The Roots Confirm 17th Album Title & Preview Some Sounds (Video)

It has been nearly two and a half years since The Roots released an album. 2014’s And Then You Shoot Your Cousin featured Dice Raw as well as Raheem DeVaughn, and was rooted heavily in a cohesive theme. It was also largely co-produced by Richard Nichols, the band’s longtime manager/producer, who died less than three months after release. In the last 24 hours, Questlove confirmed that the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania collective is back in the lab, working on their 17th LP.

End Game will follow A.T.Y.S.Y.C. While details are limited at this time, Quest’ shared some Instagram footage from the studio. In the video, producer Stro Elliot is seen at the Akai MPC pad building a beat. Questlove, in his caption, reveals that the samples are all taken from The Roots’ jam sessions. The drummer/producer explained that in the spirit of 1996’s Illadelph Halflife, their third LP, The Roots is getting back to sampling themselves—with a structured approach of recording by day, and extracting beats by night.

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The Los Angeles, California-based Stro “The 89th Key” Elliot was a onetime Rawkus Records artist as The Procussions. He has previously produced for Phonte and Pigeon John, among others. DJ J. Period and longtime band member Captain Kirk is also captured in the studio footage.

We Comin For Blood Man. #Endgame day 2 @stroelliot @jperiodbk @kirklloyd @theroots

A video posted by Questlove Gomez (@questlove) on

Karriem Riggins, who has worked with The Roots previously, is also involved. He is reportedly very instrumental to Common’s upcoming Black America Again album.

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No release date has been given for End Game.