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Thursday, May 15, 2014

[Album] THE ROOTS - "& Then You Shoot Your Cousin"

"...and Then You Shoot Your Cousin" is the brand new album from The Roots, and yet again it's a straight win for Philly's finest. It's incredible how this group manages to refresh and update their sound every other year while somehow staying loyal to their devoted fanbase and delivering incredible LP:s that demands to be heard on front-to-back listens. I'm on my first listen and I'm absolutely floored with much of what I'm hearing on here - focused, pure hip hop, at it's best times more rugged and unforgiving than the group's two closest preceding albums, "&TYSYTC"freely mixes the jazzy sample sounding licks of the group's humble beginnings with the powerful electronic soundscapes and hard beats of their later work. The downside is that it is very, very short - only featuring 33 minutes of music spread over only eight (!) songs and three interludes (the physical release will however include one more song which I give them props for). That's not so much a problem as long as it's this ill, but I must say that it bugs me that Black Thought's role in the group seems to get more stripped down with every release. First by putting guests on every song on the LP ("Undun", "How I Got Over"), and now even given over entire songs to guest singers (not to mention entire projects released under the name not at all including him). Still the album is a triumphant return for one of the greatest crews to ever step foot in the music industry.

While the project is available on LP, CD and digital tomorrow, you can already now listen to a free stream of the entire album via Pitchfork below...  TURN IT UP!!

01. "Theme From The Middle Of The Night" (by Nina Simone)
02. "Never" (Ft. Patty Crash)
03. "When The People Cheer" (Ft. Greg Porn / Modesty Lycan)
04. "The Devil" (by Mary Lou Williams)
05. "Black Rock" (Ft. Dice Raw)
06. "Understand" (Ft. Dice Raw / Greg Porn)
07. "Dies Irae" (by Michel Chion)
08. "The Coming" (Ft. Mercedes Martinez)
09. "The Dark (Trinity)"
10. "The Unraveling" (Ft. Raheem DeVaughn)
11. "Tomorrow" (Ft. Raheem DeVaughn)

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