FEATURE:
A Buyer’s Guide
IN THIS PHOTO: The Roots backstage in Chicago in October 2000/PHOTO CREDIT: Paul Natkin/WireImage
Part Sixty-Three: The Roots
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BEFORE coming to the albums…
from The Roots that you need to own, it is worth bringing in some biography. The legendary and hugely influential act are one of the greatest ever. I am not recommending a book this week. Instead, the four essential albums, the underrated one and their latest studio album. Prior to getting there, here is some more background regarding The Roots:
“One of the most prolific rap groups, the Roots were also among the most progressive acts in contemporary music, from their 1993 debut through their conceptual 2010s releases. Despite the seemingly archaic practice of functioning as a rap band with several instrumentalists -- from 2007 onward, their lineup even featured a sousaphonist -- they were ceaselessly creative, whether with their own material or through their varied assortment of collaborations. They went platinum and gold with successive studio releases and won a handful of Grammy Awards. After they gained a nightly nationwide audience through a close partnership with television host Jimmy Fallon, they continued to challenge listeners with works free of genre restrictions.
The Roots' focus on live music began back in 1987, when rapper Black Thought (Tariq Trotter) and drummer ?uestlove (Ahmir Khalib Thompson) became friends at the Philadelphia High School for Creative Performing Arts. Playing around school, on the sidewalk, and later at talent shows (with ?uestlove's drum kit backing Black Thought's rhymes), the pair began to earn money and hooked up with bassist Hub (Leon Hubbard) and rapper Malik B. Moving from the street to local clubs, the Roots became a highly tipped underground act around Philadelphia and New York. When they were invited to represent stateside hip-hop at a concert in Germany, the Roots recorded an album to sell at shows; the result, Organix, was released in May 1993 on Remedy Records. With a music industry buzz surrounding their activities, the Roots entertained offers from several labels before signing with DGC that same year.
The Roots' first major-label album, Do You Want More?!!!??!, was released in January 1995. Forsaking usual hip-hop protocol, the record was produced without any samples or previously recorded material. It peaked just outside the Top 100 of the Billboard 200 and made more tracks in alternative circles, partly due to the Roots playing the second stage at Lollapalooza that summer. The band also journeyed to the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland. Two of the guests on the album who had toured around with the band, human beatbox Rahzel the Godfather of Noyze -- previously a performer with Grandmaster Flash and LL Cool J -- and Scott Storch (later replaced by Kamal Gray), became permanent members of the group.
Early in 1996, the Roots released "Clones," the trailer single for their second album. It hit the rap Top Five, and created a good buzz. That September, Illadelph Halflife appeared and made number 21 on the Billboard 200. Much like its predecessor, though, the Roots' second LP was a difficult listen. It made several very small concessions to mainstream rap -- the bandmembers sampled material that they had recorded earlier at jam sessions -- but failed to make a hit of their unique sound. Their third album, February 1999's Things Fall Apart, was easily their biggest critical and commercial success. Released on MCA, it went platinum, and "You Got Me" -- a collaboration with Erykah Badu -- peaked within the Top 40 and subsequently won a Grammy in the category of Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group.
The long-awaited Phrenology was released in November 2002 amid rumors of the Roots losing interest in their label arrangements with MCA. In 2004, the band remedied the situation by creating the Okayplayer company. Named after their website, Okayplayer included a record label and a production/promotion company. The same year, the band held a series of jam sessions to give their next album a looser feel. The results were edited down to ten tracks and released in July 2004 as The Tipping Point, supported by Geffen. A 2004 concert from Manhattan's Webster Hall with special guests like Mobb Deep, Young Gunz, and Jean Grae was issued in February 2005 as The Roots Present in both CD and DVD formats. Two volumes of the rarities-collecting Home Grown! The Beginner's Guide to Understanding the Roots appeared at the end of the year.
