Glorious Game

Black Thought And El Michels Affair Paid Homage To The ‘Glorious Game’ With Kirby On ‘Fallon’

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Earlier this month, Black Thought And El Michels Affair shared their collaborative album, Glorius Game, which features Black Thought rapping over music produced and played by the lattermost band. Last night (April 26), the supergroup made an appearance on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon and performed the album’s title track.

During the performance, Black Thought & El Michels Affair were joined by singer Kirby, as Black Thought rapped over the band’s jazzy, soulful instrumentals.

“My mind is hard to explain / Call y’all all aboard for this train / I float like a nautilus, mane / Damn, I love this glorious game,” raps Black Thought over a pre-chorus.

Kirby’s soft vocals gave the song a sparkling touch, as she sang “Ooh, these are the glory days / If, and they did it, baby / Back in the day, baby / I swear, these are the glory days.”

With more than three decades in the game, Black Thought has garnered an impressive resume as a member of The Roots, as a solo act, and as a collaborator. But in a recent interview with The Fader, he revealed that he still has a lot he wants to do.

“Most of the things I do I’d be doing whether there was compensation involved or not,” he said. “I’m a creative, an artist. This is what I’ve always been. The medium is ever-evolving. The disciplines cross. I work in different spaces, different fields, but it’s all as a creative and a storyteller, using whatever tools I have at that particular moment to tell the same story.”

You can watch the performance of “Glorious Game” above.

Black Thought Details A Pair Of Highly Anticipated Projects

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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

Black Thought of The Roots performs at Mass MoCA(Photo by Douglas Mason/WireImage)

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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Black Thought & El Michels Affair Relish The ‘Glorious Game’ From Their Upcoming Joint Album

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We’re another day closer to the release of Black Thought & El Michels Affair’s joint album Glorious Game, and today, the rapper and his other band rewarded fans for their patience with the title track from the album. “Glorious Game,” like “Grateful” and “That Girl” before it, sounds like an excerpt from a 1970s-era Blaxploitation film while Black Thought displays his usual virtuoso, rhyming an ode to the titular “Glorious Game” and detailing the secrets to his effortless cool.

Glorious Game is Thought’s second joint project in as many years, following 2022’s Cheat Codes with Danger Mouse, which saw him take a step back from his duties as the frontman of The Roots to spit alongside some of the rap biz’s finest MCs, including Joey Badass, MF DOOM, and Run The Jewels. Meanwhile, the multitalented rap pioneer has also been busy as a producer of film, television, and stage, most recently teaming up once again with his bandmate Questlove to produce a four-part documentary series about James Brown for A&E titled James Brown: Say It Loud. Mick Jagger of The Rolling Stones is also listed as a producer.

Glorious Game is due for release on April 14 through Big Crown. Find more information here.

Black Thought And El Michels Affair Get In The Valentine’s Day Spirit With ‘That Girl’

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black thought that girl
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In case you haven’t heard, Black Thought is keeping his hot streak going with a new collaborative album. Glorious Game, due April 14 through Big Crown, sees The Roots frontman teaming up with New York “cinematic soul” band El Michels Affair. They announced the new project in January with the lead single “Grateful,” and today, they share its follow-up, “That Girl.”

Appropriately for its release date, “That Girl” is an ode to the latest object of Thought’s affections, who he describes as “a flower from a garden / A pure, fleur de jardins.” The production is, as usual, very similar to the score of a Blaxploitation film, with an orchestral soul intro and woozy funk loops. It’s a short but sweet track that previews what fans can expect from the new album.

Black Thought has spent the last few years branching out from his role as the The Roots’ rapper. In addition to playing a low-key co-host role on The Tonight Show alongside Jimmy Fallon, he’s been releasing a string of collaborative projects, including Cheat Codes with Danger Mouse and the Streams Of Thought EPs with 9th Wonder, Salaam Remi, and Sean C.

Listen to Black Thought and El Michels Affair’s new song, “That Girl” below.

Black Thought & El Michels Affair Prep Joint Project With “Grateful”

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Black Thought and El Michels Affair joined forces for a brand new single off of their upcoming collaborative project.

This morning, Black Thought and El Michels Affair came through with their first single, “Grateful.” Black Thought’s rhyme play and veteran-level skillset meets the smooth, jazzy production of El Michels Affair for a certified heater. El Michel cook up flute-laden production, accentuated by a haunting vocal sample and woozy guitar riffs. It’s undoubtedly a perfect soundscape for Black Thought’s vivid storytelling and slick wordplay.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – DECEMBER 26: Black Thought attends Project Name: BET Hip Hop 50. A Love Letter To Hip Hop on December 26, 2022 in New York City. (Photo by Johnny Nunez/WireImage)

Black Thought and El Michels Affair’s new single kicks off the campaign for Glorious Game, due out on April 14th. The project boasts 12 songs in total with appearances from Kirby and Brainstory.

The two parties are no stranger to one another. They began working together in the early 2000s during a string of charity concerts in NYC and Philadelphia. However, the pandemic opened the gates for a more concentrated collaborative effort after Black Thought reached out to Michels to work on some material.

While we might not get another project from The Roots in the foreseeable future, Black Thought has kept his foot on the gas over the past few years. In 2022, he teamed up with Danger Mouse for their joint effort, Cheat Codes, which later landed on HNHH’s Hottest Hip-Hop Albums Of The Year list.

Check out the new single below and keep your eyes peeled for more music from The Roots frontman and El Michels. We’re certainly excited to hear Glorious Game in full.

Quotable Lyrics
One for the will of man, two for the kilogram
Three for the cold killer who can still be a millionaire
Feelin’ the frigid air, big plates and silverware
Where everybody eat except the one who was ill-prepared

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.