The Roots - Game Theory

The Roots, known for their innovative album concepts, return after a two year break to release their new album, 'Game Theory' filled with 14 hard hitting tracks that express their views on the state of the world. 'Game Theory' is The Roots' most thought-provoking, incitive album since their 1999 breakthrough 'Things Fall Apart' and will be the group's debut for Def Jam Recordings, home to the world's premiere Hip-Hop artists.

"There was too much going on that we couldn't just sit back and not speak on it," says lyricist Black Thought. Drummer ?uestlove describes the album as "very mature, serious and very dark."

The band addresses everything from their uneasiness about society on, "It Don't Feel Right," to troops at war on "False Media" and government monitoring on "New World." The band also honors their fallen friend and producer James Yancey a/k/a J-Dilla whose death from kidney failure in February devastated the Hip-Hop world. All tracks are wrapped around hard hitting beats and murky grooves deploying samples from Sly Stone, the Ohio Players and the Jackson 5 among others.

It's been nearly 20 years since Ahmir '?uestlove' Thompson and Tarik "Black Thought" Trotter met on a fateful date in 1987 at the Philadelphia High School for the Creative and Performing Arts. Since then, The Roots have become popularly regarded as among today's most innovative, adventurous and influential bands.

The Roots are: ?uestlove (drums), Black Thought (emcee), Leonard "Hub" Hubbard (bass), Kamal Gray (keyboards), Kirk "Captain Kirk" Douglas (guitar) and Frank Knuckles (percussion).