A subsequent deal with Def Jam fostered a series of riveting, often grim sets, beginning with Game Theory (August 2006) and Rising Down (April 2008). In 2009, the group expanded their reach as the exceptionally versatile house band on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. The new gig didn't slow their recording schedule; in 2010 alone, they released the sharp How I Got Over (June), as well as Wake Up! (September), where they backed John Legend on covers of socially relevant soul classics like Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes' "Wake Up Everybody" and Donny Hathaway's "Little Ghetto Boy." It earned Grammy Awards for Best R&B Album and Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance. As they remained with Fallon, the Roots worked with Miami soul legend Betty Wright on November 2011's Betty Wright: The Movie, and followed it the next month with their 13th studio long-player, Undun, an ambitious concept album whose main character dies in the first track and then follows his life backward.
Work on the group's next studio LP was postponed as an unexpected duet album with Elvis Costello took priority for the group in 2013. Originally planned as a reinterpretation of Costello's songbook, the record Wise Up Ghost turned into a full-fledged collaboration and was greeted by positive reviews upon its September 2013 release on Blue Note. Within six months, the band joined Jimmy Fallon in his new late-night slot, the high-profile Tonight Show program. Another concept album, the brief but deep ...And Then You Shoot Your Cousin, was released in May 2014. Rapper Malik B., a fixture on the Roots' early albums, died on July 29, 2020, at the age of 47”.
If you require a guide about The Roots and are not sure which are the albums you need in your collection, I hope that the suggestions below are of some help. As you will hear from their music, it has the power to move you…
IN so many ways.
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The Four Essential Albums
Do You Want More?!!!??!
Release Date: 17th January, 1995
Labels: DGC/Geffen
Producers: The Grand Negaz/Questlove/Kelo/A.J. Shine/Black Thought/Rahzel
Standout Tracks: Proceed/Do You Want More?!!!??!/Silent Treatment (ft. Cassandra Wilson)
Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/the-roots/do-you-want-more-63de765c-f30f-4d7a-b2c3-92514477b1ae
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/3N0wHnD5Rd8jnTUvNqOXGz?si=kc0UtertSRi8u7sesDGDDg&dl_branch=1
Review:
“Because the Roots were pioneering a new style during the early '90s, the band was forced to draw its own blueprints for its major-label debut album. It's not surprising then, that Do You Want More?!!!??! sounds more like a document of old-school hip-hop than contemporary rap. The album is based on loose grooves and laid-back improvisation, and where most hip-hoppers use samples to draw songs together and provide a chorus, the Roots just keep on jamming. The problem is that the Roots' jams begin to take the place of true songs, leaving most tracks with only that groove to speak for them. The notable exceptions -- "Mellow My Man" and "Datskat," among others -- use different strategies to command attention: the sounds of a human beatbox , the great keyboard work of Scott Storch, and contributions from several jazz players (trombonist Joshua Roseman, saxophonist Steve Coleman and vocalist Cassandra Wilson). By the close of the album, those tracks are what the listener remembers, not the lightweight grooves” – AllMusic
Choice Cut: Distortion to Static
Things Fall Apart
Release Date: 23rd February, 1999
Label: MCA
Producers: The Grand Wizzards/Scott Storch/Jay Dee
Standout Tracks: Step into the Realm/Double Trouble (ft. Mos Def)/You Got Me (ft. Erykah Badu, Tariq Trotter and Eve)
Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/the-roots/things-fall-apart
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/0qbl8aNaCUOvX8HGsZYLfh?si=PWOisNNzT6asozdEpcfNiw&dl_branch=1
Review:
“Despite being a breakthrough for their band and their scene, the Roots didn’t immediately build on Things Fall Apart’s success. Powered by D’Angelo’s sultry “Untitled (How Does It Feel)” video, Voodoo became a phenomenon, and ?uest spent most of 2000 on tour as the singer’s drummer. By the time the Roots re-grouped, ?uest’s closest peers were pushing their sounds to new places. D wanted to learn guitar; Common and Dilla wanted to experiment with electronic textures. The Roots responded by moving away from the movement they helped create; their follow-up record, Phrenology, was essentially the anti-Roots album, with a heavy emphasis on rock. And while it alienated the Roots’ core fanbase, Phrenology performed well, pushing the group further into crossover territory. The Roots became a more regular presence on TV and radio. Soon after, Rahzel and Malik B. left the group for good. In 2006, Dilla died at age 32 from complications of lupus, and the Roots’ album of that year, Game Theory, kicked off a series of releases with a darker tone, including 2008’s Rising Down, 2010’s How I Got Over, and 2011’s undun. Having secured a gig as Jimmy Fallon’s backing band—first on “Late Night,” then on “The Tonight Show”—the Roots finally and completely entered the mainstream. But they used the freedom to experiment and make the music they wanted.
