Black Thought Was Born on October 3, 1973

Black Thought was born on October 3, 1973. Known offstage as Tariq Trotter, the Philadelphia rapper co-founded The Roots with drummer Questlove, developing his writing within a band built around live musicians. His December 2017 appearance on Funk Flex’s HOT 97 show offered a concentrated example of that craft: a ten-minute freestyle over the instrumental from Mobb Deep’s “The Learning (Burn).”

His connection with Questlove began while they were students at Philadelphia’s High School for Creative and Performing Arts. Recalling their meeting in a 2021 interview with The Paris Review, Trotter said the drummer’s knowledge of breakbeats and the records behind rap samples caught his attention. They formed the Square Roots in 1987, establishing the partnership that became The Roots.

Their first album grew out of a practical problem. With a performance in Germany booked, the group needed something to sell at shows. Trotter recalled that plans for a short demo expanded once they entered a studio with an experienced engineer. The sessions became Organix, released in 1993. A recording intended to stock a merchandise table had become the beginning of their album catalog.

Finding a place for that band was more difficult. Speaking with Tonya Mosley on NPR’s Fresh Air in 2023, Trotter recalled record companies struggling to understand The Roots. Their instrumentation distinguished them, but so did the way he and fellow MC Malik B. sounded. He described their Philadelphia speech and performance styles as different from the regional approaches dominating rap. The challenge extended beyond convincing people that a hip-hop group could play instruments; the rappers themselves did not fit the available expectations.

On 1999’s Things Fall Apart, that identity found a wider audience. “You Got Me” paired Trotter’s account of a relationship tested by travel and mistrust with Erykah Badu’s sung reassurance and a guest appearance from Eve. The song placed a developed narrative inside an accessible collaboration without removing the band’s musical character. It earned The Roots their first Grammy, for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group, at the 2000 ceremony.

The group’s move to television changed the working conditions around that partnership. They joined Late Night with Jimmy Fallon in 2009 and followed Fallon to The Tonight Show in 2014. Trotter told Fresh Air that years of playing more than 200 shows annually had left the band tired and questioning how long that pace could last. Working on television meant spending time together and performing together every day in a different setting.

Outside The Roots, Trotter also developed music through close partnerships with individual producers. Cheat Codes, his collaborative album with Danger Mouse, arrived on August 12, 2022, after an idea they had discussed in the mid-2000s finally became a completed record. In a 2022 DJ Mag interview, he described sessions at the producer’s home that often took place without an engineer. They chose the music together, then Trotter wrote to it.

That process let him adjust his writing to the character of each track. He said the production on “No Gold Teeth” recalled the records that had influenced him when he was younger, prompting a corresponding approach to his cadence. “Identical Deaths” presented another challenge: the music suggested such vivid scenes that he wanted his storytelling to leave the listener’s imagination equally open. The familiar feeling of Danger Mouse’s samples, he explained, also made it easier to write with greater vulnerability.