The Roots Vinyl, CD & Tape

Back to the Roots

The name says it all when it comes to the American hip hop group The Roots. From the very beginning, the formation led by drummer Questlove and MC Black Thought abstained from using any kind of samplers and preferred to play their progressive rap tracks with live instruments. So, they went back to the roots, setting themselves apart stylistically from the rest of the genre. With several gold records and Grammy Awards under their belt, as well as regular appearances on Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show, The Roots are often hailed as the best in their style, constantly reinventing themselves on their versatile albums over the years. The project started as early as the late 80s when Questlove and Black Thought met at a high school in Philadelphia that focused on performing arts. In 1989, they played their first gig at a talent show, with a simple yet brilliant division of roles: Black Thought rapped over Questlove’s live drum beats. To create a fuller sound, they brought in artistic reinforcement with bassist Hub and MC Malik B. In 1993, they released their first independent album, Organix, which quickly earned them a major contract with Geffen, thanks to their unique live groove.

Organic Hip-Hop Jazz

Their 1995 album, Do You Want More?!!!??!, didn’t initially attract much mainstream attention, despite its intricate lyrics and overflowing arrangements. However, The Roots soon amplified their hype through festival performances at Lollapalooza and the Montreux Jazz Festival. The "Organic Hip Hop Jazz " as Black Thought describes their sound, propelled their follow-up LP, Illadelph Halflife, into the Billboard Top 30. In 1999, The Roots invited notable guests like Q-Tip, Mos Def and Erykah Badu to join them on their album, Things Fall Apart, finally achieving a hit record. The band won their first Grammy for the internationally renowned track You Got Me, and the soul infused album rose to become a masterpiece of alternative rap. Throughout their journey, several members came and went, but the core of Questlove and Black Thought remained intact and also engaged in side projects. For example, Questlove played a role in the Soulquarians collective, which also featured J Dilla and several members of the Native Tongues lending their talent. The highly anticipated Roots successor LP, Phrenology, arrived three years later, steering the band’s legacy in a new direction. With an unprecedented head-nodding sound, numerous soulful vocal performances, and a ten-minute sound collage odyssey as its centerpiece, The Roots clearly established themselves as pioneers of alternative rap. Fans and the press saw it the same way, without a doubt.

A Story Left Untold

While the group consistently records their own albums over the years, they also lend their support as a backup band wherever they can. They performed on Jay-Z’s MTV Unplugged, contributed to John Legend’s soul-cover album Wake Up!, and eventually became the house band for the talk show Late Night with Jimmy Fallon in 2009. Black Thought and the rest of the group also did not shy away from making political statements in their tracks. Even the title of their album Phrenology was based on the racist pseudoscience of the same name. With their 2006 release Game Theory, The Roots cut through the urban mainstream, where party tracks usually dominated, to address pressing political issues. The shift towards synthesizer instrumentation on their album Rising Down further intensified their dark political messages, with lyrics such as “Earth’s spinnin’ outta control / Everything’s for sale, even souls.” Their work on Jimmy Fallon’s show also paid off as many of their compositions for the Late Night show made it onto their conceptual album Undun in 2011. The story of The Roots is far from being fully told, as evidenced by their announcement of a new album in 2016. While the band may occasionally keep fans waiting, their past releases have never disappointed, and their ability to captivate remains unmatched.