Living Colour Working On Notorious B.I.G. Inspired Mixtape

Living Colour is planning quite the comeback with both a new album and special project inspired by the Notorious B.I.G.'s 1995 hit "Who Shot Ya?"

Speaking to Billboard guitarist Vernon Reid said that the alternative rock band is working with producer Andre Betts on a Who Shot Ya? mixtape, that will feature a variety of artists adding to and improvising off the track. "It's very eerily current because of the horrible things that have been going on with gun violence and various shootings," Reid explained. "We're still in process even as we speak and I don't want to really talk too much about who's in 'cause that's still kind of fluid. But it's going to happen in 2016 for sure and there's a couple of folks who have approached us, so we're going to see what the final tally's going to be. But the things I've heard so far are really, really powerful, really fiery verses, and some of the writers are responding directly what happened in St. Paul, what's happening in Baton Rouge. There's a bit of that in the mix as well as other conversations."

So far only two of the contributors have been revealed: Pharoahe Monch and Divine Styler.

As for the forthcoming new album, which is named Shade, is slated to drop some time this year. Although he stated that the group is "pretty far" along in the recording process, Reid said that the recent shootings will likely send them back to the writing block. "That's actually something we're talking about and I'm processing as well, lyrically and musically," Reid said. "swirling like everybody else's heads is swirling. We're in it. We've got a few new places to go, but we're getting it done."

Shade will serve as the band's first album in seven years, with their last one being 2009's The Chair In The Doorway. According to Reid one of the songs from the forthcoming release will feature George Clinton.