The first taste of the Roots' upcoming concept album is a melancholy ballad featuring a wistful Big K.R.I.T., nudged along by Kamal Gray's Fender Rhodes and ?uestlove's sauntering groove. "Make My" gestures back to Curtis Mayfield and Gil Scott-Heron. The lyrics are strictly 21st century, though, as Black Thought contemplates suicide in the post-Drake style of angst rap: "If there's a heaven, I can't find the stairway."

Listen to "Make My":

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“The A Team”

This debut track from the then-20-year-old British singer-songwriter has a dark story behind it. Sheeran says he culls songwriting inspiration from "viewing other people's situations," which, for the heroine in "The A Team," involves drug addiction and prostitution that began as a teen. Sheeran paints the woman's trials with haunting imagery such as "But lately her face seems/Slowly sinking, wasting/Crumbling like pastries." "I did a gig at a homeless shelter, [and the song] is about one of the women there. It's her story," he said.