Props: NPR

A new one from The Roots titled “One Time” featuring Phonte & Dice Raw, from their new album undun hits stores Dec 6th.

Undun is an existential re-telling of the short life of one Redford Stephens (1974-1999). Through the use of emotives and Redford’s internal dialogues the album seeks to illustrate the intersection of free will and prescribed destiny as it plays out ‘on the corner’. Utilizing a reverse narrative arc, the album begins as the listener finds Redford disoriented–postmortem–and attempting to make sense of his former life. As he moves through its pivotal moments he begins to deconstruct all that has led to his (and our own) coming undun.

New record from Betty Wright & The Roots featuring Lil Wayne off their upcoming album “Betty Wright: The Movie” which drops November 15th. Questlove co-produced and co-wrote the album. Betty Wright got that old school soulful sound, check it out.

As a follow up to the official announcement of their next studio LP, The Roots leak the first single called “Make My” featuring K.R.I.T.

“Make My” will be available for purchase as of November 1st on iTunes and undun drops on December 6th.

EPIC REMIX COMPILATION FEATURES JOHN LEGEND, THE ROOTS, RAKIM, COMMON, NNEKA, Q-TIP, PETE ROCK & CL SMOOTH & MORE! ::

New York, NY (February 10 , 2011) – In anticipation of an award-winning evening for John Legend & The Roots’ WAKE UP! album (nominated for 5 Grammys at Sunday’s 2011 Grammy Awards), J.Period & Truelements Music are pleased to present WAKE UP! RADIO – a star-studded mixtape collaboration with Columbia Records’ multi-platinum singing sensation, and the hardest working Late Night band on the planet!

Hosted by The Roots’ own Black Thought, WAKE UP! RADIO pays tribute to the legacy of soul music that paved the way for WAKE UP! and imagines a world where mainstream radio transmits music with a message. Employing an all-star cast of musical contemporaries (including John Legend & The Roots themselves), J.Period dissects, remixes and rebuilds the original recording sessions from the WAKE UP! album in an unprecedented manner, defying the conventional wisdom of what a “mixtape” can be—producing a full-fledged remix album in the process. The result is a treasure trove of powerful new music, produced and remixed exclusively by J.Period for WAKE UP! RADIO.

Adding to the historic nature of this mixtape release, J.Period will also release an exclusive Digital 12” on Tuesday, February 15, featuring a history-making collaboration between John Legend, Black Thought of The Roots, and hip hop luminary, Rakim. The track, entitled “In the Ghetto (Wake Up!)”, produced by J.Period, is an homage to the Eric B. & Rakim classic “In The Ghetto”—which hearkens back to a time when hip hop and social messages went hand in hand.

Additional featured guests on WAKE UP! RADIO include Common, Q-Tip, Late Night host Jimmy Fallon, Nigerian songstress Nneka, Somali sensation K’NAAN, rising star Blu, Def Poet Mayda Del Valle and more, in addition to never-before-heard music from Black Thought and John Legend. Also look out for J.Period’s history-making “Our Generation” Remix, reuniting hip hop legends Pete Rock & CL Smooth, which was originally released online in November, and is also featured on WAKE UP! RADIO.

“When this project began, I was excited to explore the legacy of soul music behind the WAKE UP! album,” explains J.Period, “but I had no idea of the level of access and creative freedom I would be granted by John Legend & The Roots to tell that story. The result is not only something that traces musical history lines from artists like Marvin Gaye to contemporaries like John Legend—but something that adds to that history: brand new collaborative tracks as if Marvin & John recorded together. It’s simply unprecedented on a mixtape. And I am particularly proud of the fact that all of it speaks to the true power of music to carry a message, and have a positive impact on society, and on people’s lives.”

“These songs [are] so relevant now,” says John Legend. “On most of them, you wouldn’t change a lyric [from the original version.] The passionate election [in 2008] represented change and hope, and awakened a new generation of activists who had never been inspired before. [Fast forward to today:] the intense brew of possibility [and] poverty, optimism and despair, activism and unrest, global connectedness and intractable global conflicts is the reason WAKE UP! exists.”

Available today, WAKE UP! RADIO celebrates the powerful impact of John Legend & The Roots’ WAKE UP! album (Columbia Records), and calls on listeners who haven’t heard the Grammy-nominated album to do so now. For more information about John Legend and WAKE UP!

please visit: http://www.JohnLegend.com

Download:J.Period, John Legend & The Roots – Wake Up! Radio

Here is another one from John Legend & The Roots titled “Hard Times” featuring Black Thought.

Download:John Legend & The Roots – Hard Times (feat. Black Thought)

Here’s the second single from the John Legend & The Roots project “Wake Up“, it’s titled Shine. The album drops in 2 weeks and this is the only song that isn’t a remake on there.

Download:John Legend & The Roots – Shine

John Legend & The Roots – Wake Up Everybody featuring Common & Melanie Fiona, the first single off John Legend & The Roots’ upcoming joint LP, Wake Up!, due September 21st.

Download:John Legend & The Roots – Wake Up Everybody (feat. Common & Melanie Fiona)

B.o.B adds a verse to The Roots single The Fire, check it out.

Download:The Roots feat. B.o.B & John Legend – The Fire (Remix)

Directed by Jason Goldwatch.

More from The Roots featuring Blu, Phonte & Patty Cash, from How I Got Over is out next Tuesday.

Download:The Roots ft. Blu, Phonte & Patty Cash – The Day

Another joint from The Roots with a John Legend feature this one is called “The Fire”.

Download:The Roots feat. John Legend – The Fire

New music from The Roots titled Doin It Again, it samples John Legend’s Again single. The Roots’ How I Got Over drops June 22nd.

Download:The Roots feat. John Legend – Doin It Again

New music from The Roots titled Dear God 2.0, the lead single for How I Got Over, now dropping June 22nd.

Download:The Roots – Dear God 2.0