posthumous feature from MF Doom. We will see how well his two newest projects perform with his loyal fan base.
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[WATCH] Chuck D Labels Eminem And Black Thought The ‘Cyborgs’ Of Hip Hop
Chuck D just stamped both Eminem and Black Thought as 2 lyrical cyborgs in hip hop.
During an appearance on N.O.R.E. and DJ EFN’s Drink Champs podcast on Saturday, the Public Enemy veteran gave both MCs their flowers referring to them as ‘cyborgs’..
The legendary MC who is arguably your favorite MC’s MC
“Eminem and Black Thought… big ups to Black Thought, The Roots, and also Eminem. Cyborgs, man,” Chuck said. “They’re cyborgs, but let me tell you this: we can also get caught up cause’ you know, you got future generations, and then you got people who ain’t gonna even get on the register who are so dope.”
The “Fight The Power” rapper continued by praising Skyzoo as a dope lyricist, which prompted the Brooklyn MC to give Chuck D his flowers on Instagram.
“The good word on a Sunday from the pastor of hip-hop, the legendary rhyme animal Chuck D,” Skyzoo wrote in response. “An absolute icon. Honored x humbled x grateful to say the least. Thank you OG. The book I studied from as a young aspiring writer had chapters dedicated to your penmanship in it. I learned from you 1,000%. Salute OG.”
Check out the post below:
Watch the full interview below.
The post [WATCH] Chuck D Labels Eminem And Black Thought The ‘Cyborgs’ Of Hip Hop appeared first on The Source.
Black Thought & El Michels Affair Share “I’m Still Somehow” Single
‘Glorious Game,’ out April 14,
Questlove And Black Thought Are Accused Of Fraud In A Lawsuit From The Estate Of Late The Roots Bassist Leonard Hubbard
Music titans Questlove, Black Thought, Live Nation, and Universal Music Group have been named in an explosive fraud lawsuit. According to Rolling Stone, Questlove (real name Ahmir Thompson) and Black Thought (real name Tariq Trotter), co-founders of hip-hop group The Roots, the group’s manager Shawn Gee, and band employee Munir Nuriddin are being accused of working together to “scheme to defraud” the estate of the band’s late bassist Leonard Hubbard’s widow and estate out of money owed to them.
After forming Grand Negaz, Inc. to manage the band’s business dealings in 1993, a financial agreement was made to clearly state ownership percentages to ensure everyone knew their respective compensation splits. Thompson and Trotter took 37 percent of stakeholders’ interest, while member rapper Malik Smart (who died in 2020) and Hubbard retained 17 percent each. However, in addition to that, the lawsuit claims Hubbard was to be granted 25 percent of the group’s recording and publishing earnings, as well as a 33 percent stake in the band’s touring performance company.
The lawsuit presented by Hubbard’s widow and estate is seeking “restitution for property, money, and benefits” that were not provided to him as outlined in the paperwork. While the matter is being litigated, they are requesting that the courts “freeze” The Roots’ trademark “until a value can be determined for the brand.”
Hubbard departed from the group in 2007 to seek medical care after being diagnosed with blood cancer, and later died in 2021. The suit alleges that beginning in 2014 up to the current day, Thompson, Trotter, and others, “through a pattern of racketeered behavior, fraudulently converted, divested and absconded with monies lawfully belonging to the Plaintiff Decedent.”
The lawsuit also accuses the musicians of forming a new business, Legendelphia, in 2013, to allegedly transfer funds from their business Grand Negaz, all without the approval of Hubbard. As for where Live Nationa and Universal Music Publishing Group is named, the suit accuses Gee of “deactivating Hubbard’s personal royalty account.” It also accuses that Gee, Thompson, and Trotter of “sending a letter be written from Legendelphia to Universal Music Publishing Group to divert Hubbard’s royalties to Legendelphia” instead of Grand Negaz, Inc.
No public statement has been released by The Roots, Thompson, or Trotter. All parties declined Rolling Stone‘s request for comment.
Black Thought Freestyles Over Classic James Brown Beats On J. Period’s New Live Mixtape
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.