Things go in cycles, and the approach the Roots pioneered came back around. In 2015, the “next movement” the Roots mentioned on Things Fall Apart seemed to arrive. Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly—a densely lyrical and allegorical exploration of Blackness and struggle, set to a live-jazz soundtrack featuring dozens of collaborators—is hard to imagine without this album in its rearview. Artists like Robert Glasper, Thundercat, Terrace Martin, and Kamasi Washington channel the same creativity as the Roots, D’Angelo, and company, banding together to push rap, jazz, soul, and more into atmospheric new places. The spirit of Things Fall Apart is in the air.
Looking back on it now, this record feels like both a love letter and a fond farewell to the Roots’ early days, acknowledging that they needed to evolve to stay relevant. And some of the album’s continued relevance is painful. Its closing poem, “The Return to Innocence Lost,” details the fate of a young man seemingly doomed to fail since birth. He dies tragically, leaving nothing but thoughts of a life that could’ve been. Nowadays, black men are dying at the hands of police with alarming frequency, and we’re left to mourn the dead in hashtags and shared articles, wondering what’s next—or who’s next—in this seemingly endless war. Things Fall Apart imparts a similar tone, even if the band didn’t address those issues directly. The black and white cover art, taken in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn in 1965, depicts a young black woman running from a waiting police officer, her face twisted in fear. The scene is sadly familiar 50 years later. As the Roots teetered between fame and purgatory, virtue and failure, Things Fall Apart captured the intensity of a group with everything to lose and the world to gain” – Pitchfork
Choice Cut: The Next Movement (ft. DJ Jazzy Jeff and Jazzyfatnastees)
Phrenology
Release Date: 26th November, 2002
Label: MCA
Producers: DJ Scratch/The Grand Wizzards/Kamal Gray/Tahir Jamal/Omar the Scholar/Questlove/Karreem Riggins/Scott Storch/Zoukhan Bey
Standout Tracks: Rock You/Break You Off (ft. Musiq Soulchild)/Quills
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/release/14776901
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/01FOonRYntwISzaCSa7S7p?si=eBy-Fz9gSQyNLA_7wPgoow&dl_branch=1
Review:
“The pseudoscience of phrenology claims that your essential personality can be “read” by feeling the bumps on your head, as if they were a kind of fingerprint of the brain. Everything is predetermined at birth, phrenologists say. But on Phrenology, their fifth and best CD, the Roots prove that wherever we start, we can still boldly change our course. This bohemian Philadelphia hip-hop crew, renowned for their great, tradition-soaked live funk performances, have received almost as much credit for what they’re not: gangstas, clichés or sample biters. Here, they clearly spell out their identity and mission — in songs that are both very personal (“Complexity,” about a couple on the edge of romantic commitment) and as specific as the morning news (“Pussy Galore” skewers people who use sex to sell products). From the thudding opening war chant, “Rock You,” the Roots make great use of new guitarist Ben Kenney. (They were turned on to rock, drummer Amir “?uestlove” Thompson recently quipped, “while we spent countless hours in front of MTV waiting for the one black video to come on.”) And they do a great job of casting, too, calling in cameos from take-no-mess R&B naturalist Jill Scott, underground Brooklyn rapper Talib Kweli, freakadelic black rocker Cody Chesnutt and even Amiri Baraka, the one living poet who actually scares people. The first single, “Break You Off,” featuring Philly neosoul singer Musiq, is a glowering tale of emotional push-and-pull that’s half hip-hop and half Marvin Gaye — and that’s before it flows into an arcing, orchestrated second section. The Roots are confident enough to follow soul music like that with the freaky soundscape “Water,” which plinks and plunks around in the urban darkness like Tom Waits let loose in the ghetto. The Roots used to be the great what-ifs of hip-hop — symbols of the thoughtful road not taken by the commercial rap masses. Suddenly, they can fulfill nearly all of their sweeping ambition to resuscitate soul’s past. Phrenology is a celebration of self-determination, a nonstop joyride through some very complicated brains” – Blender
