Here goes the first leak off The Roots’ forthcoming concept album undun, it features Big K.R.I.T.
… Can’t tell you how excited I got when I heard The Roots’ new album was going to be a 10 track orchestral concept album (tracklist after the jump). The project will be a re-telling of the life of Redford Stephens (1974-1999) – using diary entries and internal monologues as the backbone for the entire LP.
Speaking about the album drummer ?uestlove said:
“We’ve been intentionally making our albums shorter in length so that they can be experienced as a continuous work. The music is band-oriented with an eye on the moody cinematic. As a DJ, I am the king of playlists, but I don’t want our albums to feel like a playlist or a mixtape for that matter. We want to tell stories that work within the album format and we want the stories to be nuanced and useful to people.
“undun is the story of this kid who becomes criminal, but he wasn’t born criminal. He’s not the nouveau exotic primitive bug-eyed gunrunner like Tupac’s character Bishop in Juice… he’s actually thoughtful and is neither victim nor hero. Just some kid who begins to order his world in a way that makes the most sense to him at a given moment… At the end of the day… isn’t that what we all do?”
The mind boggles. I’m excited. Listen below and get ready.
1. Sleep
2. Make My (feat. Big K.R.I.T.)
3. One Time
4. Kool On
5. The Jump
6. Stomp
7. Lighthouse
8. I Remember
9. Tip the Scale
10. Redford
