It has been a long time since we got an LP from The Roots. Since February 23rd 1999 to be exact when they released the most critically acclaimed album in “Things Fall Apart.” Since that time they have released their incredible live album, “Come Alive” and the group members have been busy doing their own thing.
Their new opus, “Phrenology,” was supposed to be out in February, then this summer, now October according to ?uestlove. In a recent interview he said that the delay comes for a couple reasons, one of which is that a lot of artists want to work with Philidelphia’s finest. “Everyone started coming out of the woodwork saying ‘I wanna be on your record! As usual, we get a little neurotic during the fourth quarter. We won’t turn in any record unless we do a minimum of 40 songs and out of the 40, we’ll give you the best 15 that we got. It’s gonna be a brilliant album.”
One of new collabos is with their hometown girl Jill Scott, that particular track is likely to be the lead single. Other new additions will be efforts with Musiq and Outkast. Now that is a combo I could get used to. Tracks have already been recorded with Talib Kweli, Amiri Baraka and Project Pat. The Roots and Project Pat? I feel strange just typing that.
