In the world of hip-hop, 1995 is ancient history. The late Tupac and Notorious B.I.G. were still alive and spitting, and a Philadelphia-based hip-hop band called the Roots broke into major label rap with Do You Want More?!!!??!, a jazzy, boom-bap inflected gem on par with the grittiest East Coast offerings of the Wu-Tang Clan.
16 years, nine albums, 11 Grammy nominations and four Grammy awards later, the Roots, now the house band on "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon," have released Undun. The concept album follows the life of the fictitious hustler Redford Stephens, a tragic composite of various associates of the band. Rapping on the futility of a black man's existence in the inner city is by no means a novel concept, but Undun's reverse trajectory (the album narrates Stephens' story from his death) is a fresh take.
A constantly dark but always moving marriage of the group's instrumental depth and razor-sharp lyricism, the album is the product of musicians that, amidst a rebranding, have taken a new look at an old (arguably one of the oldest) motifs of hip-hop culture. Undun succeeds in making a strong-if not assured-case for the group's importance to hip-hop, dispelling questions its late night gig may have raised about the legitimacy and authenticity of its music.
The boom-bap sound may be gone, but Undun still hits jarring notes emotionally through both rich, vibrant crescendos and barren, vacant interludes-often within the same song. "Make My," the album's first single featuring frequent group collaborators Big K.R.I.T. and Dice Raw, has a dreamlike quality to it. Its meandering sound (the album was arranged impeccably by the band's celebrated drummer ?uestlove) is a brilliant foil for the energy of the lyrics.
"Addicted to green, if I don't ball I get the shakes /cause everything that wasn't for me I had to chase," K.R.I.T. confesses, a forceful commentary on the pain of living in a material world. In line with his moniker, the group's emcee Black Thought (who raps from the perspective of Stephens throughout) darkly ruminates on the place Stephens' choices have led him: "My splaying got me praying like a mantis / I begin to vanish / Feel the pull of the black canvas," continuing later "The heat of the day, the long robe of muerte," and ending "If there's a heaven I can't find a stairway."
"The OtherSide," has Stephens (via Black Thought) justifying the impending decisions that lead to his death at the Undun's start. Here his ambition hits home, made all the more convincing by the brilliance of the album's reverse chronology. Stephens hustles hard, "spending time like it's counterfeit," Black Thought explains, managing to, without mincing words, cut to the core of Stephens' rationale in a way that makes larceny sound rational. If you were Stephens, you'd be stupid not to.
"Not enough paper to be paying folks compliments / But when that paper got low so did my tolerance / Listen, if it not for these hood inventions / I'd just be another kid from the block with no intentions / On the dock of that bay serving a life sentence / Even if I'm going to hell I'm gonna make an entrance."
Next to the intensity of Thought's verse, his nimble Otis Redding reference (The Dock of the Bay) is an afterthought. Redding's influence can be heard on the song's instrumental, but it is the verse's character, rather than the twofold allusion to Otis Redding, that best represents the immense quality of the sound the Roots have developed over two decades of music making. The focus of this urgent and imperative tone, unobstructed across 39 minutes, illustrates its central importance to not only
Stephens' story, but also that of the Roots.
By many measures, the album is excellent. Viewing the release within the context of the Roots' career arc and their present position as a talk show house band, however, Undun's hungry tone and urgent pace set troubling precedents. If the album is a statement that the Roots still have it-a successful one at that-does it mean that the doubts are justified?
Beyond any understanding of the album as an answer, response or statement, Undun compels, sets the benchmark high for hip-hop and certainly manages to dispel all thoughts of an irrelevant Roots group-at least for the moment.
Grade: A-
