The Roots already have a big year planned, with some big names being announced for their annual "Roots Picnic" this summer, as well as their next album & Then You Shoot Your Cousin, which is slated for release later this year. Black Thought, the groups resident emcee, has announced that he also has plans for a release this year, which he says will be a blues album.
“I just started writing a couple of weeks ago for a blues album kinda that I’m going to be singing on. I don’t know what it’s gonna be called, but it might be called The Talented Mr. Trotter,” said Thought. “And I’ve been writing with Raheem DeVaughn and my friend Ray Angry. Imma be in the studio this week writing with my friend Tunde from a band called TV On The Radio. Imma be doing some stuff with Jim James from My Morning Jacket. Just some stuff that I feel like I need to get out that is kind of aside from the new Roots record.”
The Philly rapper had previously spoken of The Talented Mr. Trotter back in 2011, indicating it would be an EP. Thought also commented on The Roots' recent stint as the best back up band on TV, for Jimmy Kimmel Live.
“It’s as much fun as I can probably have and still be in a corporate environment because there’s very much a corporate setting and a chain of command that’s very different than what I had necessarily been used to,” he said. “I’ve been my own boss since I was about 18, 19-years-old. So to have an employer and then someone that he works for and someone that he works for. It took a little bit of getting used to, but it’s lots of fun every day.”
Check out the full interview below, as well as Black Thought's recent collabo with J Period, "Rage Is Back".