Categories:
Cart 0

Your cart is empty

El Michels Affair|Glorious Game

Glorious Game

El Michels Affair & Black Thought

Available in
16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo

Unlimited Streaming

Listen to this album in high quality now on our apps

Start my trial period and start listening to this album

Enjoy this album on Qobuz apps with your subscription

Subscribe

Enjoy this album on Qobuz apps with your subscription

Digital Download

Purchase and download this album in a wide variety of formats depending on your needs.

Ever since his HOT 97 10-minute freestyle rework of Rising Down highlight "75 Bars (Black's Reconstruction)" blew minds in December 2017, Roots’ MC Black Thought has spent a lot of time and energy reasserting his bona fides as a hyper-lyrical powerhouse. But while the skills-recognizing aspect to his revival provides more strong reminders than unexpected epiphanies, he's also been able to better embody the humanistic side of his art along the way. Glorious Game, his collaboration with veteran Brooklyn psychedelic-soul instrumentalists El Michels Affair, embodies this better than anything else to emerge in a strong run that also gave us his Streams of Thought series and his Danger Mouse collab Cheat Codes. You could throw a bit of credit for that to the atmosphere the Affair brings as a backing band: for a certain generation of hip-hop head, their collective ear for funk's stranger, blearier qualities that have been honed from years of RZA reconstructions and retro-cinematic takes on grainy soul-jazz can dredge up some remarkably powerful imagery just on its own. But it's where Black Thought takes these mood pieces, sinking just deep enough into them to absorb a vibe he turns around and commands into vivid life, that makes Glorious Game hit deep. Thought's focused intensity is always good for naturalistic internal rhymes and deeply interlocked referential allusions, but the nuances of his different levels of emotional impact have flourished into his secret weapon as an MC. And the nuanced tone of his more emotionally reflective material—the enduring search for Black joy on "I'm Still Somehow," the sense-memory evocations of a familiar yet often ambivalent nostalgia for a formative time and place on "The Weather," the fight between disillusionment and confidence in "I Would Never"—definitively separates him from your typical lyrics-first rapper. That pays off highest on the album's two most beatific moments: the title cut, where Thought's boasts sound more like self-actualizations than defense mechanisms, and the sobriety-reinvigorated affirmations of closer "Alter Ego," where he takes stock of all the existential questions that drove him to this point and answers them with a clarity that makes even his self-big-ups sound like humble truths. © Nate Patrin/Qobuz

More info

Glorious Game

El Michels Affair

launch qobuz app I already downloaded Qobuz for Windows / MacOS Open

download qobuz app I have not downloaded Qobuz for Windows / MacOS yet Download the Qobuz app

You are currently listening to samples.

Listen to over 100 million songs with an unlimited streaming plan.

Listen to this playlist and more than 100 million songs with our unlimited streaming plans.

From $16.65/month

1
Grateful Explicit
00:02:51

Black Thought, MainArtist - Leon Michels, Producer - El Michels Affair, MainArtist - Big Crown Publishing, MusicPublisher

2023 Big Crown Records 2023 Big Crown Records

2
Glorious Game Explicit
00:03:53

Black Thought, MainArtist - Kirby, MainArtist - Leon Michels, Producer - El Michels Affair, MainArtist - Big Crown Publishing, MusicPublisher - Brainstory, Producer

2023 Big Crown Records 2023 Big Crown Records

3
I'm Still Somehow Explicit
00:02:04

Black Thought, MainArtist - Copyright Control, MusicPublisher - Leon Michels, Producer - El Michels Affair, MainArtist

2023 Big Crown Records 2023 Big Crown Records

4
Hollow Way Explicit
00:02:24

Black Thought, MainArtist - Copyright Control, MusicPublisher - Leon Michels, Producer - El Michels Affair, MainArtist

2023 Big Crown Records 2023 Big Crown Records

5
Protocol
00:02:56

Black Thought, MainArtist - Leon Michels, Producer - El Michels Affair, MainArtist - Son Little, MainArtist - Big Crown Publishing, MusicPublisher

2023 Big Crown Records 2023 Big Crown Records

6
The Weather Explicit
00:02:59

Black Thought, MainArtist - Leon Michels, Producer - El Michels Affair, MainArtist - Big Crown Publishing, MusicPublisher - Paul Casteluzzo, Producer

2023 Big Crown Records 2023 Big Crown Records

7
That Girl
00:02:10

Black Thought, MainArtist - Leon Michels, Producer - El Michels Affair, MainArtist - Big Crown Publishing, MusicPublisher

