The Roots – “When The People Cheer”
In their capacity as the Tonight Show house band, the Roots don’t exactly need to keep making albums, but they’re doing it anyway. The long-running Philly group has just announced plans to release album number 11, And Then You Shoot Your Cousin. Like the last one, 2011’s undun, this one is a concept album about rap and representation and what it’s like to grow up in an unforgiving, violent environment. “When The People Cheer,” the first track they’ve released, is a moody, lyrically dense piece with self-aware trap-everyman verses from Black Thought and frequent collaborator Greg Porn. Listen below.
And Then You Shoot Your Cousin is coming soon from Def Jam.