The Roots next album will be an experimental Hip-Hopera titled ‘UnDun’ about the brief life of a young man caught up in the streetlife.
Allow me to let Questlove tell the story…
“At this point in our career we’d like for our work to have a unifying theme, and an experiential quality. 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?”
Take a listen to the first leak from ‘UnDun’ featuring Big K.R.I.T. and produced by Khari Mateen – ‘Make My’
The Roots “Make My” featuring Big K.R.I.T. by okayplayer
Catch the Roots performing at the Highline Ballroom November 29, 30 and December 5
‘UnDun’ drops worldwide on December 6