Choice Cut: The Seed (2.0) (ft. Cody ChesnuTT)
Undun
Release Date: 2nd December, 2011
Label: Def Jam
Producer: Ray Angry/Rick Friedrich/D.D. Jackson/Khari Mateen/Richard Nichols (exec.)/James Poyser/Brent ‘Ritz’ Reynolds/Sean C & LV/Sufjan Stevens/Ahmir ‘Questlove’ Thompson
Standout Tracks: One Time (ft. Phonte & Dice Raw)/The OtherSide (ft. Bilal & Greg Porn)/I Remember
Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/the-roots/undun
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/0cwlEeMEkvdoiPNJxlzHtI?si=iLlYO0rqS6eXhdh7GCFnWg&dl_branch=1
Review:
“The Roots' umpteenth album is titled after a Guess Who song mutilated by countless lounge bands since 1969. It incorporates a Sufjan Stevens recording, mixtape-style, for the purpose of starting a four-part instrumental suite that closes a program lasting only 40 minutes. Based on those details, it would not be irrational to think that the band’s well of inspiration might be dry or tainted. While the well might be slightly tainted, it is full. Undun is based on the life of Redford Stephens, a fictional product of inner-city New York who was born in the mid-‘70s and tragically passed in 1999, the point at which the album begins -- with a quiet EKG flatline. Appearances from MCs Big K.R.I.T., Dice Raw, Phonte, Greg Porn, and Truck North, as well as contributions by singers Aaron Earl Livingston and Bilal, flank principal voice Black Thought, yet this is no hip-hop opera or anything close to a typical concept album. The existential rhymes, seemingly created with a shared vision, avoid outlining specific events and focus on ruminations that are grave and penetrating, as if each vocalist saw elements of himself and those he has known in Redford. What’s more, Undun probably shatters the record for fewest proper nouns on a rap album, with the likes of Hammurabi, Santa Muerte, and Walter Cronkite mentioned rather than the names of those who are physically involved in Stephens’ life. (The album’s app, filled with video clips and interviews with Stephens’ aunt, teachers, and peers, provides much more typical biographical information.) Musically, Undun flows easier and slower than any other Roots album. The backdrops ramp up with slight gradations, from soft collisions of percussion and keys (“Sleep”), to balmy gospel-soul (“Make My”), to Sunday boom-bap (“One Time”). There's a slight drop into sinewy funk (“Kool On”) that leads into a sustained stretch of stern, hunched-shoulder productions, highlighted by the crisply roiling “Lighthouse,” that match the cold realism of the lyrics. The strings in the slightly wistful “I Remember” and completely grim “Tip the Scale” are a setup for the Redford suite, which is nothing like padding. It glides through the movements, involving mournful strings, a violent duel between drummer ?uestlove and guest pianist D.D. Jackson, and a lone death note that fades 37 seconds prior to silence” – AllMusic
Choice Cut: Make My (ft. Big K.R.I.T. & Dice Raw)
The Underrated Gem
The Tipping Point
Release Date: 13th July, 2004
Label: Geffen
Producers: Questlove/Scott Storch
Standout Tracks: I Don't Care (ft. Dom)/Don't Say Nuthin'/Duck Down! (ft. Dom)
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=39958&ev=mb
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/2fw2PxmN6epMmz6qZXXNLn?si=dKdZiFzMSAqjlL2aZWPo-Q&dl_branch=1
Review:
