A funny thing happened to hip-hop between albums from the Roots.
Real instruments began creeping back onto urban radio. A raw, thoughtful brand of music, dubbed neo-soul, started getting attention from mainstream audiences. Outkast even won a pair of Grammys.
And the members of the Roots, who for a decade had quietly led the live hip-hop revolution, looked on and gathered a sense of their place in the world — and their sense of responsibility to the movement they’d helped foment.
“The expectation was so high,” says drummer Ahmir ” estlove” Thompson, “there was no way we could come back with just anything.”
“Things Fall Apart,” released to wide acclaim in 1999, had been regarded by many as organic hip-hop’s definitive document: an old-school rap ethic, blended with a socially conscious mindset, steeped in a mix of hot soul jamming.
But three years is a long time in the hip-hop world. Long enough to make the Philadelphia band– estlove, DJ Scratch, MC Black Thought, bassist Hub, keyboardist Kamal and human beat box Rahzel–wonder if it was still relevant.
“People’s attention spans are real short,” says estlove. “You have to drop a 100-ton anvil on top of their heads.”
For the Roots, “Phrenology” was that piece of heavy metal, albeit with a shot of Philly funk. Released in late November, the album debuted in the top 10 and caught the attention of critics hungry for high-quality releases as the year wound down.
While the Roots garner ample respect from their musical peers Talib Kweli, Jill Scott, Common and other hip-hop progressives the band hasn’t been immune from criticism. For all the cultural headway made by the group’s brand of resourceful hip-hop, this remains an era when Nelly can sell 4 million records.
Though he won’t point fingers, estlove describes the contemporary record industry as in a “state of emergency.”
“I’m not saying we’ve never been tempted to throw it all away and go for the brass ring,” he says. “I could release a platinum record on all the songs I didn’t end up recording. It’s just that at the end of the day, we come to our senses.”
