Queen Latifah, Raekwon, The Roots! We are in for some good quality hip-hop music this week.  Queen Latifah goes back to her roots after trying jazz music (which was surprisingly good) for her last album. The Roots, Hip-Hop’s band famed for still using live instrumentals in performances, say their 9th studio album has a positive attitude which focuses on the end of the Bush administration and the beginning of the Obama presidency.

It seems we have run out of good titles for albums. Just a few weeks after Ginuwine released an album titled The Bachelor we have Patrick Wolf using the same name for his new one.  At least the English singer-songwriter sounds completely different from the R&B crooner, with his romantic folk/techno-pop sound.

Here are the albums coming out August 11th:

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In a rather shocking move, hip-hop band The Roots will stop touring at the end of the year to be the new the band on Late Night on NBC when Jimmy Fallon takes over. E Street Band drummer and longtime Late Night bandleader Max Weinberg will go to Los Angeles with Conan O’Brien when he takes over The Tonight Show.

The “announcement” was made by Roots’ drummer ?uestlove during a backstage interview in Chicago. There was a video of the interview on YouTube, but it was promptly removed. I think ?uestlove let the cat out of the bag a little early.

Read a portion of the interview after the break:

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