The Roots are currently working on their 12th studio album, End Game, and tapping some top-notch talent for its creation.

For End Game, 9th Wonder and Salaam Remi will be working on the LP alongside producer Stro Elliot and Karriem Riggins. Black Thought, Questlove and the rest of the group have been working on their forthcoming project since last fall when they held a writers' retreat.

"Last October we had a writers’ retreat at Electric Lady Studios in New York City for about a week or so and within that time we got about a good deal of the groundwork of what’s to come for the record, End Game," Black Thought tells XXL over the phone. "I’ve been working, writing and recording on it since then."

The album, which serves as the follow-up to 2014's ...And Then You Shoot Your Cousin, doesn't have a release date yet but it's one of the most anticipated projects in hip-hop right now. While The Roots don't have a scheduled date for the End Game, they're in no rush to drop it. The album will come out when it's fully complete.

"I think what people do nowadays is to catch people off guard and take the industry by storm," he explains. "I think our campaign will be unlike that new sort of wave. We will announce it when it’s done and it will going to come out when it comes out. We’re not under any constraints of this is the date where the album must be completed and submitted. That’s not us anymore. We’re free agents now, we’re our own brand, our own label. When the joints are done, we’re just going to put it out."

Making this album was different from their previous projects. This is The Roots' first project since the tragic passing of Richard Nichols, the group's longtime manager and executive producer for the past two decades. Nichols died in July of 2014, after a long battle with leukemia. Nichols managed The Roots since the 1990s, helping them go from local Philly musicians to international fame. He's been credited for producing, executive producing and mixing several Roots' albums and has worked with other acts such as Jill Scott and Erykah Badu, among others.

"We’re coming into our own in a different way," adds Black Thought. "This is going to be our first record since the untimely passing of our long-term mentor and manager and executive producer Richard Nichols so this record is going to be a testimonials to The Roots’ creative power."

It just don't stop.