Level Q
Black Thought Is Loved and Feared by Your Favorite Rapper
The Roots’ frontman talks continuously improving as a man and MC
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Tarik Luqmaan Trotter is not your father’s late-night television bandleader. Whether inside or outside of the recording booth, the Philadelphian orator and scribe extraordinaire is also an anomaly. Let’s consider his origin story.
Before Tarik Trotter turned two, his father — a gangster and Muslim from South Philadelphia — died in a hail of bullets at age 26. During Tarik’s teen years, his mother, who fell victim to the crack era, was also murdered. This was after he himself began selling drugs for the sport of it. Thought describes his younger self as a bookworm and microphone fiend who attended the Philadelphia High School for Creative and Performing Arts, yet by 15, he was twice able to dodge what his family, friends, and neighbors couldn’t: prison. After a family-led escape route to Detroit, he returned to Philly. Five years later, he was a member of The Roots’ crew.
When you consider the music career of Black Thought, the trajectory challenges that of any rapper from any region or era. Even after The Roots won a…
