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Its been over a decade since The Roots delivered their last full album. In 2014, the group dropped And Then You Shoot Your Cousin, which gained critical acclaim. Now, in a new interview with Billboard, they revealed their new album, Endgame, is close to completion.
According to the article, Black Thought and Questlove say the album is “a return to the free-flowing jam sessions that defined The Roots’ creative process.”
Not much else is known about the project, but the death of their longtime producer and co-manager Richard Nichols led to a need for the group to step back and reassess. Now, with the help of their manager Shawn Gee, the legends are ready to return with new material.
The duo spoke on the evolution of Roots Picnic, which has become a premier Hip Hop festival nationwide.
“We began doing the festival where The Roots would sometimes do two, three sets during the course of the day to keep moving the dial forward,” Questlove told Billboard. “Now we’re at a place where the ecosystem it brings to the city of Philadelphia, the scale it’s grown to, and the fact that there are die-hard Roots Picnic attendees who aren’t necessarily Roots fans — that represents something.”
The Roots spoke to Billboard and revealed that they are preparing to release their next album "Endgame" 👀
— Cali Is The Mission ﾒ⁰ (@nutmegbygfk) August 21, 2026
The album is almost finished and will be "a return to the free-flowing jam sessions that defined The Roots' creative process"
Very interesting. Insanely hyped for it! pic.twitter.com/IZy813tHk5
Roots Picnic
They also reflected on JAY-Z’s historic Roots Picnic performance.
“There were points where I didn’t seem excited enough, and he was like, ‘Are you in this?’ So I was like, “Let me come up with some ideas and stuff,'” Questlove said. “But the big takeaway of putting both [performances] together is the importance of legacy and the history of it all. There was a period where I looked at our catalog and thought, ‘Maybe 30 years from now, somebody will see how much painstaking work we put into this.’ It made me want to look at our work with the same reverence because oftentimes when things are in the 20-year cycle, it’s so hard to get people to celebrate themselves. We still struggle with calling this game [an] art form or seeing it as art as opposed to survival.