Questlove Is Set To Direct Disney’s Next Live-Action Remake, ‘The Aristocats’
Questlove has been a pretty busy guy lately — but not so busy that he can’t take on just one more high-profile project, potentially his biggest one yet. While he’s got a lot on his plate — in addition to continuing his role as The Roots’ bandleader on The Tonight Show, he’s launching a publishing imprint, keeping up his award-winning Questlove Supreme podcast, and executive-producing a docuseries about J Dilla — he’s about to become the director of Disney’s latest live-action remake project: The Aristocats.
For those who haven’t been putting their Disney Plus subscription to work, The Aristocats follows the adventures of a family of rich kitties (hence, “Aristocats” — get it?) who are left a massive fortune in their owner’s will. Her vengeful butler, however, catnaps them and abandons them in the French countryside, and its only with the the help of O’Malley, a streetwise alley cat, that they can make it back to Paris and the fortune that awaits them.
The 1970 animated original was distinguished by its extensive use of jazz to drive home the themes of the plot — O’Malley hangs with a swingin’ band, while the Duchess and her kittens are classically-trained musicians (it’s a cartoon, just go with it) — so Questlove, a musical encyclopedia with legs, is the perfect person to direct a live remake. And, as a bonus, some of the more racially insensitive caricatures can be quietly removed. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Quest’s also overseeing the music for the film and producing via his Two One Five Entertainment company — along with The Roots partners Black Thought and Shawn Gee, as well as Will Gluck and Zarah Zohlman. Stay tuned for more news to come.
Black Thought Filled In For Trugoy In De La Soul’s ‘Tonight Show’ Performance Of ‘Stakes Is High’
De La Soul’s de facto “comeback” has been bittersweet; while the group’s groundbreaking catalog has finally come to streaming platforms, it only did so after one member of the trio, Trugoy The Dove, died at the age of just 54 years old.
However, the remaining members, Posdnous and Maseo, are trucking along as best they can. They stopped by The Tonight Show this week, where they took the stage with the band to perform one of their signature songs, “Stakes Is High,” with The Roots. Black Thought helped fill the void left by Dave’s passing, rapping his verses with perfect chemistry alongside Pos — an unsurprising development, considering the impact “Stakes Is High” has had on hip-hop. Who doesn’t know those iconic rhymes?
Ahead of the performance, house band leader Questlove gave De La some flowers, telling them how much they influenced The Roots. “For the first time, we just saw, like, ourselves,” he said. “This is how the group bonded, Tariq [Black Thought] and I. We saw three friends just having fun with each other, practical jokes and all that stuff, and we had never seen that in hip-hop before.”
Meanwhile, De La’s entree to the streaming world has been pretty successful; their game-changing debut, 3 Feet High And Rising, re-entered the Billboard 200 with a new peak of No. 15.
De La Soul’s ‘3 Feet High And Rising’ re-enters this week’s Billboard 200 at a new peak of #15. pic.twitter.com/Oq5mNh7Uxz
— chart data (@chartdata) March 16, 2023
Watch De La Soul and The Roots perform the classic “Stakes Is High” above.
[WATCH] Beanie Sigel Details Being in a Rap Group with Black Thought in Elementary School
Philly rap talent is insane. Can you believe at one point Beanie Sigel and Black Thought were in the same rap group? Who wants those problems? Beanie was a guest on Vlad TV and he revealed he and Black Thought were in an elementary school rap group together.
“Black Thought, that was my first rap partner,” Sigel revealed. “Yeah, we were in a group in elementary school. Cousin Reek, Tyreek, we went to school together, everything.”
Nuts, right? Beanie added a bit more, stating they did everything together, from graffiti to breakdancing. The two even skipped school to listen to Sugar Hill Gang.
You can check it out below.
Earlier this week, the Broad Street Bully celebrated a birthday. If you missed his March 6 celebration, be sure to drop a tweet or IG comment and wish him a happy belated.
The post [WATCH] Beanie Sigel Details Being in a Rap Group with Black Thought in Elementary School appeared first on The Source.