Black Thought Spits For 35 Minutes Over James Brown Remixes For New J.Period Mixtape

Black Thought has joined forces with J.Period for a new mixtape that finds the rapper spitting over various remixes of music from the late James Brown. Check it out below.

The collaborative project between Black Thought and J.Period was released on Monday (March 27) and has the Philadelphia MC rapping for over 35 minutes straight over beats that have remixed records from the legendary singer. The half-hour freestyle is broken up into 19 different sections ranging between just a few seconds and four minutes.

According to J.Period’s Instagram post, which showed the cover art, The Roots’ frontman freestyled for over half an hour to several James Brown records, including remixes of “The Boss,” “Big Payback,” “Papa Don’t Take No Mess” and more.

“YES. WE PRESSED RECORD,” Period captioned his post showing the mixtape cover. “Want to hear Black Thought spit for 35 straight minutes over nonstop James Brown remixes?? We thought so. Listen to The Live Mixtape: JB Edition featuring Black Thought—Out Now!”

Fans looking to get their hands on the mixtape can grab it over at J.Period’s official Bandcamp page. This isn’t the first time J.Period linked up with Black Thought, either.

In 2022, the formidable duo linked up for J.Period & Black Thought Present The Live Mixtape: Dilla Day Edition. The project had Black over beats by the late J. Dilla.

Black Thought has been keeping his lyrical prowess sharp. In February, the Philly native dropped a captivating freestyle titled “Love Letter To Hip Hop” in honor of the genre’s 50th anniversary this year.

In the video, which aired on BET, The Roots lyricist traverses the history of Hip Hop completely acapella, weaving in many of the genre’s biggest legends as he explores rap’s evolution over the last five decades.

Along the way, he shouts out Grand Wizzard Theodore, Grandmaster Flash, JAY-Z, Diddy, Kanye West, Lauryn Hill, Public Enemy, A Tribe Called Quest, Queen Latifah, Lil Kim, Nicki Minaj, Cardi B, TakeOff and many others.

“We rose to become entire ecosystems/ It’s wild to think about how long the people have listened/ 50 years down the line we could spark this/ My eternal beloved Hip Hop/ Is where our hearts live and that’s word,” Black Thought raps in the black-and-white video, which was directed by Benny Boom.