Black Thought Spits Fire About Lost Love on Unreleased Statik Selektah Track (Audio)

Just one day after Black Thought tore through a DJ Premier beat alongside Royce Da 5’9″ on PRhyme’s “Wishin’ II,” the Roots front man is back again, this time lamenting on missteps in romance. “Couldn’t Tell” is a brooding cut that didn’t make it onto Statik Selektah’s July album Lucky 7 and is such a great track that it’s hard not to imagine what other kinds of jewels the celebrated Boston producer has tucked away for future release. While promoting the album’s release, Statik shared some insight as to why Black Thought hadn’t landed an appearance on the LP’s final version, saying “we both mutually agreed not to put it on…I think it’s gonna be on his album.”

As Black Thought waxes poetic about his relationship “or whatever the hell it was,” Statik’s crisp, soulful production pulsates with all of the knock Heads have come to expect. The song isn’t the first match-up of the two prolific artists; they’ve collaborated on “Bird’s Eye View” from Statik’s 2013 album Extended Play in addition to Black Thought’s contribution on 2014’s What Goes Around for “The Imperial,” which many called the verse of the year. Check out “Couldn’t Tell” below.

Related: Black Thought & Freddie Gibbs Rise Against Life’s Obstacles (Audio)