The Roots Draft Jim James, Joanna Newsom for 'How I Got Over'

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The Roots' ?uestlove was hanging out with the hot new football prospects at yesterday's NFL Draft pre-party in New York, but the Roots are busy assembling ther own all-star team for their new album How I Got Over: Joanna Newsom, John Legend and My Morning Jacket's Jim James have all been confirmed as guests for the Philly hip-hop collective's upcoming disc, due out this summer. ?uestlove announced Newsom's involvement with a Twitter video that showed the drummer mixing a track featuring the singer/harpist's distinctive vocals. According to EW's Music Mix, Newsom will contribute new vocal overdubs of her Milk-Eyed Mender track "The Book of Right-On."

As Rolling Stone reported in our latest issue, where the Roots are listed among the 40 Reasons to Be Excited About Music, the Late Night With Jimmy Fallon house band will also collaborate with Monsters of Folk on the How I Got Over track "Dear God." The two groups initially performed "Dear God," which first appeared on Monsters of Folk as "Dear God (Sincerely M.O.F.)," when Jim James, Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst, M. Ward and Mike Mogis stopped by for a Fallon performance, and James has since been confirmed to help remake the song for the Roots' new album.

Other artists rumored to appear on How I Got Over include Cody Chesnutt, who previously guested on the Roots' "The Seed (2.0)," Chrisette Michelle and Beanie Sigel. How I Got Over will also reportedly boast a Roots-ified version of Frank Zappa's classic instrumental "Peaches en Regalia." While no release date has been locked in — ?uestlove has been tweeting to fans to expect it in June — EW writes that the Roots' Black Thought is wrapping up his vocal parts for the album now.

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Song Stories

“Everyday People”

Sly and the Family Stone | 1968

"Everyday People" managed to trailblaze in two different ways -- it was one of the first pop hits to deal with the subject of racial harmony, and it utilized Larry Graham's "slap" technique on the bass guitar, which would soon be copied by countless other bassists. Graham once said about his pulsating style, "I'd never done that before … that's where the freedom of creativity came in for the band, that we'd be allowed to do that." In 1978, the song's line "Different strokes for different folks" would be borrowed for the title of the hit television show Diff'rent Strokes.

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