The Roots

The Roots' fourth album, 1999's Things Fall Apart, transformed them from underground favorites to global superstars. Full of their signature jazz-drenched sound and intelligent wordplay, this record features quality singles like "The Next Movement" and the Grammy-winning ballad "You Got Me," featuring Erykah Badu.

You've heard about the revolution, haven't you? The hip-hop vanguard that's ignoring
trends -- musical, lyrical, sartorial -- and experimenting, forging ahead, creating new
directions. It's working in the tradition of Gang Starr and De La Soul and A Tribe Called
Quest, as well as Thelonious Monk, James Brown and Roy Ayers. It's combining kinetic
street energy with fresh, artful musical ideas. It's transporting you not to the wo... More >

Stop the violence in hip hop, but make an exception if these guys will shoot the piano player. Kamal gets away with his omnipresent ostinato beds here mostly because the band is looking back to the old-school rap they loved before they discovered jazz lite. They even sample now and then--I've never been so happy to run into Schoolly-D in my life. What's so consistently annoying on their earlier intelligent records is almost hooky on this one, integral to a flow that certainly does just that, which isn't to say you won't be relieved when it rocks the house instead. Gee--maybe they've gotten more intelligent. (Grade - B+)