I believe I was first introduced to The Roots performing live on a television show around the time that Do You Want More??!!!?!, the band’s sophomore album, hit the shelves. The fusion of jazz and hip-hop was the big thing around that time. A Tribe Called Quest dropped the classic Midnight Marauders the year before. Digable Planets released the criminally overlooked Blowout Comb. Hell, even pop-rap sensation K7 (remember “Come Baby Come”?) experimented with swing on their single “Hi Di Ho.” But even if their were a slew of artists appearing to jump on the trend, The Roots were able to stand out from everyone. These guys were not jumping the bandwagon. Here was a hip-hop group creating all of the music with live instruments. Sure, Stetsasonic had done it before them, but The Roots were their own unique entity. The group dubbed their style as “organic hip-hop jazz,” a label that would prove both a blessing and a curse in the future.
Since then, the group has gone on to experiment beyond the raw live band format. They’ve experimented with samples a few times, brought in vocal turntablist Scratch and human beatbox extra ordinaire Rahzel, and expanded and diversified their sound flawlessly. Of course, the “organic hip-hop jazz” label has loomed over their heads with purists crying in terror as the group has moved beyond the jazzy, one hundred percent live format of their past.
At this point in their career, The Roots aren’t concerned with pleasing any of the so-called fans who bash the band for wanting to push their music to new dimensions. All the purists who gave up on the band after The Roots decided to push their own boundaries are missing out. It’s their lose.
The last we heard from the band was 1999's brilliant Things Fall Apart, an album that initially divided fans upon its release, but now stands as a timeless hip-hop classic. It showed that The Roots were capable of creating straight-up raw, pure hip-hop (“Step Into The Realm”) to beautiful, moving pieces no hip-hop group before or after has dared to work with (see “Love Of My Life”).
After a long wait, The Roots return with Phrenology, an album that finds the band moving further away from DYWM? territory while continuing to remain ten steps ahead from just about everybody else in music.
If Things Fall Apart alienated some jaded purists, Phrenology will probably just make them even more uncomfortable. Again, this is their lose. Phrenology is brilliant.
Probably what strikes me as most interesting about Phrenology is how it’s seemingly more commercially accessible, yet really relentlessly experimental and creative. Take the first single “Break You Off” for instance. The track could easily fit onto commercial radio playlists and MTV, yet the track does things no other band would think of doing. The jazzy breakdown at the end transforms into yet another drum & bass inspired breakdown reminiscent of their breakthrough single “You Got Me.” The track itself works wonder musically and lyrically.
And despite what might seem like a more accessible sound, the album is filled with tension and weariness. Weariness not in the that the band gives a lazy performance, but in the sense that this album took a lot out of them. “Water,” the album’s creative breakthrough, is the best evidence of this. Black Thought addresses absent Roots MC Malik B., and he makes no attempt to cover up the subject of the song. It’s an emotional intervention to a friend that pulls no punches. The song then breaks down into six minutes of avant-garde noise, which is further proof that The Roots aren’t afraid to take hip-hop into uncharted territory.
Black Thought is put in the position of carrying the album sans Malik, and he give one hell of a performance. Why Black Thought is still overlooked as one of hip-hop’s best MC’s is a mystery. “Thought @ Work” is a non-stop barrage of lyrics, old-school breaks, and Bomb Squad-inspired noise, and a track from his aborted solo LP, “Pussy Galore,” is a to-the-point look at the media’s obsession with sex.
The album’s other centerpiece, in addition to “Water,” would be “The Seed (2.0),” a collaboration with Cody Chesnutt that works as a moving piece metaphorically addressing rock & roll. It’s soulful, emotional, and flat-out amazing.
The outside production assistance on this album (Scott Storch, DJ Scratch, etc.) might make for a less cohesive listen for some, but the album still feels like a Roots album. The Roots are one of the best bands of any genre making music today, and Phrenology further expands the group’s sound and creative talents (and they’re the only group to have a hardcore punk song on their album: “!!!!!!!”). One can always expect The Roots to drop a gem of an album that redefines what hip-hop is. Phrenology is no exception.
by Paul Haney
Artist: The Roots
Album: Phrenology
Year: 2002
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