Black Thought

Early life

Black Thought was born Tarik Luqmaan Trotter, to Thomas and Cassandra Trotter, both members of the Nation of Islam. His father was murdered when Trotter was one year old, and his mother was murdered when he was in high school. He spent time tagging "DT" or "Double T" with graffiti around Philadelphia. He sold crack cocaine briefly, and was sent to live with family in Detroit for a few months in high school. Trotter attended the Philadelphia High School for Creative and Performing Arts and Millersville University, studying journalism. In 1987, he became friends with drummer Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson and formed a drummer/MC duo, performing on the streets of Philadelphia and at talent shows. Trotter subsequently spent some time as one of two MCs in the group the Square Roots; the other was Malik B., whom Tariq met in college. In high school, Black Thought became interested in the lessons of the Nation of Gods and Earths.

The Roots

In 2000, the Roots won the Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group for "You Got Me", with guest performances by Erykah Badu and Eve. Things Fall Apart was nominated for Best Rap Album. For Jay-Z's acoustic concert for the television program MTV Unplugged, the Roots provided instrumentals. Succeeding albums were Phrenology (2002), The Tipping Point (2004), Game Theory (2006), Rising Down (2008), How I Got Over (2010), Undun (2011), and …And Then You Shoot Your Cousin (2014).

Solo music career

Black Thought recorded a solo album, titled Masterpiece Theatre and intended for a 2001 release, However, by September 2014, Black Thought and the solo album were not referenced on the Razor & Tie website.

Black Thought's first release outside of The Roots was the 2011 mixtape The Prestige, which he released alongside 10.Deep and the Money Making Jam Collective, the latter of which included longtime Roots collaborators such as Dice Raw, S.T.S., P.O.R.N., and Truck North. In 2013, he stated his intention to follow the mixtape with an album titled Talented Mr. Trotter. However, Black Thought's next release would instead be the EP Streams of Thought, Vol. 1, a June 2018 collaboration with producer 9th Wonder. That November, Black Thought and Salaam Remi released a follow-up EP, Streams of Thought, Vol. 2. The third installment in the "Streams of Thought" series, Streams of Thought, Vol. 3: Cane & Able, was a full studio album released in 2020. The album was preceded by the single "Good Morning", which featured Pusha T, Killer Mike, and Swizz Beatz; other featured artists on the album include Portugal. The Man, Schoolboy Q and the Last Artful, Dodgr.

Black Thought and Danger Mouse had begun work on a collaborative album, originally titled Dangerous Thoughts, in 2006. There was no further news about this album for years, until the artists announced in May 2022 that they would be releasing their collaboration that August. The album, retitled Cheat Codes, was released on August 10, 2022. Cheat Codes included a posthumous appearance from MF Doom; other featured artists included Raekwon, Kid Sister, Joey Badass, Russ, Dylan Cartlidge, Michael Kiwanuka, ASAP Rocky, Run the Jewels, and Conway the Machine.

In February 2016, Black Thought joined forces with Fashawn, Murs, and Del the Funky Homosapien to record a new track called "Rise Up" for the video game Street Fighter V. Capcom released a music video for the song that included appearances by Black Thought and his fellow collaborators.

In December 2017, Black Thought appeared on HOT 97 with Funkmaster Flex and performed a 10-minute freestyle over "The Learning (Burn)" instrumental by Mobb Deep. This freestyle went widely viral, trending on Twitter for the next days and hitting millions of views on YouTube.

Other work

Black Thought starred in films such as Bamboozled (2000), and the 2001 films Perfume, Love Rome, and Brooklyn Babylon. He made his stage debut in January 2022, playing Dr. Junius Crookman in the musical Black No More; he also wrote the lyrics and co-wrote the music for the production.

In 2013, Black Thought began work on a memoir with journalist and music critic Jeff Chang and filmmaker Maori Karmael Holmes. An autobiography entitled The Upcycled Self was released on November 14, 2023.

Black Thought was also an executive producer for the short film Land*, which is featured in the 2023 Oregon Shakespeare Festival's Cyberland Short Films collection, and it's about a woman who loses and then finds herself again while living in the mountains of Ashland, a small town in Oregon during the COVID pandemic, where the festival takes place. Ash Land was an official selection in 2021 for the Academy Award–qualifying Pan African Film Festival, the Brooklyn Film Festival, Bronzelens Film Festival, and Martha Vineyard's African American Film Festival. The film is directed by South African native Shariffa Ali and written by Banna Desta The film ends with a closing fade to black and voice over of Black Thought addressing the “Black Experience” in Oregon with a powerful and final affirmation: “We Black. We in Oregon. Look at us.”

Legacy

Black Thought is "widely recognized as one of the most skilled, incisive, and prolific rappers of his time", according to AllMusic critic Andy Kellman. He is highly regarded for his multisyllabic rhymes, internal rhymes, flow, breath control, socially conscious lyrics, and live performances. Questlove stated that Black Thought's clarity and logic also distinguishes him from other emcees, and Stephen Kearse of Pitchfork notes that his "ability to use words as textures as much as tools has always been a hallmark of his style". In the book How to Rap, emcee Kool G Rap described seeing the Roots perform his song "Men at Work" at a show; "I never really liked to perform it that much—because your breath control gotta be crazy. But somebody sent me a clip of the Roots ... and [Black Thought] did all three fucking verses and I couldn't believe it—he killed that shit". Black Thought has influenced several hip hop artists, including Logic, Joey Badass, Rapsody, k-os, and Shad.

Personal life

Black Thought and his wife Michelle were married in 2010. He has four sons and a daughter.

Discography

Studio albums

Extended plays

With The Roots

• Organix (1993)
• Do You Want More?!!!??! (1995)
• Illadelph Halflife (1996)
• Things Fall Apart (1999)
• Phrenology (2002)
• The Tipping Point (2004)
• Game Theory (2006)
• Rising Down (2008)
• How I Got Over (2010)
• Undun (2011)
• ...And Then You Shoot Your Cousin (2014)

Guest appearances