Things Fall Apart

by

The Roots

Edit

The Roots have improved by leaps and bounds with every successive release. Organix and Do You Want More contained that original "organic hip hop jazz" sound for which they were first noticed. However, the jam session feel to them, while being great on it's own, eventually grew tiresome. Illadelph Halflife brought in a more aggressive feel to the mix, while still maintaining a bit of the improv qualities of the first two releases. However, it made them sound more like any other rap group and less like the progressive hip hoppers that they are. Yet Illadelph also began the experiment quality that cares us into this release. On Things Fall Apart, The Roots add a new level to their music, a whole new type of refinement and sophistication. Yet while the over-all feel of the album is more polished, there are still moments that shoot back to their previous work. The jam session/bassment feel is still present, the hard edged agressiveness is still there, but both have been somewhat developed and reflect that greatly. The newest element, and the one that makes this album stand out the most among Roots releases, is the increase in knowledge of the studio and composition. These developments are reflected in the two of the earliest songs on the album, "Table of Contents" (where the instruments play in different meters much like some jazz musicians) and "Step Into the Realm" (with the drum beat fading in and out in perfect time with breaks in the lyrics, perfectly fitted and layered together). The Roots have not lost anything in their music, they have just added more (including the presence of a DJ on "The Next Movement"). Even the guests on the album are well suited for the sound. Common ("Love of my Life") and Mos Def ("Double Trouble") fit so well to The Roots mentality and style. Even Eve, who never seems to acknowledge what The Roots did for her and who's recent work wouldn't suggest it, fits beautifully into the part of Black Thought's girlfriend in "You Got Me". While it may be one of their most commercial songs ever, "You Got Me" also embodies everything The Roots do so well and hopefully with its airplay and win at the Grammys will work as a summation of their sound and get more people interested in their music. No Roots album would be complete without the Ursula Rucker track, and here she offers what I think is her most powerful and chilling piece to date, with brilliant background music. And of course Black Thought and Malik B. are still two of the best there are, while Dice Raw continues to improve with every verse. The Roots are to hip hop what Bird, Dizzy and Monk are to jazz, the intellectualization of the artform, focusing more on theory and execution than on making people want to dance. Safe to say that ?uestlove alone has more talent in the first four inches of his 'fro than Fluff Daddy and Master Pee have in their entire record labels. The best thing about this album however is that it's their fourth and they still continue to grow, experiment, improve, and expand.

When I first heard "Do You Want More?" I was immmediately impressed with the originality of the Roots' instrumentation and textures, but I felt only 1/3 to 1/2 the songs were killer. On this new album, their music is much more consistent, and the rapping often reaches a complex density of sound. Ursula Ruckers' spoken-word piece, "Return to Innocence Lost", is a powerful depiction of the wages of abuse and neglect. "You Got Me" is more than a love jam, as some recent critics have not recognized the ambiguity of the song's conclusion and somewhat grim but realistic assessment of a relationship. There are several other heavy tunes. However, the Roots seem to be offering lip service (literally?) to a "hip-hop revolution" and to societal change in general, since many of their rhymes are little more than tired boasts delivered slightly more cleverly than most and with a veneer of seriousness. Rapping about BEING enlightened is not at all the same thing as rapping AN ENLIGHTENED RAP. The music is what matters on this album. (For more truly committed lyrics that identify problems and offer solutions, check out The Coups' "Steal This Album" and Aceyalone's "A Book of Human Language.")