Philadelphia hip-hop group and “Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon” house band The Roots recently dropped their new single “When The People Cheer” and released info on their forthcoming 11th studio album … And Then You Shoot Your Cousin.
Lead emcee Black Thought tells XXL magazine that the album will be a conceptual album much like their previous album, 2011’s Undun:
It’s conceptual; it’s another concept album in the spirit of Undun, but it’s not just about just one kind of character, we create quite a few different characters in this record. It’s satire, but in that satire it’s an analysis of some of the stereotypes perpetuated in not only the hip-hop community, but in the community. I don’t know if that makes any sense.
Roots fans know that the group usually makes a statement of some sort with the cover art and this time around will be no different. The cover for TYSYC features artist Romare Bearden’s 1964 piece Pittsburgh Memory as seen below.
… And Then You Shoot Your Cousin is scheduled to arrive in stores on May 20.
Check out the tentative track list below.
| 1. | “Theme From The Middle Of The Night” | ||
| 2. | “Never” | ||
| 3. | “When The People Cheer” | ||
| 4. | “The Devil” | ||
| 5. | “Black Rock” | ||
| 6. | “Understand” | ||
| 7. | “Dies Irae” | ||
| 8. | “The Coming” | ||
| 9. | “The Dark (Trinity)” | ||
| 10. | “The Unraveling” | ||
| 11. | “Tomorrow” (feat. Raheem DeVaughn) | ||
| 12. | “Nothing” |
