Black Thought & El Michels Affair Announce Collaborative LP 'Glorious Game'

Cementing an undeniable union, GRAMMY® Award-winning legendary MC and The Roots Co-Founder Black Thought joins forces with acclaimed cinematic soul luminary El Michels Affair for a collaborative LP titled Glorious Game, arriving on April 14 on Big Crown Records. Pre-order and pre-save Glorious Game HERE.

To herald the arrival of the album, they just shared the first single "Grateful." On the track, flute echoes through a head-nodding beat punctuated by shaky guitars and an eerie vocal sample.

Holding nothing back, Black Thought lyrically stalks the soulful production with incisive bars. As poignant and provocative as ever, he laments, "Dale Carnegies with big dreams to get rich quick that fail horribly" before he confesses, "Never been in pursuit of the American dream."

As the story goes, Black Thought and El Michels Affair founder Leon Michels initially crossed paths in the early two-thousands, exhibiting mutual respect for one another. This respect manifested on stage as they performed together at a handful of charity concerts in New York and Philadelphia.

Black Thought began to occasionally pull up to the group's studio to collaborate. During the Global Pandemic, he reached out to Michels for material, building the foundation for Glorious Game. Now, this 12-track hip-hop soul opus layers the rapper's elite rhyme-play and intense storytelling above cinematic soundscapes brought to life by the band.

It continues an incredibly prolific season for Black Thought. In 2022, he linked up with Danger Mouse for the unanimously acclaimed, Cheat Codes. Beyond tallying tens of millions of streams, it incited the applause of Rolling Stone, The Guardian, Clash, NME, and Pitchfork who professed, "the album feels both modern and vintage-a swirl of distant touchstones happening all at once."

Meanwhile, President Barack Obama touted "Belize" [feat. MF Doom] among his favorite songs of the year. Simultaneously, El Michels Affair has consistently captivated audiences and inspired tastemaker applause, serving up Yeti Season (Deluxe) in 2022 and producing for others at a prolific pace including Lady Wray's Piece Of Me album and tracks for Mary J Blige and Norah Jones.

Listen to the new single here: