The year was 2014. Ryan Lewis and Macklemore’s The Heist had just upset Kendrick Lamar’s good kid, m.A.A.d city at the GRAMMYs; Pharrell’s “Happy” was dominating the charts; and Jay-Z and Beyoncé were gearing up for the On The Run Tour. Amidst all of that, The Roots dropped And Then You Shoot Your Cousin, an 11-track LP exploring existential dread, violence, and complex societal ills.
Given that The Roots released 14 studio albums and two live albums in 21 years, many saw it as a foregone conclusion that The Roots would return with a new body of work two or three years later. But three years turned to five years, and five years quickly turned to 10. With the band joining Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show, Black Thought releasing solo albums, Questlove producing movies, the tragic loss of Richard Nichols, and the annual task of putting together one of the nation’s biggest music festivals, it became a question of if, not when, The Roots would release a new album. Then, it happened. In an interview with Billboard, Black Thought and Questlove announced their 15th studio album, Endgame. The project is reportedly nearing completion and is described as “a return to the free-flowing jam sessions that once defined The Roots’ creative process.”
The project doesn’t have a release date yet, but it’s a welcome addition to the growing list of albums released by Rap’s elder statesmen. While the genre is still too young to get its social security, it’s right at the point where it’s seeing some of its most innovative and foundational acts mature gracefully. Whether it’s Rakim’s The Re-Up or Jay-Z’s next rumored project, more and more acts are continuing to write their story in a music industry that loves to tell anyone over 40, “It’s a young man’s game.” With Endgame in the works, The Roots are proving that they are not only influential of the sound of yesteryear, but they’re also helping shape the sound of the future.
