The album, Wonderful Sport, is out in full on April 14
Through the pandemic, the Roots co-founder Black Thought fell right into a collaborative rhythm with the soul group El Michels Affair, soaking within the materials despatched to him by their frontman Leon Michels. Quickly sufficient, the musicians had crafted a whole album’s price of fabric, now set to be packaged and shared as Wonderful Sport, out April 12.
Black Thought and El Michels Affair launched the collaborative venture with “Grateful,” a succinct preview of the previous’s hip-hop storytelling wrapping itself across the latter’s scene-setting, cinematic manufacturing. The lead single pulls from classes discovered within the environments which have formed the rapper most.
Whereas contemplating his method to working with Black Thought, Michels leaned into hip-hop’s affinity for sampling. In accordance with a launch, the musician started his course of by creating soul tracks from scratch, then utilizing them to pattern himself and use chops or loops to create contemporary instrumentals for Black Thought to rap over.
“What I write about is decided by the equation of the producer’s vitality and my vitality, it’s about the place we meet,” Black Thought defined in an announcement. “To me, these songs are like scenes from a movie that’s my life. That’s the way in which it developed.”
Michels added: “That is an effing rap report. He’s a storyteller; the purpose is to hearken to the story. It’s not a verse-chorus, verse-chorus method. Take heed to what he has to say and the way in which he has to say it.”
Wonderful Sport options appearances from Kirby, Son Little, and Brainstory. It follows Black Thought’s 2022 album Cheat Codes, made in collaboration with Hazard Mouse.