CANON
AlbumThe Roots, 1999
Things Fall Apart
ABOUT THE WORK
“Hip-hop, you the love of my life, and that’s true.”
Things Fall Apart arrives at a moment when mastery alone isn’t enough.
By the end of the 1990s, The Roots had already proven that a live band could operate inside hip-hop without turning the music into novelty or nostalgia. What changes here is the emotional weight.
The performances remain extraordinary; the virtuosity never moves into the background. Instead, the subject matter changes.
The record is at times darker, less interested in showing its work. Black Thought sounds less like someone demonstrating command than someone burdened by what command allows him to see. There’s a social responsibility to educate and document. Around him are questions of community, violence, responsibility, love, exploitation and what it means to create inside an industry and environment capable of consuming you and what you love.
The title comes from Chinua Achebe, but the album never borrows seriousness from literature. It earns its own.
And yet, there are bangers that I come to when I want a reminder of what creativity can do. “Step Into the Realm,” “You Got Me,” “The Next Movement,” “100% Dundee”: the record can still have fun, seduce and show off. It simply refuses to pretend that any of those pleasures exist outside history.
Things Fall Apart arrives at a moment when mastery alone isn’t enough.
By the end of the 1990s, The Roots had already proven that a live band could operate inside hip-hop without turning the music into novelty or nostalgia. What changes here is the emotional weight.
The performances remain extraordinary; the virtuosity never moves into the background. Instead, the subject matter changes.
The record is at times darker, less interested in showing its work. Black Thought sounds less like someone demonstrating command than someone burdened by what command allows him to see. There’s a social responsibility to educate and document. Around him are questions of community, violence, responsibility, love, exploitation and what it means to create inside an industry and environment capable of consuming you and what you love.
The title comes from Chinua Achebe, but the album never borrows seriousness from literature. It earns its own.
And yet, there are bangers that I come to when I want a reminder of what creativity can do. “Step Into the Realm,” “You Got Me,” “The Next Movement,” “100% Dundee”: the record can still have fun, seduce and show off. It simply refuses to pretend that any of those pleasures exist outside history.