The Roots: Things Fall Apart (3LP) [GEFFEN]

Why you'll love it

This 3LP set comes in a tri-gatefold jacket with a bonus LP of rarities and remixes picked by Questlove and a 20-page booklet. The album went platinum, and "You Got Me" won the Grammy for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group.

This edition

• 3LP set
• Tri-gatefold jacket
• Bonus LP curated by Questlove
• 20-page booklet with essays by Black Thought and Questlove
• Track-by-track notes by Questlove

About the album

The Roots borrowed their album title from Chinua Achebe's novel, which borrowed it from Yeats, and somehow the Philadelphia band managed to make it sound like their own. Recorded at Electric Lady in New York in 1997 and 1998, alongside sessions for D'Angelo, Erykah Badu and Common, Things Fall Apart is where the Soulquarians crew became a movement. Questlove says they cut around 145 songs in that stretch.

Black Thought is at his sharpest throughout, with Malik B. trading verses and Questlove's live drums underneath. "The Next Movement" struts, "Dynamite!" and "Adrenaline!" crackle, and "Act Too (The Love of My Life)" with Common is a warm tribute to hip hop itself. "You Got Me," featuring Erykah Badu and Eve, is the hit. The third LP adds "What You Want," "Quicksand Millennium" and remixes of "You Got Me" and "Act Too."

It went gold within weeks, and AllMusic called it one of the cornerstone albums of alternative rap. Cutting around 145 songs to arrive at these is a fairly rigorous audition process.

Also at Kops: more The Roots on vinyl · browse Hip Hop / R&B

Tracklist

Listen

On MCA / Geffen (cat# b0030407-01), a reissue of the 1999 album.