It's hard to imagine a kid in the 90's who was not touched by hip-hop one way or the other. I tried to be that kid, resisting rap music for as long as I could. After all, how could you consider something even remotely music, where some dude was talking to some beats in the background? How could you bang your head to that?
Trying to Get Acquainted with Rap
Even later, when I tried to listen to the words of the rapper, which were supposedly so profound, so painful, though sometimes full of hilarious puns, it didn't capture my passion. Sure, they talked a lot about the hardship of growing up in the ghetto, being discriminated against by society in general, and the police in particular, giving them a life of crime as the only viable alternative. But then, there was little else beyond that. In fact, lots of time the lyrics didn't even make it that far. Instead they got stuck in an endless loop about money and guns, and bitches, and more money, and more bitches, occasionally with some interlude of dissing other rappers. Great.
Then Came The Roots
I had actually given up on hip-hop myself, but how can you escape music that everyone else seems to be majorly into? After a while rap came flowing from every faucet, and I continued being exposed to it whether I wanted or not. So instead of getting pissed off at something I could not control, I tried to be open towards it. Maybe one day I would actually get to like it! And so it happened, the very first time I got a taste of The Roots I was sold.
Intellectual Hip-Hop
Without much effort I noticed at once that the CD my friend was playing was a bit different. The album was called Things Fall Apart, which I recognized as the title of a book by Nigerian author Chinua Achebe, while the name of the group reminded me of the must-read book on slavery in the United States by Alex Haley. As for the cover picture, I was not so sure about, but but I soon found out that it was a picture from taken during a so called "race riot" during the civil rights movement in the 60's. So already before being exposed to what The Roots had to say, they managed to have a positive impression on me. At least they made me curious.
But it was their intro track Act Won that made me decide to listen to each track carefully through my earphones, while reading the lyrics I had looked up and printed out. This short dialogue two voices discuss the state of black culture, with a profound message. As I found out later, the track is an excerpt from the movie Mo' Better Blues, and the two voices belong to Wesley Snipes and Denzel Washington.
Before Anything, There Was the Beat
However, I have to admit, that before I even looked at the CD cover, I actually realized how much I liked the beat. Some tracks just seize you, invade you through your hearing canal, take hold of your brain neurons, and surprise you into walking down the sidewalk stepping to the beat in your mind. By the time you wake up with that beat in your head the next morning, you know it has happened. You can't deny that you actually like it. And the next time you actually hear and recognize it, you feel the need to listen more carefully, and ask the guy who put it on, what amazing auditory magic it is. "It's The Roots, dude! Where have you been hiding?" comes the answer.
I don't even know which one of their excellent beats I paid attention first. After revisiting the album carefully, I still don't know. It could have been The Spark, or maybe 100% Dundee, or even Step Into The Realm. Fact is, once I was listening more attentively, I discovered that each one of them had its own groove that you could fall into, and get lost in for days. I certainly was ready to do so. The more I listened to it, the better it all sounded. I noticed, for example, that the music was not the monotonous tracks of a beat-box, but was almost like jazz music, with real musicians playing actual instruments. Soon the album started growing on me very fast.
Long Term Effects
After this first impression, I was open to more good hip-hop. However, The Roots combined with my earlier scrutiny set the bar relatively high, and thus I would not go for just about any rap. It had to be intellectually stimulating, with a some good music behind it. Not surprisingly, other artists I would end up liking later on, such as The Wu-Tang Clan or Immortal Technique, were also on higher end of the vocabulary spectrum.
However, ultimately I never became a huge hi-hop fan. Many years after I first discovered their Things Fall Apart album, I listened to the entire discography of The Roots. And in the end I realized that none of their other albums even came close to what they managed to bring out on that highly acclaimed disc that made them famous.
So whether you are an old connoisseur of hip-hop or you just want to give one last chance, I can only recommend The Roots, especially their superb album Things Fall Apart.
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