The Roots' Black Thought says new music in 2020: 'I want it to be received as high art.'

Alex Biese | Asbury Park Press

They're one of the most prolific acts in all of hip-hop, appearing on late night television like clockwork five nights a week for the last decade, but it's been five years since the world heard new original music from Philadelphia natives The Roots.

That all changes next year. Frontman Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter tells us, “Absolutely, yeah, you should expect new music in 2020."

"We want it to be a dense sonic journey so that’s sort of been the focus, figuring out what songs best move the story that we’re trying to tell forward and what statement as a whole for the project is going to continue to push the culture forward in the way that people have come to rely upon The Roots brand to do,” said Trotter.

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The Roots last released "... And Then You Shoot Your Cousin" in 2014, and Trotter unveiled two "Streams of Thought" EPs last year.

Trotter said there is one mission he keeps in mind of all of his work.

“I want everything that I do, I want everything that I put out, to be an elevation," he said. "So I guess in short, I want it to be received as high art. I want what we do as musicians, I want what I do as a writer and as a vocalist, to be recognized as high art and respected as such, so that’s sort of where we’re at at this point.

"(In our) mid-40s, some of us 50-plus, I feel like we’re done sort of paying our dues and making an introduction. What it is now is about leaving a legacy. I feel like The Roots, we’re a prestige act, we’re a legacy act, and I feel like whatever we do as a collective or independently, separately, should be recognized as such, it should be received as high art.”

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The Roots have served as the house band for Jimmy Fallon's time as host of both "Late Night" and "The Tonight Show" on NBC since 2009. This Saturday, the band makes its debut performance at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark, an occasion 30 years in the making.

The legendary hip-hop band's co-founders, Trotter and drummer Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson, were classmates at the Philadelphia High School for Creative and Performing Arts in the mid-1980s, alongside bassist Christian McBride.

“There’s something to be said about youthful expression (and) the fact that we were all young, the fact that we were all inside of the same sort of incubator," Trotter said. "Genius begats genius and art influences sort of more art, so it was a universal creative energy that was very palpable in the building and it was a great energy to be around.”

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Decades later the longtime friends have nine Grammy awards among them, three for The Roots and six for McBride. McBride is an acclaimed musician and educator who serves as jazz advisor for the NJPAC.

Trotter and McBride also have relocated from Philadelphia to Essex County, with McBride in Montclair and Trotter moving to South Orange, then Maplewood.

On Saturday, Nov. 16, their worlds collide as A Christian McBride Situation — the bassist's free funk and jazz ensemble with Patrice Rushen, Alyson Williams, Ron Blake, Jahi Sundance and DJ Logic — opens the show.

The performance is part of NJPAC's TD James Moody Jazz Festival running through Sunday, Nov. 24. (For a full list of concerts, screenings and other related festival events, visit www.njpac.org/series/td-james-moody-jazz-festival.)

“Jazz is such a broad term, it’s such a broad genre, when you really think about it," said Trotter. "Almost anything, any and all things, could fall under that umbrella.

"The Roots, though we fancy ourselves a hip-hop group, we’re also jazz. I feel like we began at that jazz education, definitely with Quest and Christian and people like Joey DeFranceso and so many other jazz greats all studying at the same time, in the same school.”

Christian McBride at the Free Press Watch video of Christian McBride who performed at the Burlington Free Press offices at 12:30 p.m. Thursday. He's one of the best-known bass players in jazz, and he's also artist-in-residence this week at the Burlington Discover Jazz Festival.

The Roots

With: A Christian McBride Situation

When: 8 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 16

Where: Prudential Hall at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, 1 Center St., Newark

Tickets: $59 to $99

Info: www.njpac.org