El Michels Affair

Black Thought Announces New Album

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Black Thought is still fresh off the release of his album from last year, Cheat Codes. The 12-track project finds him teaming up with eclectic producer Danger Mouse.

Boasting features from the likes of Raekwon, A$AP Rocky, Run The Jewels and more, it was certainly one of the better hip-hop albums of 2022. Additionally, it contains a posthumous feature from MF DOOM.

Black Thought of The Roots performs at Mass MoCA on July 8, 2022 in North Adams, Massachusetts. (Photo by Lisa Dragani/Getty Images)

Regardless, The Roots rapper is showing no signs of slowing down. The announcement that he’ll be dropping another new album soon came on Wednesday (January 11).

Titled Glorious Game, the new project is set to release on April 14. Along with the announcement, he subsequently dropped its lead single, “Grateful.” “They play the avenue of Amsterdam / With other pickpocketin’ thieves and gamblin’ men / And they just come at all the noodles, where resistance is futal / Business as usual, it’ll blow out your wigs like french poodles,” raps the 51-year-old in the new track.

Glorious Game will find the Philadelphia native teaming up with El Michels Affair for its entirety. Led by Leon Michels, the band is a cinematic soul group. Michels himself plays tenor saxophone, flute, keyboards, guitar, bass and percussion. Some of their other members include Homer Steinweiss, Nick Movshon and Thomas Brenneck.

El Michels Affair is best known for their 2009 LP, Enter The 37th Chamber, which is a live album that pays homage to the Wu-Tang Clan and their Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) album from 1993.

Are you looking forward to hearing Black Thought’s new album? Comment your thoughts below. Finally, make sure you stay tuned to HNHH for all of the latest music news and releases.

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Black Thought Will Keep His Hot Streak Going With A New Album, ‘Glorious Game,’ With El Michels Affair

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Black Thought
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Fresh off the release of his joint album with Danger Mouse, Cheat Codes, Black Thought will continue his recent prolific streak with another collaborative album this spring. This time, he’s teaming up with El Michels Affair, a self-described “cinematic soul” band from New York best known for backing Freddie Gibbs and Madlib in their 2019 NPR Tiny Desk Concert, to release Glorious Game. The album is due April 14 through Big Crown, and accompanying the announcement, they have shared the first track, the reggae sampling “Grateful.” Check it out below.

According to a press release, Thought first met El Michels Affair frontman Leon Michels in the early 2000s, performing together at charity concerts in their respective hometown. During the pandemic, Thought reached out to Michels for new beats to record to, resulting in the foundation for Glorious Game. Michels had previously released the albums Adult Themes in 2020 and Yeti Season in 2021, as well as a handful of tribute albums covering songs from Isaac Hayes and Wu-Tang Clan. In 2020, they also reimagined Freddie Gibbs and Madlib’s Bandana on The Diamond Mine Sessions.

Meanwhile, Black Thought has been extremely prolific of late outside his role as frontman for The Tonight Show house band The Roots. While the majority of his output prior to 2018 was with The Roots, that year he put out the Streams Of Thought EPs with 9th Wonder and Salaam Remi, following up with the full-length Streams Of Thought, Vol. 3: Cane & Able produced by Sean C in 2020, then Cheat Codes last year. He’s also working on a stage show and writing for television alongside longtime production partner Questlove.