“If 2002’s ”Phrenology” was the Philly crew’s left-field rock-rap opus, their sixth studio effort is an eclectic and often breezy reimagining of hip-hop’s energetic essence. ”Boom” is a lightning-paced evocation of late-’80s Rakim, while standout bonus track ”In Love With (the Mic),” boasting assists from incorrigible scene-stealers Dave Chappelle and ODB, recalls the loose, amped-up collaborations of the Native Tongues movement (e.g., the Jungle Brothers and Black Sheep). One of hip-hop’s premier album artists, the Roots could still stand to strengthen their singles prospects: Their most club-friendly track ever, the Scott Storch-produced ”Duck Down,” has everything going for it — except a chorus to sing along to” – Entertainment Weekly
Choice Cut: BOOM! (ft. Dice Raw)
The Latest Album
...and then you shoot your cousin
Release Date: 19th May, 2014
Label: Def Jam
Producers: Black Thought/D.D. Jackson/Damion Ward/Joseph Simmons/Karl Jenkins/Mike Jerz/ Richard Nichols/Ray Angry/Trapzillas/Questlove/The Wurxs
Standout Tracks: Never (featuring Patty Crash)/Black Rock (ft. Dice Raw)/The Unraveling (ft. Raheem DeVaughn)
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=690403&ev=mb
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/6kYqws8vRcaUKTjFnJRb4X?si=jY9Ti734SJmKT6I7jGobjQ&dl_branch=1
Review:
“So while the accusations that hip-hop’s social justice wing has totally collapsed are more than a bit overblown, particularly myopic in regard to how that sense of justice has changed and infused into different strains within the mainstream, …And Then You Shoot Your Cousin does offer something rare in today’s climate: It’s an album whose sole focus is reportage, with no individual aspirational narrative to disguise the ugliness. It’s a purposefully fragmented work, in which main vocalist Black Thought provides the clearest through line, popping in and out of songs dotted with a roster of repeating guest stars, mostly group affiliates like Dice Raw and Greg Porn.
They take on a variety of voices, offering quick snapshots from various sectors of ghetto experience: “Black Rock” imagines street vagrants munching on early morning cheeseburgers, their jittery desperation echoed by galumphing piano and a hard-edged drumbeat; “The Dark (Trinity)” features frustrated corner boys getting soaked in the rain, their arrogance wilting as the spare, steady music grows increasingly mournful. All this gets echoed by the group’s live-band aesthetic, which pieces together revised versions of traditional soul instrumentation with spooky atonal strings and jagged samples, jumping from Nina Simone to Mary Lou Williams to Michel Chion, the patchwork structure conveying the feeling of a culture broken into pieces, exploiting those rifts to explore the full extent of hip-hop’s literary capabilities.
There’s also the welcome fact that …And Then You Shoot Your Cousin is a trim 35 minutes in length, with 11 tracks and eight proper songs, zooming through its disjointed structure without much padding. This slimness functions as a counterweight to the often stifling subject matter, as the group employs its soul-influenced backdrops in a way that feels totally opposed to what most modern hip-hop is doing. The Roots have a different sense of the music, and a further commitment to developing its ideas, rather than just miming them. In keeping with the album’s inverted sense of order, there’s no nostalgia here, and instead that warm soul sound is repeatedly pushed into twisted horror-movie palettes, with repeated references to hell and waking nightmares, the music tilting into mechanistic repetition on tracks like “The Unraveling,” with its churning, gloomy atmospherics.
A depiction of disorder and chaos, …And Then You Shoot Your Cousin places almost no focus on the hard-working everymen of the traditional soul milieu, zoning in on the desolate and the down and out, nightmare scenarios in which dreams of riches molder inside condemned buildings. While this approach sacrifices some potential subtlety in exchange for a broader, stereotype-tweaking social crusading, one perhaps a bit too enamored of its crusader status, it’s hard to deny the effect, the album’s approach integrating neatly into an overall sense of claustrophobic dread” – SLANT
Choice Cut: When the People Cheer (ft. Modesty Lycan and Greg Porn)