Philadelphia’s favourite politically motivated hip hop/funk/jazz collective The Roots are plotting their new album, the follow up to 2010’s How I Got Over, and founding member and drummer ?uestlove has said that a concept album is likely, complete with orchestral sections.
In an interview with Billboard, ?uestlove said, “This is going to be our first full-fledged narrative concept album. “It’s going to be a challenge to figure out how to get from point A to B – or in this case, point B to point A… and have it seem natural.”
The Roots’ main MC, Black Thought, added that the new record will start with the “same idea” as How I Got Over, just in reverse. He said, “[it will be] kind of flipped. Instead of from dark to light, it’s an album that goes from light to dark.”
?uestlove continued, saying, “It’s going to be heavy on sort of orchestral chamber music with harder beats in it.” He added that the album’s title will be “a one-word title that’s spelled incorrectly…what a way to tease you, right?”
Black Thought, who founded The Roots with ?uestlove back in 1987, said that the new album is likely to come out next year.
“In a perfect world it would come out in November,” he said, “but in this world that we live in, maybe January? Maybe February? I don’t know, but hopefully it’s gonna be in a timely fashion.”
In the mean time, The Roots are recovering from the annual Roots Picnic Festival, which took place in Philadelphia last weekend (June 4).
