In the last several years, The Roots have been busy. While the hardest working band in Hip-Hop is on television five nights a week, fans have not heard the music that they’ve been making behind the scenes. Producers, including 9th Wonder, Salaam Remi, and J. Period, have been previously attached to the sessions for an album said to be titled End Game. Questlove also stated that like Common’s recent Let Love LP, this upcoming collection will include previously-unreleased J. Dilla production. The recordings are reportedly building to a follow-up to 2014’s …And Then You Shoot Your Cousin. As of late 2017, there were more than 260 songs in the stash, according to Black Thought.
The break has lasted more than five years, marking the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania native’s most extended hiatus in a nearly 30-year-career. In 2017, they emerged with “It Ain’t Fair.” Assisted by hometown affiliate and frequent collaborator Bilal, the song was part of the Detroit soundtrack. Tariq Trotter and Bilal Oliver soulfully and brutally illustrated how some social atrocities aren’t so different in 1967 as they were 50 years later. Later in ’17, the band released new joints—including a reworking of a Schoolhouse Rock classic—for the special “Juneteenth” episode of Black-ish.
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Best guide to hip hop, soul, reggae concerts & events in San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles & New York City + music, videos, radio and more
Bonobo
Saturday, Nov 14 @ Fox Theater, Oakland
Pretty Lights
Thursday-Sunday, Nov 19-21 @ Fox Theater, Oakland
Ozomatli
Saturday, Nov. 21 @ UC Theatre, Berkeley
Kamasi Washington
Saturday, Dec 5 @ UC Theatre, Berkeley
Steel Pulse
Thursday, Dec 31 @ UC Theatre, Berkeley
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