2023 Big Crown Records 2023 Big Crown Records

8
I Would Never
00:02:43

Black Thought, MainArtist - Leon Michels, Producer - El Michels Affair, MainArtist - Big Crown Publishing, MusicPublisher

2023 Big Crown Records 2023 Big Crown Records

9
Alone
00:02:06

Black Thought, MainArtist - Leon Michels, Producer - El Michels Affair, MainArtist - Big Crown Publishing, MusicPublisher

2023 Big Crown Records 2023 Big Crown Records

10
Miracle
00:02:32

Black Thought, MainArtist - Copyright Control, MusicPublisher - Leon Michels, Producer - El Michels Affair, MainArtist

2023 Big Crown Records 2023 Big Crown Records

11
Glorious Game (Reprise) Explicit
00:01:23

Black Thought, MainArtist - Leon Michels, Producer - El Michels Affair, MainArtist - Big Crown Publishing, MusicPublisher - Brainstory, Producer

2023 Big Crown Records 2023 Big Crown Records

12
Alter Ego Explicit
00:03:10

Black Thought, MainArtist - Leon Michels, Producer - Tony Martin, AssociatedPerformer - El Michels Affair, MainArtist - Big Crown Publishing, MusicPublisher - Brainstory, MainArtist - Eric Hagstrom, AssociatedPerformer

2023 Big Crown Records 2023 Big Crown Records

Album review

Ever since his HOT 97 10-minute freestyle rework of Rising Down highlight "75 Bars (Black's Reconstruction)" blew minds in December 2017, Roots’ MC Black Thought has spent a lot of time and energy reasserting his bona fides as a hyper-lyrical powerhouse. But while the skills-recognizing aspect to his revival provides more strong reminders than unexpected epiphanies, he's also been able to better embody the humanistic side of his art along the way. Glorious Game, his collaboration with veteran Brooklyn psychedelic-soul instrumentalists El Michels Affair, embodies this better than anything else to emerge in a strong run that also gave us his Streams of Thought series and his Danger Mouse collab Cheat Codes. You could throw a bit of credit for that to the atmosphere the Affair brings as a backing band: for a certain generation of hip-hop head, their collective ear for funk's stranger, blearier qualities that have been honed from years of RZA reconstructions and retro-cinematic takes on grainy soul-jazz can dredge up some remarkably powerful imagery just on its own. But it's where Black Thought takes these mood pieces, sinking just deep enough into them to absorb a vibe he turns around and commands into vivid life, that makes Glorious Game hit deep. Thought's focused intensity is always good for naturalistic internal rhymes and deeply interlocked referential allusions, but the nuances of his different levels of emotional impact have flourished into his secret weapon as an MC. And the nuanced tone of his more emotionally reflective material—the enduring search for Black joy on "I'm Still Somehow," the sense-memory evocations of a familiar yet often ambivalent nostalgia for a formative time and place on "The Weather," the fight between disillusionment and confidence in "I Would Never"—definitively separates him from your typical lyrics-first rapper. That pays off highest on the album's two most beatific moments: the title cut, where Thought's boasts sound more like self-actualizations than defense mechanisms, and the sobriety-reinvigorated affirmations of closer "Alter Ego," where he takes stock of all the existential questions that drove him to this point and answers them with a clarity that makes even his self-big-ups sound like humble truths. © Nate Patrin/Qobuz

About the album

Improve album information

Qobuz logo Why buy on Qobuz...

On sale now...

Keep Your Courage

Natalie Merchant

Keep Your Courage Natalie Merchant

The Köln Concert (Live at the Opera, Köln, 1975)

Keith Jarrett

You're the One

Rhiannon Giddens

You're the One Rhiannon Giddens

Owl Song

Ambrose Akinmusire

Owl Song Ambrose Akinmusire
More on Qobuz
By El Michels Affair

Enter The 37th Chamber

El Michels Affair

Enter The 37th Chamber El Michels Affair

Return To The 37th Chamber

El Michels Affair

Return To The 37th Chamber El Michels Affair

Sounding Out the City

El Michels Affair

Sounding Out the City El Michels Affair

Yeti Season

El Michels Affair

Yeti Season El Michels Affair

Kabhi

El Michels Affair

Kabhi El Michels Affair

Playlists

You may also like...

UTOPIA

Travis Scott

UTOPIA Travis Scott

Graduation

Kanye West

Graduation Kanye West

HISS

Megan Thee Stallion

HISS Megan Thee Stallion

HISS

Megan Thee Stallion

HISS Megan Thee Stallion

Enough (Miami)

Cardi B

Enough (Miami) Cardi B