Black Thought and El Michels Affair teamed up for a new album, Glorious Game, due out on April 14 through Big Crown Records. The debut record from the legendary Roots crew MC and soul-centric producer is previewed by the single “Grateful.”
While Glorious Game is Black Thought (Tariq Trotter) and El Michels Affair mastermind Leon Michels’ first LP together, the musicians have admired each other’s work for some time. Philadelphia’s own Tariq Trotter began exploring the contemporary soul scene in the 2000s and was a big fan of Brookyln’s Menahan Street Band, a group Michels helped found in 2007. It is perhaps not a coincidence then that Menahan trumpeter Dave Guy and saxophonist Ian Hendrickson-Smith are now full-time members of The Roots.
Moving in the same circles, an opportunity for collaboration between Michels and Trotter soon presented itself. “Before long, Black Thought was coming around the studio and would jam with us from time to time,” Michels recalled. “Then, fast forward to 2020 and COVID lockdowns, he just hit me up out of the blue, wanting me to send him stuff to write to. We both were looking to stay busy.”
Playing both the role of composer and hip hop producer, Michels began recording complete songs which he then sampled to create tracks to send to Trotter. “I’m a big fan of soul music,” Michels stated. “And part of hip-hop’s appeal to me has always been the sample-based production.” Although Michels did sample other people’s music and then added instrumentation in a more traditional hip hop sense, most of the cuts are sampled original compositions.
The music Michels created then inspired the mind of Black Thought. “What I write about is determined by the equation of the producer’s energy and my energy,” Trotter added. “It’s about where we meet. To me, these songs are like scenes from a film that is my life. That’s the way it evolved.”
Preview Glorious Game with “Grateful” below:
Glorious Game Tracklist:
- Grateful
- Glorious Game (feat. Kirby)
- I’m Still Somehow
- Hollow Way
- Protocol (feat. Son Little)
- The Weather
- That Girl
- I Would Never
- Alone
- Miracle
- Glorious Game (Reprise)
- Alter Ego (feat. Brainstory)
