The Roots’ de facto leader Black Thought has been in full throttle mode for most of 2020.
After dropping Streams of Thought Vol. 3: Cane & Able in October, he’s also contributed to tracks with Common, Statik Selektah and British singer Liam Bailey. That’s in addition to leading The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon‘s backing band and his forthcoming Danger Mouse collaboration.
Now, the Philly native has revealed he’s part of a supergroup assembled by T-Bone Burnett called Dopamine that includes DJ Premier, rock icon Elvis Costello, singer-songwriter Nathaniel Rateliff and jazz singer Cassandra Wilson.
Speaking with The Crate 808 Podcast, Thought explained, “A really unusual sort of motley crew. It’s weird how the songs come to be. Essentially live instrumentation, Premier is right there and he sorta takes it and chops it up.”
Costello and Thought have worked together before. In 2013, they linked up for the Rise Up Ghost project, a full-length LP. Questlove told Billboard at the time, “It goes without saying that Elvis is legendary,” adding the experience was “beyond my wildest dreams” and “the ultimate bucket list check.”
Elsewhere in the podcast, Thought revealed he and Q-Tip have an album’s worth of songs complete and has recorded several cuts with Preemo “with the intention of using it as an upcoming [Streams of Thought] volume.”
Listen to the full interview below.